Suzanne Marlatt Stewart
Like many of you in our community, I am a grandma. What I have discovered isn’t just about love for our grandchildren. There is a term called “Grandma Brain.” Although it is not a technical term, it connotes a scientific explanation. What has been shown in neurological research is that something unique happens to our brains when we see our grandchildren.
Dr. James Rilling, a professor in Emory’s Department of Anthropology and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University, scanned the brains of 50 grandmothers while showing them photos of their grandchildren. What he discovered was brain activity that, at least in part, explains the intense grandmaternal bond.
“What really jumps out in the data is the activation in areas of the brain associated with emotional empathy,” Rilling says. “That suggests that grandmothers are geared towards feeling what their grandchildren are feeling when they interact with them. If their grandchild is smiling, they’re feeling the child’s joy. And if their grandchild is crying, they’re feeling the child’s pain and distress.”
What makes the new research particularly interesting is that the grandmothers’ brains did not light up in the same areas when women looked at pictures of their own children. When photos of their offspring were shown to the same women, a different area was activated, one associated with cognitive empathy. With cognitive empathy, a person can understand what another is feeling and why. But with emotional empathy, a person experiences what someone else is feeling.
Currently, Rilling is studying saliva samples to see whether grandmothers have more oxytocin—nicknamed “the love hormone” for the good feeling it produces—compared to women of the same age who are not grandmothers. His team also explores if being a grandmother affects the rate at which the brain ages, with the hypothesis that it slows the process. He also hopes to conduct longitudinal studies by taking brain images and studying hormones before and after women become grandmothers.
The Berlin Aging Study, which tracked health outcomes of more than 500 people ages 70 and older, found that grandparents who helped care for their grandchildren had lower mortality rates over a 20-year period than those who did not. Plenty of research has also documented the benefits to grandchildren of having grandparents in their lives.
Researchers at the University of Turku, in Finland, looked at data collected in a 2007 survey completed by 1,566 English and Welsh youth, ages 11 to 16. Youth who lived with their grandparents or who did not have at least one living grandparent were excluded from their studies.
“Our main finding was that investment from maternal grandmothers seemed to be able to protect their grandchild from the negative influence of experiencing multiple adverse early-life experiences,” Samuli Helle, the lead researcher, told HuffPost.
“There is no other love that’s as special as the love of a grandma. So warm and fuzzy, so calm and sweet, so cheerful and joyful.”—Hopal Green
And by the way, Happy Mother’s Day!
Rev. Suzanne, a resident of SaddleBrooke, is an independent writer and speaker. She was ordained nondenominational, representing all faiths, and her focus is inclusivity. Email her at [email protected].