Scientists have figured it out!

Many people who have been fortunate enough to grow up with loving grandparents know that they enhance a child’s development in a unique and valuable way. But what is happening in grandma’s brain at the same time? Researchers have now studied the brains of grandmothers for the first time while viewing photos of their young grandchildren. And that provides a neural snapshot of the special bond between grandmother and grandchild.

grandmother hypothesis

“It’s relatively rare,” said study researcher Minwoo Lee, “for scientists to study the older human brain outside of the problems of dementia or other aging disorders.” Yet this is very interesting. “We often assume that fathers are the primary caregivers next to mothers, but that’s not always true,” added researcher James Rilling. “In some cases, grandmothers are the main helpers.” This is an important part of the so-called ‘grandmother hypothesis’. This hypothesis explains why human females often survive long after they have gone through menopause; that way they can take care of the grandchildren in a meaningful way. And that turns out to be good for the grandchild. Evidence is mounting in modern societies, for example, that the grandchildren of involved grandmothers achieve better results in school, as well as have better physical health or are more sociable.

Did you know…

…not only humans, but also killer whales know the menopause? For a long time, that was a mystery to scientists: because what exactly is the evolutionary use if they can no longer reproduce? Slowly but surely more clarity is emerging. According to the researchers, this has to do with the fact that menopausal killer whales – just like humans – have enough time to focus on the newest generation. After all, they no longer have to care for and raise their own offspring. This means that grandmothers who have become infertile are freer to move around and can thus make a positive contribution to the development of the grandchildren.

In the current study, the researchers decided to study the brains of healthy grandmothers. Because what exactly happens in the brain when the grandchildren come along? “Here we highlight the brain functions of grandmothers that can play an important role in their social lives and development,” Lee says. “It’s an important aspect of the human experience that has been largely left out of the field of neuroscience.”

Questionnaire

The 50 participants completed a questionnaire about their experiences as grandmothers, including how much time they spent with their grandchildren, the activities they do together, and how much affection they felt for them. MRI scans of their brains were also taken as they viewed pictures of their grandchild, an unknown child, the grandchild’s same-sex parent and an unknown adult.

Activity

The results show that when viewing photos of their young grandchildren, most grandmothers showed more activity in areas of the brain involved in emotional empathy. These grandmothers also stated in their questionnaire that they would like to be more involved in the care of the grandchild. “What really stands out in the data is this activation in brain regions associated with emotional empathy,” Rilling says. “That suggests that grandmothers are focused on feeling what their grandchildren feel when they interact with them. When their grandchild smiles, they feel the child’s joy. And when their grandchild cries, they feel the child’s pain and sorrow.”

Cognitive Empathy

In contrast, the study finds that when grandmothers view pictures of their adult children, the part of the brain associated with cognitive empathy is more strongly activated. That indicates that they may be trying to cognitively understand what their adult child is thinking or feeling and why, but not so much experiencing it from an emotional angle. “Young children probably have evolved the ability to manipulate not only the maternal brain, but also the grandmother’s brain,” Rilling said. “An adult child doesn’t have the same adorable ‘factor’, so they may not elicit the same emotional response.”

The study opens the door to many more questions to explore. “It might also be interesting to look at how grandparents’ brain functions differ across cultures,” Lee says. At the same time, the current study clarifies more about grandparenting, also confirming some recognizable parts of it. It appears from the interviews that many grandmothers find it quite difficult not to interfere in the upbringing of their grandchildren if they do not fully agree with the approach of the parents. “Many of them also said how nice it is not to feel as much time and financial pressure as raising their own children,” says Rilling. “They can enjoy their experience as a grandmother much more.”