Experience with mice and humans: stroking soothes if you have experienced a mother’s love

ELY calms human children and animals.

However, it may be that the calming effect is only produced by those who have received affection and care as children.

According to a Japanese study, the touch of a mother or other caregiver in infancy can affect how we perceive touch later on age.

The issue was investigated in a multipart study, and first the effects of stroking were studied on babies.

The little ones were placed on their mothers’ laps, and the mothers were given the task of stroking their children’s backs, backs and stomachs.

At the same time, the researchers measured the electrical activity of the babies’ hearts to get an idea of the children’s of calmness.

According to the measurements, stroking the back in particular calmed the children.

Stroke the belly had no effect one way or the other. Instead, stroking the back of the head made the children even slightly excited.

The next stage of the experiment was done with mice.

Mice mothers and other four-legged mammals care for their young by licking their backs. The use and the feeling it generates are reminiscent of stroking.

The mouse pups were divided into three groups. The chicks of the first group were isolated for half an hour in a closed space.

The same was done to the chicks of the second group, but in addition their backs were brushed with a soft brush during the isolation.

The third group was allowed to spend time normally with their siblings and mother.

Isolation without petting made the baby mice stressed. However, those who were comforted by stroking secreted less markers of stress.

Thus, the researchers found out that stroking, similar to licking the back, calmed the baby mice.

But what if the mice have never been cared for by their mother?

Researchers raised baby mice that were separated from their mother immediately after birth.

The researchers fed the chicks, but avoided touching them. The chicks grew up completely without the mother’s affection and physical touch.

Next, it was investigated how these chicks raised apart from the mother reacted to petting.

In the isolation experiment it was noticed that stroking did not calm these chicks, but actually increased the stress they experienced.

This was a surprise to the researchers. So the relaxing effect of stroking was not an innate quality, but developed only in chicks that received care.

<spanclass=”uppercase font-bold [font-family:var(–article-sans-serif-font-family)] [font-size:var(–leadin-font-size)]”>The researchers wanted to find out if the phenomenon could have a physiological basis.

They looked at the hypothalamus in the brain of mice, which regulates other such as sleep and stress. The purpose was to find out which of the genes controlling the function of the hypothalamus were active and which were turned off.

The researchers noticed that the activity of the so-called Cacna1b gene was clearly reduced in chicks raised apart from their mother.

The matter was tested with a new generation of chicks, whose brains the researchers silenced the activity of the gene in question.

These chicks were allowed to grow up normally with their mother, but even so, stroking their backs did not relax them.

The same mechanism may also apply in humans, researchers estimate.

The calming effect is unlikely to be related to just this one gene, said Professor Hiromasa Funato of Toho University Medicalxpress.

Probably, the action of the Cacna1b gene is just one of several mechanisms that make stroking relaxing.

However, according to Funato, the study produces new information on how early experiences affect the functioning of the developing brain concretely and at the molecular level

The study was published Communications Biology in the science journal.