Bye-bye, maternal instinct!
Mothers are naturally the most caring carers and instinctively know what their child needs. The truism of the maternal instinct is «a story that has been perpetuated historically over many centuries due to patriarchal convictions, but also due to a lack of scientific alternatives». Annika Rösler and Evelyn Höllrigl Tschaikner write this in «Mythos Mutterinstinkt».
In their book, the journalists summarise findings from brain research that show that the maternal instinct cannot be proven: The maternal instinct cannot be proven. Instead, it seems to be inherent in all humans - as a caring instinct.
What counts for a strong bond is not gender, but how often and how intensively a person cares for the child.
For example, the authors refer to studies from Spain, the Netherlands and the USA. These show how the female - or rather: the parental - brain makes it easier for us to care for a newborn. Researchers found that pregnancy causes the grey matter in the female brain to shrink temporarily. This is a fine-tuning of the brain structures that enables women to learn caring behaviour.
Follow-up studies with fathers showed that as long as the partner was pregnant, there were no structural changes in their brains. But they did after the birth of the child. Then the volume of grey matter also decreased in the fathers. This apparently helps them, just like the women, to respond to the needs of the baby and to feel connected to it.
A study reveals astonishing things
It has long been known that the amygdala - an almond-shaped nucleus in the centre of the brain that is involved in the development of emotions - is particularly active in women after giving birth. This fact has long been used as proof that women are programmed to feel incomparably strong emotions for their child.
In 2014, researchers from Tel Aviv wanted to find out whether the effect only occurs in mothers. Their study involved heterosexual full-time mothers with a newborn child, heterosexual fathers who left most of the baby care to the women, and homosexual full-time fathers whose baby was often not their own. Researchers filmed the 90 test subjects several times with their children and then showed them the recordings. During this process, an MRI scanner recorded the brain activity of the participants.
The instinct narrative produces incredibly high expectations of mothers.
Annika Rösler and Evelyn Höllrigl Tschaikner, book authors
As expected, the amygdala of the mothers reacted strongly, while that of the heterosexual fathers, who were less frequently involved in childcare, reacted less. Instead, the neuronal areas that control cognitive processes were more active in them. «This enabled the fathers to better recognise the child's needs,» according to the authors of the study.
The biggest surprise came from the homosexual fathers: not only did their amygdala show the same activity as that of the full-time mothers, but they also exhibited the same pronounced cognitive processes as the heterosexual «weekend fathers». The researchers also found something remarkable in the latter: the more time the men devoted to their infant, the more active their amygdala became.
What it takes for a strong bond
The research team concluded that neither the gender of the parent nor the biological relationship to the child is decisive for the development of a strong bond, but rather how often and how intensively a person cares for the child.
This finding is just one of many that suggest that a maternal instinct does not exist. «A reason to rejoice,» say Annika Rösler and Evelyn Höllrigl Tschaikner. "Because the instinct narrative produces incredibly high expectations of mothers - and leaves out all those who care for a child without having given birth to it."
