In order for a child to develop in a healthy and harmonious way, it is not enough for the mother or her substitute to take care of material things, but also for an intense emotional relationship. In particular, the effects of this report can have an impact on brain development, especially in certain regions, such as those of the hippocampus, where memory and a sense of orientation in space are located. This was highlighted by a recent study by Washington University, published online in Pnas, the magazine of the United States Academy of Sciences.
Researchers monitored 127 children from when they were about to start school until their first adolescence, with periodic brain scans. The ability of mothers to care for their children was also monitored with clinical observation by experienced staff. Comparing the type of relationship between mother and child and brain scans, researchers found that children of mothers who were able to give more support in the report showed an increase in the growth of hippocampal neurons, which could be up to twice as large as that of their peers' children of less "supportive" mothers.
Mnemonic and orientation skills are not the only skills to be influenced by the relationship with their mother: researchers also found a close correlation between the growth of the hippocampus and the ability to develop adequate emotional and relational skills when the boys entered adolescence. As Joan Luby, author of the study explains, the relationship between parent and child in preschool is fundamental, because the brain of young children in this phase has greater plasticity and is more influenced by different experiences. The authors recall that these data should not be interpreted literally: there is no automatic dynamic between mother's behaviour and child's character. In other words, it cannot be said that a child cared for little and badly will automatically become a disturbed or problematic adult.
