Mothers’ Self Perception Predicts Children’s Brain Development

Brain development and stress levels in children depend on self perception of mothers, a latest study reveals.

Boston Children's Hospital researchers studied 38 children, aged between 8.3 and 11.8 years. "We know that there are big disparities among people in income and education," said Margaret Sheridan, PhD, of the Labs of Cognitive Neuroscience at Boston Children's Hospital and lead study author. "Our results indicate that a mother's perception of her social status 'lives' biologically in her children."

Sheridan and senior investigator of the study, Charles Nelson, PhD, collected the saliva samples of the participant children. They used it to measure cortisol levels. Cortisol is a stress indicator.

Other set of 19 children underwent MRI of brain that focused on the hippocampus- a region in the brain responsible for long term memory formation and lowering stress. The researchers asked the mothers of the participating children about their social standing. They were told to rate it on a scale of 1-10 comparing themselves with others.

The results showed that the children with mothers who scored themselves low on the social scale had increased levels of cortisol and less activation in the hippocampus region. The researchers noticed that the self perceptions of the mothers were indicators of cortisol levels in the childen.

However, the researchers did not find any link with maternal education or income to the cortisol level or activation of the hippocampus region. "This needs further exploration," said Sheridan. "There may be more than one pathway leading to differences in long-term memory, or there may be an effect of stress on the hippocampus that comes out only in adulthood."