The topic of Charles Osgood’s file recently was "Why do baby faces make us smile?"
Most people, including those with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, feel "instinctively"
Researchers at Oxford University have done a study to find out why we react in such a positive way to babies.
Because babies are quite a lot of trouble, Oxford researchers Morton Kringelbach and Alan Stein thought that this response must be instinctual. They used imaging scans to measure brain activity in volunteers being shown images of unfamiliar adult and infant faces.
Prof. Alan Stein of Oxford University says, "In response to baby faces, but not in response to adult faces, these volunteers showed very specific activation of the brain."
Prof. Alan Stein says, "In an area called the orbitofrontal cortex, which is very much an emotional part of the brain where the reward-based stimuli seem to be based."
Is this just a momentary thing? Or does it last a while?
Stein says "These baby faces are selectively tagged by the brain for further activation."
In other words, that cute baby face is setting you up for duty.
Stein says, "There is a part of the brain that responds very, very rapidly to infants' faces, which then enables and prompts people to then look after and care for the baby in a selective kind of way --- which then enables us to allow babies to survive."
Stein says, "This is occurring very quickly, at about a seventh of a second of the baby faces shown. which is probably much faster than anything that can be under conscious control. This suggests that this is probably automatic, or maybe even instinctive."
Since the response seems to be emootional and instinctive, and these are the last things people lose when they have dementia, it stands to reason that those with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, will get pleasure from looking at baby photographs.
All living or working with dementia folks know how wonderful it is to bring moments of joy to these folks.
So when you are visiting with someone with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia, make sure you bring some baby photographs along. Not only will they make the dementia person smile, but they are excellent conversation starters for a beautiful upbeat encounter.
