2017年5月17日星期三

"In new moms, there arechanges in many of the brain areas," Kim continued. "Growth in brainregions involved in emotion regulation, empathy-related regions, but also whatwe call maternal motivation—and I think this region could be largely related toobsessive-compulsive behaviors. In animals and humans during the postpartumperiod, there's an enormous desire to take care of their own child."

“新妈妈大脑的很多区域都发生了变化，”Kim说，“大脑里涉及情绪管理、与理心相关的等区域增加，特别是很大程度上与这些强迫性行为相关的区域。动物和人类一样，在产后期，妈妈们都会有很大的保护自己孩子的欲望。”

There are several interconnectedbrain regions that help drive mothering behaviors and mood.

大脑中有一些区域相互联系，驱动母性行为和情绪的发生。

Of particular interest toresearchers is the almond-shaped set of neurons known as the amygdala, whichhelps process memory and drives emotional reactions like fear, anxiety, andaggression. In a normal brain, activity in the amygdala grows in the weeks andmonths after giving birth. This growth, researchers believe, is correlated withhow a new mother behaves—an enhanced amygdala makes her hypersensitive to her baby'sneeds—while a cocktail of hormones, which find more receptors in a largeramygdala, help create a positive feedback loop to motivate mothering behaviors.Just by staring at her baby, the reward centers of a mother's brain will lightup, scientists have found in several studies. This maternal brain circuitryinfluences the syrupy way a mother speaks to her baby, how attentive she is,even the affection she feels for her baby. It's not surprising, then, thatdamage to the amygdala is associated with higher levels of depression inmothers.

大脑中有一个由神经元组成的杏仁形的区域，被称为杏仁核，该区域帮助记性形成，驱动类似恐惧、焦虑和过激情绪反应。研究者对这一区域持有特别的兴趣。正常情况下，分娩数周或数月后，杏仁核的活动才会增加。研究者认为这一增加与新妈妈的行为方式是相互联系，杏仁核活动增加使得妈妈们对宝宝的需要特别敏感。面积更大的杏仁核中有更多的激素受体，这些激素创造了一个母性行为驱动的正向闭环。科学家们发现，仅仅是盯着宝宝看，就可以激活妈妈大脑中的奖赏中枢。母亲的大脑回路决定了她与宝宝的说话方式是很甜蜜的，她对宝宝是很关注的，她甚至能与宝宝感同身受。既然这样，那杏仁核的破坏与妈妈们高度的抑郁情绪是相关的这一结论就不奇怪了。

Amygdala damage in babies couldaffect the mother-child bond as well. In a 2004 Journal of Neuroscience study,infant monkeys who had amygdala lesions were less likely to vocalize theirdistress, or pick their own mothers over other adults. A newborn's ability todistinguish between his mother and anybody else is linked to the amygdala.

宝宝的杏仁核受到破坏也会影响妈妈和宝宝之间的联系。2004年神经学杂志曾刊登一项研究，杏仁核技能受损的幼儿猴子更少用声音表达他们的悲痛，从一群成年猴妈妈中认出自己新生母亲的概率也更低。新生儿区分自己新生妈妈和其他成熟个体的能力与杏仁核有关。

Activity in the amygdala is alsoassociated with a mother's strong feelings about her own baby versus babies ingeneral. In a 2011 study of amygdala response in new mothers, women reportedfeeling more positive about photos depicting their own smiling babies comparedwith photos of unfamiliar smiling babies, and their brain activity reflectedthat discrepancy. Scientists recorded bolder brain response—in the amygdala,thalamus, and elsewhere—among mothers as they looked at photos of their ownbabies.

一个妈妈相比其他孩子对自己的孩子有更强烈的情感，这一现象也与杏仁核的活动有关。2011年一项新妈妈杏仁核反应的研究中，相比陌生宝宝们的照片，新妈妈们对自己孩子微笑的照片的感觉更加积极正面，他们大脑的活动正好反应了这种差别。在妈妈们观察自己孩子照片的时候，科学家们记录下来了她们大脑中显著的变化，包括杏仁核、丘脑以及其他区域。

2017年5月18日星期四

Greater amygdala response whenviewing their own children was tied to lower maternal anxiety and fewersymptoms of depression, researchers found. In other words, a new mother's brainchanges help motivate her to care for her baby but they may also help bufferher own emotional state. From the study:

研究者发现，有着低水平母性焦虑和几乎没有抑郁症状的新妈妈看着自己的孩子时，杏仁核活动更加强烈。也就是说，新妈妈大脑中的变化不仅驱使他们关心自己的孩子，还很有可能帮助缓解自己的情绪。下面一段内容摘自此研究报道。

Thus, the greater amygdala responseto one’s own infant face observed in our study likely reflects more positiveand pro-social aspects of maternal responsiveness, feelings, and experience.Mothers experiencing higher levels of anxiety and lower mood demonstrated lessamygdala response to their own infant and reported more stressful and morenegatively valenced parenting attitudes and experiences.

因此，根据我们研究中观察发现的母亲看到自己孩子时杏仁核区域活动激烈，这反映了母性应对方式，情感和经历更加积极和新社会性的方面。高度焦虑以及情绪低落的妈妈们看到自己孩子时，杏仁核区域活动相对较少，她们比其他妈妈有着更大的压力，而且持有消极的育儿态度和经历。

Much of what happens in a newmother's amygdala has to do with the hormones flowing to it. The region has ahigh concentration of receptors for hormones like oxytocin, which surge duringpregnancy.

新妈妈大脑中杏仁核区域的变化与进入该区域的激素有关，该区域有丰富的激素（例如分娩时产生的催产素）受体。

"We see changes at both thehormonal and brain levels," brain researcher Ruth Feldman told me in anemail. "Maternal oxytocin levels—the system responsible formaternal-infant bonding across all mammalian species—dramatically increaseduring pregnancy and the postpartum [period] and the more mother is involved inchildcare, the greater the increase in oxytocin."

“在激素和大脑水平上都产生了变化，”大脑研究者Ruth

Feldman在邮件中写道，“所有哺乳动物种类都会产生一种扮演母亲和孩子之间扭带的激素——催产素，在妊娠期和产后期，催产素水平快速升高，而且母亲越关注自己的孩子，催产素水平就越高。”

Becoming a parent looks—at least inthe brain—a lot like falling in love.

成为父母就像坠入爱河，至少在大脑里的变化是一样的。

Oxytocin also increases as womenlook at their babies, or hear their babies' coos and cries, or snuggle withtheir babies. An increase in oxytocin during breastfeeding may help explain whyresearchers have found that breastfeeding mothers are more sensitive to thesound of their babies' cries than non-breastfeeding mothers."Breastfeeding mothers show a greater level of [brain] responses to baby'scry compared with formula-feeding mothers in the first month postpartum,"Kim said. "It's just really interesting. We don't know if it's the act ofbreastfeeding or the oxytocin or any other factor."

当妈妈们看着自己的宝宝时，或者听着他们的叫声和哭声时，或者怀抱着他们时，催产素水平都会提升。相较于非哺乳期妈妈们，哺乳期的妈妈们对孩子的哭声反映更加敏感。哺乳时催产素水平升高这一事实或许可以帮研究者解释这一现象。“在产后第一个月，母乳妈妈相比于喂孩子奶粉的妈妈在听到孩子的哭喊声时，大脑活动更加激烈，”Kim说，“这真的是很有趣的现象。我们不知道，到底这是因为哺乳的行为，还是因为催产素水平变化，还是有其他的因素。”

What scientists do know, Feldmansays, is that becoming a parent looks—at least in the brain—a lot like fallingin love. Which helps explain how many new parents describe feeling when theymeet their newborns. At the brain level, the networks that become especiallysensitized are those that involve vigilance and social salience—the amygdala—aswell as dopamine networks that incentivize prioritizing the infant. "Inour research, we find that periods of social bonding involve change in the same'affiliative' circuits," Feldman said. "We showed that during thefirst months of 'falling in love' some similar changes occur between romanticpartners." Incidentally, that same circuitry is what makes babies smell sogood to their mothers, researchers found in a 2013 study.

Feldman说，科学家们现在所知道的是，成为父母就像陷入爱河，至少大脑中的变化是一样的，这也是父母见到新生儿第一眼的感觉。就大脑而言，那些变得特别敏感的区域就是涉及警觉性和社会经验的区域，杏仁核以及多巴胺（该激素刺激父母万事以孩子为重）。“我们的研究发现，建立社会联系时期，在这些相同的“亲密的脑回路”中也发生了变化，”Feldman说，“在恋爱前几个月，陷入爱河的情侣的大脑中会发生相似的变化。2013年一项研究偶然发现，相同的脑回路就是宝宝们对父母微笑的原因。”

The greatest brain changes occurwith a mother's first child, though it's not clear whether a mother's brainever goes back to what it was like before childbirth, several neurologists toldme. And yet brain changes aren't limited to new moms.

一些神经学家告诉我，尽管现在还不清楚妈妈的大脑是否曾回到过有孩子之前的状态，但是大脑变化最大的时候就是女性有第一个孩子的时候，而且并不只是新妈妈大脑会发生变化。

Men show similar brain changes whenthey're deeply involved in caregiving. Oxytocin does not seem to drivenurturing behavior in men the way it does in women, Feldman and otherresearchers found in a study last year. Instead, a man's parental brain issupported by a socio-cognitive network that develops in the brain of both sexeslater in life, whereas women appear to have evolved to have a "brain-hormone-behaviorconstellation" that's automatically primed for mothering. Another way tolook at it: the blueprint for mothering behavior exists in the brain evenbefore a woman has children.

当爸爸们非常关注自己的宝宝时，他们的大脑也会发生相似的变化。Feldman和其他几位研究者在去年的一个研究中发现，与女性不同，催产素并不能驱动男性的养育行为。相反，男性的父性大脑由一张社会认真网络支撑，该网络该之后的生命中男生和女生都会慢慢发展出来，但是女性的会发育成为一个“大脑-激素-行为类星座”，是母性行为的基础。换个角度看，母性行为的控制机制在女性有孩子之前就已经存在其大脑中了。

Perhaps, then, motherhood really islike secret space in a woman's brain, waiting to be discovered. "Althoughonly mothers experience pregnancy, birth, and lactation, and these providepowerful primers for the expression of maternal care via amygdalasensitization," researchers wrote, "evolution created other pathwaysfor adaptation to the parental role in human fathers, and these alternativepathways come with practice, attunement, and day-by-day caregiving."

也可能，母性就像女性大脑中的神秘空间，等待着被发觉。研究者写道，“虽然只有妈妈会经历妊娠、分娩和哺乳，并且在此期间，母亲通过杏仁核感应器表达出强大的母性关注行为，但是爸爸们确实通过其他方式完成对父母角色的适应，这些方式伴随着不断的联系，调整和一天天对孩子的看护。”

In other words, the act of simplycaring for one's baby forges new neural pathways—undiscovered rooms in theparental brain.

换个说法就是，对孩子简单看护和关心行为会促进形成一种新的神经通路——父母大脑中未被发觉的空间。

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