Joshua Gowin Ph.D. on April 2, 2012
With so many things to learn—immediately—to care for a baby, it seems like evolution must have given our brains a few tools to ease the shift into the newfound role as parent, just as a bird shifts to its nesting instinct. Dutch researchers Madelon Riem and Marinus van IJzendoorn found that oxytocin changes the way the brain responds to a baby’s laughter.
With so many things to learn—immediately—to care for a baby, it seems like evolution must have given our brains a few tools to ease the shift into the newfound role as parent, just as a bird shifts to its nesting instinct. Dutch researchers Madelon Riem and Marinus van IJzendoorn found that oxytocin changes the way the brain responds to a baby’s laughter.