The center of "parental behavior" is found in the brain
Harvard scholar Johannes Kohl caused quite a stir in the scientific community. This famous cellular neuroscientist found out why parents are different - attentive and indifferent, caring and not very.
He found a special center in the human brain, which he called the "center of parental behavior." It is the normal work of this center and the degree of its activity that form the parent in the full sense of the word.
Experiments Kohl put on laboratory mice. The center responsible for parental feelings was found at the site of the hypothalamus, which is called the medial preoptic area, the center is a small cluster of neurons.
Part of the neurons, about which Johannes Kohl speaks, produces galanin protein, which, in fact, regulates parental behavior.
The scientist said that such a center has both the representatives of the stronger sex and mothers. Moreover, it is developed exactly the same.
That is, the process of carrying a child and childbirth by itself does not affect the production of galanin. Both a man and a woman can love and care for a child. It all depends on how well and smoothly the center works in the hypothalamus.
The cells of the new center are called MPOAGal neurons. They form complex connections with the rest of the areas and centers of the brain, while they themselves act as a "central control room."
On the mouse, this interaction was verified as follows: when stimulating the center of parental behavior with the help of thin electrodes, the females suddenly began to lick the pups, although they were clean.
Parental behavior of people, says Kohl, is much more complicated than the mouse. So, for the time being, there is no possibility to give all the answers to all the questions. For example, it is difficult to explain why is a person able to throw offspring, give up caring for him.
The scientist is sure that much in the behavior of people-parents depends on the cultural and social principles adopted in society, as well as on the extent permitted for a particular person.
Cell biology research was awarded an international prize in medicine and biology in 2018. To the funds received as a reward, Johannes Kohl intends to continue his research and finally give answers to numerous questions.
Psychiatrists, who said that opening a new center will help, have already become interested in its development - by stimulating it, it will be possible to activate parental feelings in situations when a woman categorically does not want to raise a child and is ready to abandon him, as well as in case of severe postpartum depression.