New horizons of grassroots influence Qiao Yisi compiled
Every parent once asked themselves angrily at some point : "Why does my child never listen to me!?" Now, scientists have proved through research: teenagers really don't listen to their mothers because their brains block their mother's voice. What mothers can let go is that this is not a targeted personal behavior of the child, but a natural function of the human body.
This study published in the Journal of Neuroscience shows that teenagers' brains will shift from listening to their mothers' voices to those of their peers' age. The researchers performed functional MRI scans on 46 children aged 7 to 16 to understand what the brain reacts when they hear mothers’ voices and strange women’s voices. These children have IQs of 80 or above and are raised by their biological mothers. It should be noted, however, that this study does not include male or nonbinary gender caregivers.
In the past, studies have shown that infants and young children activate the reward center of their brains when they hear their mother's voice, but this new study found that children aged 13 and older will not have the same reaction. On the contrary, the reward center of the brain will only move when they hear the voices of strange women. The main study author, Dr. Daniel Abrams, associate clinical professor of behavioral sciences at , explained : "Just like babies know to listen to mothers' voices, teenagers also know to listen to novel voices. Teens want to be with friends and new friends, their minds are becoming more sensitive and attracted by these strange sounds."
Image taken from: (Schematic 123rf)
The brain of teenagers is gradually turning to more independent, which is completely natural and expected. It turns out that the teenager's brain may filter sound types according to the level of importance, so mom is no longer the number one among teenagers, but it may be the cute classmate in the class who occupies more room for thinking. As teenagers become increasingly interested in adventure and novelty, this new behavior that bothers mothers may make more sense.
This study, in addition to letting mothers relax, may also help the scientific community understand more clearly how and why children with autism adapt to specific voices and social stimuli. For example, autistic children do not seem to respond to their mother's voices as strongly as those without autism. Dr. Abrams said in an interview with Stanford Medical News Center in 2019: : "Children with autism often ignore the sounds around them, which leads to their social difficulties, but we don't know why."
