This is the first ever magnetic resonance image (2015) showing a mother and child’s bond. The image is of a cognitive neuroscientist, professor and associate department head at the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, Rebecca Saxe, kissing her two-month-old son.
The baby’s brain is smoother and darker because it has significantly less white matter. White matter is made up of myelin, which is the insulation on the wires that communicate messages inside your brain. Kissing causes a chemical reaction in your brain, including a burst of the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin is the “us-them” hormone- bonding us to people that are “us” but also making us at times more ethnocentric and less tolerance of “them”.
Kissing activates the brain’s reward system; releasing dopamine which makes us feel good. It also releases vasopressin which bonds mothers with babies and romantic partners to each other, as well as serotonin, which helps to regulate our mood.
Source: NH neurotraining & Mylea Charvat, Ph.D. Read more: http://ow.ly/286R30puQz2 and http://ow.ly/l0Cz30puRpN