Baby schema modulates the brain reward system in nulliparous women

Abstract

Ethologist Konrad Lorenz defined the baby schema (''Kindchenschema'') as a set of infantile physical features, such as round face and big eyes, that is perceived as cute and motivates caretaking behavior in the human, with the evolutionary function of enhancing offspring survival. The neural basis of this fundamental altruistic instinct is not well understood. Prior studies reported a pattern of brain response to pictures of children, but did not dissociate the brain response to baby schema from the response to children. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and controlled manipulation of the baby schema in infant faces, we found that baby schema activates the nucleus accumbens, a key structure of the mesocorticolimbic system mediating reward processing and appetitive motivation, in nulliparous women. Our findings suggest that engagement of the mesocorticolimbic system is the neurophysiologic mechanism by which baby schema promotes human caregiving, regardless of kinship.caregiving ͉ functional MRI ͉ social cognition ͉ infant ͉ accumbens

The reward value of infant facial cuteness tracks within-subject changes in women's salivary testosterone

“…These data extend previous research suggesting that testosterone increases protective parenting behaviors and decreases nurturance (van Anders et al, 2011), by demonstrating that testosterone might also enhance differential responses to infant facial cues that play an important role in the selective allocation of parental resources (Alley, 1983b;Glocker et al, 2009). …”

“…(Hahn et al, 2013) and neuroimaging (Glocker et al, 2009) studies investigating the reward value of cute infant facial characteristics.…”

“…In common with previous studies of the reward value of infant cues Glocker et al, 2009), we tested only nulliparous, young women. Further research is needed to investigate the effects of parity on the reward value of infant cues and how these effects might interact with within-subject changes in hormone levels.…”

“…The rating task that we used to assess the effect of infant facial cues on women's perceptions of infant cuteness has been used in several previous studies of women's perceptions of infant facial cues (e.g., Glocker et al, 2009;Hahn et al, 2013;Little, 2012). In this task, all 20 infant face images (i.e., the high-cuteness and low-cuteness versions of the 10 infant faces) were presented in a fully randomized order and were rated for cuteness on a 1 (not cute) to 7 (very cute) scale.…”

“…For example, Glocker et al (2009) reported that women showed greater activity in brain regions associated with the processing of rewards (e.g., nucleus accumbens and anterior cingulate cortex) when viewing high-cuteness versions of images of infant faces (i.e., versions in which baby schema was exaggerated) than when viewing lowcuteness versions (i.e., versions in which baby schema was reduced). Studies using behavioral measures of the reward value of faces, such as key-press tasks (Aharon et al, 2001), also suggest that viewing cute infant faces is rewarding; people are willing to expend more effort to view high-cuteness versions of infant face images than they are to view low-cuteness versions (Hahn et al, 2013).…”