May 13, 2020 19:00:00

Brain activity measurements reveal that having a father and mother together may be beneficial in parenting

Experiments conducted by a research team in Singapore have revealed that parents' hearing of children's voices and the like at physically close distances makes it easier for two brain activities to synchronize. From these results, researchers argue that parental spouses may be better at raising children if they spend time together in a physically close condition.

Physical presence of spouse enhances brain-to-brain synchrony in co-parenting couples | Scientific Reports

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-63596-2

Physical presence of spouse alters how parents' brains respond to stimuli from children, finds NTU Singapore study
https://media.ntu.edu.sg/NewsReleases/Pages/newsdetail.aspx?news=37a99346-ed86-4b1d-85ed-1267e22d5391

The Nanyang Technological University research team in Singapore conducted this experiment on 24 heterosexual couples aged 21 and over. All the couples who were the subjects were raising children under the age of 4 while living together, and it was said that they were people with no known psychological or psychological problems or problems with blood carrying capacity.

The research team used the headphones to make six types of audio using headphones: 'Adult female crying' 'Adult female laughing' 'Baby crying high' 'Baby crying low' 'Baby laughing' 'Quiet' I told you. At this time, the subjects used

functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure prefrontal activity based on the oxygen content of blood flowing in the brain. The prefrontal cortex is associated with complex behaviors and emotions and is thought to be the supreme center of the brain responsible for thinking and creativity.

In this research, not only couples entered the same room and listened side by side, but also experimented in one room and listening to the sound alone. In addition, not only the correct combination of couples, but also the combination of men and women was randomly tested to hear the sound in the same room. Men and women were told to concentrate on listening to the voice, and conversation during the experiment, contact with the body of the other party, and eye contact were prohibited.

As a result of the experiment, when the couple listened to the voice side by side in the same room, the prefrontal activity to the voice showed a greater similarity and was synchronized in comparison with the case of listening to the voice in different rooms. It turned out that Among the voice stimuli, brain activity became more synchronized with relatively positive or neutral stimuli such as 'adult female laughter,' 'baby laughter,' and 'quiet sound.' This phenomenon was confirmed only between real couples, and even if randomly selected men and women listened to the audio in the same room, the synchronization of brain activity did not increase.

Gianluca Esposito , the first author of the paper, said, `` Our study shows that when spouses are physically together, there is a greater synchronization between their parenting attention and cognitive control mechanisms. Because the brain activity of parents can be shaped by the presence of a spouse, spouses who do not spend much time together have difficulty understanding each other's perspectives and diminished their ability to cooperate in parenting. May be done ”. He pointed out that in the long run, the absence of parents can impair the quality of parenting.

Many families may find that having both parents together is a waste of time when caring for a child, while the other is free while one is caring. However, Associate Professor Esposito believes that it may be beneficial for parents to take care of the child together, and that pandemic outing restrictions on the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) may benefit child-rearing households. Pointed out. “As part of our efforts to maintain social distance in the fight against COVID-19, we increase the amount of time our families spend together at home. It can be stressful that the whole family stays together for a long time 'We can take care of our children in time and align their actions and emotions with each other,' said Associate Professor Esposito.

Also, co-author of the paper, Mengyu Lim, said, 'The results of this study may empower those who are stressed on parenting. We should not consider parenting as a personal task. No, and we are jointly responsible for our spouses. Parenting requires active networks, communication, and trust. '