London - A mother’s senses of hearing and smell are heightened by the maternal instinct to recognise distress calls from her children, research shows.
Scientists looked at how changes to the brain that occur during pregnancy help develop the maternal instinct, a female’s urge to protect her offspring that is found in humans and animals.
They found that the senses of hearing and smell were both changed in the brain, which they believe is nature’s way of ensuring the mother can care for her offspring.
The team, from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, studied normal mice, mice that had interacted with their pups and mice who had recently given birth and were still lactating.
They examined the reaction of female mice to pup odours before monitoring the response of their brains to the sounds of their pups.
Results, published in the journal Neuron, found that lactating mice who had recently given birth were particularly sensitive to pup sounds and smells, and were best at detecting pup distress calls. - Daily Mail