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Saturday, May 27, 2006
Bionic Moms And Genetics
Be grateful to your mom. Not only did she carry you around for nine months, but now new research suggests that her mothering style may have triggered genes that help determine your parenting style.
Columbia University neurobiologist Frances Champagne says that previous research across species showed that maternal behaviors are passed down from mother to daughter.
...
But she wanted to know whether mothering tendencies are passed on through genetics or experience. Her team studied mother rats that spent time licking and grooming their babies, and others that didn't.As she wrote in the journal "Endocrinology," without enough licking and grooming, female rats had certain genes turn off, preventing the production of certain hormones key to future mothering behaviors, including estrogen and oxytocin, also known as the love hormone.
Licked rats had a higher production of those hormones, which, in turn, affected behavior when these baby rats became mothers themselves. Champagne says that this combination, genes and environment, pass maternal behaviors from generation to generation.
Champagne notes that maternal behavior is complex and that a mother's touch is just one part of a larger puzzle. But she says that these results highlight the need for bonding early in life. "Mothers are incredibly important," she says. "The quality of care that they can provide to infants is crucial for shaping infant development. And will have consequences for the next generation of mothers and infants."
Wonder if that's then tied to the whole breastfeeding thing. Anyhoo, I have nothing to add 'cept that I'm annoyed they didn't also consider how this might impact paternal behavior--do I like picking up Sam and want to have a human child because NTodd's Pa's Wife held me a lot, or because she didn't hold me enough?
Speaking of Mom, she and her bionic knee have made enough progress at the rehab center to be heading home tomorrow. I'm going to go help Dad with retrieval and geting her situated at the house.
ntodd
May 27, 2006 | Permalink
Comments
I was curious how it affected male behavior too, so I tried to find the original journal article. Must be the July issue -- not yet online.
And yay! on NTodd's Pa's Wife and the Bionic Knee. She must be thrilled to be going home...
Posted by: flory | May 27, 2006 12:22:09 PM
She must be thrilled to be going home...
You have no idea. She has a few...complaints about the center.
Posted by: NTodd | May 27, 2006 12:25:36 PM
You have no idea. She has a few...complaints about the center.
Yeah, I can imagine. Even the very best ones are....not.
Should work out well for you though. Now when you threaten her with the home, she'll know exactly what you're talking about. :)
Posted by: flory | May 27, 2006 1:58:39 PM
Heh, that's pretty much what she said: she was placed into the BAD home without even my input on the matter!
Posted by: NTodd | May 27, 2006 3:18:10 PM
So that's your problem -- you don't lick enough rats. I always suspected as much.
Posted by: Thers | May 27, 2006 4:13:30 PM
Unlike drunken Mick louts with 136 poor, filthy children running around the farm, I don't have rats in my house, so I could hardly lick them enough.
Posted by: NTodd | May 27, 2006 4:58:23 PM
... heading home tomorrow.
Yay!! (Steve does a little dance in celebration of The Bionic NTodd's Pa's Wife's progress.
I don't have rats in my house, so I could hardly lick them enough.
Lick them as much as you think appropriate. Just don't confuse "ratlicking" with a similarly named activity that Karl Rove is fond of...
Posted by: Steve Bates | May 27, 2006 5:34:53 PM
Sigh. I never could get my parentheses balanced.)
Posted by: Steve Bates | May 27, 2006 5:35:52 PM
So that's your problem -- you don't lick enough rats. I always suspected as much.
Huh.
Since it's generally recognized that you're a very good Dad, you must've licked a lot of rats.
Who knew?
Posted by: flory | May 27, 2006 8:22:21 PM
Your Mom's certainly had her share of trials lately. Hope this is the beginning of healing for her and happier, healthier times are ahead.
Posted by: Sandy-LA 90034 | May 27, 2006 8:47:16 PM
What Sandy said. Mend well, party carefully!
Posted by: ellroon | May 28, 2006 12:57:36 AM
NTodd had the comparable "licked" experience throughout infancy: he was included in all adult activities [which looking back may not have been the noble parenting we thought it was], including being taken along in a little plastic seat to silent Quaker worship -- where he sometimes made his own contributions to the service. Things started to fall apart when I became seriously ill, requiring frequent hospitalizations, when NTodd was 18 months old. So, NTodd's question about his 'fathering' Sam might be answered by saying he had exposure to both very close maternal/paternal bonding and what might have been interpreted by his little self as abandonment. Explains a lot about the crazy blogger, eh?!
Posted by: NTodd's Pa's wife | May 29, 2006 10:39:53 AM
Hiya! Having actually worked with rats, I can tell you they probably didn't study male parenting behavior using that model because, IIRC, male rats basically don't *do* any parenting behavior.
Not that the mommy rats are all superior--if they're in a bad mood, they sometimes end up eating their pups.
Posted by: tikistitch | May 29, 2006 12:44:15 PM
Oh yes, we had some Lab Mice for a while in our networking lab (a joke, see?). We noticed the baby population was rather...unstable. Caught Mom on video having a baby snack. Also caught Mom and Dad doing the rumpy pumpy, too...
Posted by: NTodd | May 29, 2006 2:29:15 PM
... and what about Vasopressin. Oxytocin and Vasopressin are *always* mentioned together...
Posted by: Buhruce | May 30, 2006 7:27:40 AM
Also caught Mom and Dad doing the rumpy pumpy, too...
OMG rat pr0n? That's illegal in many states. And some municipalities.
Posted by: tikistitch | May 30, 2006 4:49:12 PM
Wish I still had the tape. Could probably fetch a couple bucks on eBay.
Posted by: NTodd | May 30, 2006 5:13:01 PM
Buy me stuff off my 
