A recent study by Emory University is the first to examine grandmaternal brain function, with the results indicating that grandmothers are geared toward feeling what their grandchildren are feeling when they interact with them.

The study, published by the Royal Society in November, 2021, used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brains of 50 grandmothers with at least one biological grandchild between 3 and 12 years old. The grandmothers viewed pictures of their grandchild, an unknown child, the same-sex parent of the grandchild, and an unknown adult. They also completed questionnaires to measure their degree of involvement with and attachment to their grandchild. The findings indicated that emotional empathy may be a key component of grandmaternal responses to their grandchildren.

This is a significant finding, as cross-cultural evidence shows that grandmothers often play an important role in the lives of children and grandmaternal investment is often associated with improved grandchild health and well-being.

The study notes, “In a review of alloparental effects in traditional human societies, the presence of a maternal grandmother improved child survival in 9 of 13 societies….More generally, grandmaternal investment has been associated with improved cognitive functioning, improved academic achievement, and decreased emotional and behavioural problems among children.

While grandmothers have played a major role historically throughout human evolution, the study points out that a number of factors have contributed to their increasing importance in modern times. “As life expectancy has increased, children are much more likely to have living, healthy grandparents today than they were in the past….In addition, as fertility rates have declined in many parts of the world, individual children are receiving more grandmaternal investment because that investment is being partitioned among fewer children. Another factor contributing to increased grandmaternal caregiving in modern societies is the large number of mothers who have entered the workforce. Grandmothers are often important sources of childcare for working parents, especially where state-supported childcare is unavailable. In some parts of the world, parents from rural families are migrating to urban centers for job opportunities, leaving their children behind to be cared for by grandparents. Finally, as rates of non-marital birth and divorce have increased in many parts of the world, single motherhood has become more common and grandmaternal assistance more essential.”

The study also notes the value of fathers in raising children. “Research conducted primarily in modern developed societies indicates that positive paternal engagement is associated with better cognitive, behavioural, social and psychological outcomes for children.”

The study looked at ten different brain regions involved in important aspects of parental behavior, including parental motivation, emotional empathy and cognitive empathy. The study results demonstrated that, “when grandmothers view photos of their grandchild, they particularly activate brain regions involved in emotional empathy, and regions involved in movement, motor preparation and motor simulation. Furthermore, in comparison with fathers, grandmothers more strongly activate brain regions involved with emotional empathy, as well as brain regions involved with reward and motivation.”

Quoted in www.neurosciencenews.com James Rilling, Emory professor of anthropology and lead author of the study, commented, “What really jumps out in the data is the activation in areas of the brain associated with emotional empathy. That suggests that grandmothers are geared toward 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.” This contrasts to the stronger activation in cognitive empathy demonstrated by grandmothers looking at images of their adult child. Rilling continues, “Young children have likely evolved traits to be able to manipulate not just the maternal brain, but the grandmaternal brain. An adult doesn’t have the same cute ‘factor’, so they may not illicit the same emotional response.”

Rilling also notes, “Evidence is emerging in neuroscience for a global, parental caregiving system in the brain. We wanted to see how grandmothers might fit into that pattern.” One limitation noted by the researchers was that the participants “skewed towards mentally and physically healthy women who are high-functioning grandmothers”.

The Rilling lab were able to compare results with a previous study they had done of fathers viewing photos of their children. The researchers are interested in doing a follow-up study of the neuroscience of grandfathers and also of how the brain functions of grandparents may differ across cultures.