Many people who are lucky enough to grow up with grandma's love and company know that their existence will add color to their children's growth in a unique way.

Now, for the first time, scientists scanned the grandmother's brain while watching the photos of her young grandson, which provided research evidence for this special intergenerational connection.

Researchers at Emory University explored grandmother's brain function.

The study found that when looking at photos of young grandchildren, grandmother's brain areas related to emotional resonance were activated.

James Riley, a professor of anthropology at Emory University, explained: "This shows that grandmothers can easily understand their children's emotional feelings when interacting with their grandchildren. 」

If the child is smiling, grandma can feel the joy of the child; If the child is crying, grandma will also feel the child's pain.

On the other hand, when grandma saw the photos of her adult children, the areas of the brain related to cognitive empathy showed stronger activation.

This shows that grandmothers may try to understand the thoughts, feelings and reasons behind adult children from a cognitive perspective, but they will be less emotional.

Researchers believe that young children may have developed some characteristics that will affect not only the mother's brain, but also the grandmother's brain. Children have lost these lovely "traits" as adults, so they can't evoke the same emotional response from their grandmother.

Minwoo Lee, a doctoral student in anthropology at Emory University, participated in this study as a subject. He spent a long time with his two grandmothers. "I'm fresh in memory of time with my grandmother. My grandmother is always gentle with me and likes me very much. But I didn't understand why when I was a child. 」

In the past, apart from studying Alzheimer's disease or other aging disorders, scientists rarely explored the brains of the elderly from other aspects. In this study, researchers pay attention to the brain function of grandmother who may have an important impact on our social life and development.

The interaction between grandparents, especially grandmothers and grandchildren, is an important aspect of human experience, but it is largely excluded from the field of neuroscience.

"Neuroscience evidence shows that there is a parental care system in the brain," Riley said. "We want to see how grandma adapts to this model. 」

In fact, human beings are actually cooperative nurturers in the process of evolution. This means that mothers can get help in taking care of their children, although there are different sources of help in society.

"We often think that father is the most important caregiver after mother, but this is not always the case." In some cases, grandma is the main child-rearing helper. 」

Research led by Riley found that, on average, when grandmothers look at photos of their grandchildren, the areas related to emotional resonance and motivation are more active than when fathers look at photos of their children.

The "grandmother hypothesis" holds that human women live longer because they provide evolutionary benefits for future generations and grandchildren.

Evidence to support this hypothesis includes a study of Tanzanian traditional Haza people, which found that grandmother foraging improved the nutritional status of grandchildren.

Another study on traditional communities shows that the existence of grandmothers shortens the interval between the delivery of daughters, thus increasing the number of grandchildren.

In modern society, more and more evidences show that grandmother's positive upbringing may be related to her grandchildren's better achievements in study, career and social relations.

Researchers at Emory University want to know about the brains of healthy grandmothers, their relationship and their positive influence on families.

The researchers invited 50 grandmothers to participate in the questionnaire survey and asked them about their experiences as grandmothers, including many details, such as the time spent with their grandchildren, the activities they did together, the depth of their feelings for their grandchildren and so on.

The researchers also conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging tests on participants, and measured their brain functions when they saw photos of their grandchildren, unknown children, grandchildren's grandparents and unknown adults.

The results show that when looking at the photos of grandchildren, most grandmother's brain regions involved in emotional resonance and motivation show more activation than other photos.

In addition, according to the results of the questionnaire, the researchers found that grandmothers who were more active in the field related to cognitive empathy when watching photos of their grandchildren said that they wanted to take more part in caring for their grandchildren and help their children share the childcare work.

Riley said: "Our findings further prove that there seems to be a child care system in the brain, and grandma's reaction to grandchildren is also in line with this system. 」

In the course of the study, the researchers interviewed all the participants in person to understand grandma's happiness and problems.

Many grandmothers have suggested that there will be differences with their children's parents because of the way of raising and the guidance of values. But as grandmothers, they will try not to interfere with their parents' parenting ideas.

The happiness of taking care of grandchildren is that you don't have to bear as much time and financial pressure as raising your own children. So they prefer the experience of being a grandmother to being a parent.