Kringelbach Morten L, Stark Eloise A, Alexander Catherine, Bornstein Marc H, Stein Alan
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 7JX, UK; Center for Music in the Brain (MIB), Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 7JX, UK.
Trends Cogn Sci. 2016 Jul;20(7):545-558. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2016.05.003. Epub 2016 May 19.
Cuteness in offspring is a potent protective mechanism that ensures survival for otherwise completely dependent infants. Previous research has linked cuteness to early ethological ideas of a 'Kindchenschema' (infant schema) where infant facial features serve as 'innate releasing mechanisms' for instinctual caregiving behaviours. We propose extending the concept of cuteness beyond visual features to include positive infant sounds and smells. Evidence from behavioural and neuroimaging studies links this extended concept of cuteness to simple 'instinctual' behaviours and to caregiving, protection, and complex emotions. We review how cuteness supports key parental capacities by igniting fast privileged neural activity followed by slower processing in large brain networks also involved in play, empathy, and perhaps even higher-order moral emotions.
后代的可爱是一种强大的保护机制，能确保那些完全依赖他人的婴儿得以生存。先前的研究已将可爱与早期关于“婴儿图式”的动物行为学观点联系起来，在该观点中，婴儿的面部特征充当本能照料行为的“先天释放机制”。我们提议将可爱的概念从视觉特征扩展到包括婴儿积极的声音和气味。行为学和神经影像学研究的证据将这种扩展后的可爱概念与简单的“本能”行为以及照料、保护和复杂情感联系起来。我们回顾了可爱如何通过激发快速的特殊神经活动，随后在也参与玩耍、共情甚至可能是更高级道德情感的大脑大网络中进行较慢的处理，来支持关键的父母能力。
