Many parents know how strong the bond between mother and baby is. Babies are generally so attached to their mothers that they immediately start crying when their mother leaves them. This makes the job of many mothers significantly more difficult. A new study has revealed how this strong bond between mother and baby can be loosened.
According to the study published yesterday in the academic journal Sciences Advances, this bond between mother and baby can be loosened with a ‘worn outfit’. According to experts, these clothes, which contain chemical signals in the ‘unique’ scent of mothers, can help babies feel comfortable and bond with strangers.
Worn clothes help babies bond
Scientists conducted a series of experiments to achieve these results. In the study, babies were left alone with a stranger wearing their mother’s old T-shirt, meaning they were exposed to their mother’s scents through a stranger. As a result of the examinations, it was observed that the babies were able to bond more easily with the stranger who had a mother’s scent compared to the stranger who wore a clean T-shirt.
Ruth Feldman, a social neuroscientist at Reisman University in Israel, said: “The work is very exciting. The results show that we can transfer ‘parenting’ to other people,” emphasizing that an adult wearing an outfit with a mother scent can have an important role in the social and emotional development of babies. In addition, Feldman thinks body odor can help us connect with others by connecting and communicating with them: “From an evolutionary perspective, one of the biggest reasons Homo Sapien survived and thrived is our capacity to ‘communicate’.”
“More research like this is needed”
There is little research so far on social odors, as they are complex and difficult to study in the lab, according to scientists. Eva Mishor, a neuroscientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, says that body odor is not a single odor and is made up of chemical signals, so there has been little research on it so far: “Such odors affect our mental state, brain activity, and social influences our interactions without us realizing it. The sense of smell plays a huge role in the decisions we make in life (such as choosing what to eat). These unconscious decisions also cause less work on social odors. ”
According to scientists, this research, which examines the relationship between mother and baby, is of great importance for the reasons stated. Experts state that the smell of the mother seriously affects the brain activities of 5-10-month-old babies, so it is very important for another adult to help the child’s social development.
For this reason, it was observed in the research how the smell of the mother affects brain activities. In a study of 62 women, Feldman and colleagues examined how clothing containing maternal scent affected the process of ‘neural synchronization’ between mother and baby. As a result of the analyzes, it was revealed that the brain activity of the babies increased and neural synchronization was higher when they were exposed to the mother’s scent. The opposite was true for babies who encountered strangers wearing clean T-shirts.
Experts think that this research can be very useful for parents and can make important contributions to the social development of babies. In addition, it is underlined that such studies on the sense of smell should increase.
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