De Pisapia Nicola, Bornstein Marc H, Rigo Paola, Esposito Gianluca, De Falco Simona, Venuti Paola
Department of Cognitive Science and Education, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
Neuroreport. 2013 Feb 13;24(3):142-6. doi: 10.1097/WNR.0b013e32835df4fa.
Infant cries are a critical survival mechanism that draw the attention of adult caregivers, who can then satisfy the basic needs of otherwise helpless infants. Here, we used functional neuroimaging to determine the effects of infant hunger cries on the brain activity of adults who were in a cognitively nondemanding mental state of awake rest. We found that the brains of men and women, independent of parental status (parent or nonparent), reacted differently to infant cries. Specifically, the dorsal medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate areas, known to be involved in mind wandering (the stream of thought typical of awake rest), remained active in men during exposure to infant cries, whereas in women, activity in these regions decreased. These results show sex-dependent modulation of brain responses to infant requests to be fed, and specifically, they indicate that women interrupt mind wandering when exposed to the sounds of infant hunger cries, whereas men carry on without interruption.
婴儿啼哭是一种关键的生存机制，能吸引成年照料者的注意，进而满足原本无助婴儿的基本需求。在此，我们运用功能性神经成像技术，来确定婴儿饥饿哭声对处于清醒休息这种认知需求较低心理状态下的成年人脑活动的影响。我们发现，无论父母身份（父母或非父母）如何，男性和女性的大脑对婴儿哭声的反应有所不同。具体而言，已知与思绪游荡（清醒休息时典型的思维流）有关的背内侧前额叶和后扣带回区域，在男性接触婴儿哭声时仍保持活跃，而在女性中，这些区域的活动则减少。这些结果表明，大脑对婴儿进食需求的反应存在性别差异调节，具体而言，这表明女性在听到婴儿饥饿哭声时会中断思绪游荡，而男性则会持续不断。
