Mom's Voice Enough To Cheer Child Up, Study Says

There is a whole new reason to love and cherish moms, if one needs to have one. A new scientific report claimed that a mother's voice could be so powerful as to light up her children's brain.

According to a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, children's brains can respond faster and stronger to their mother's voices compared to that of strangers'. 

Even if children heard if for only a fraction of a second, they feel soothed and happier. The new findings revealed that children who heard their mom's voices could light up. 

The results indicated that the parts of the brain related to emotions are very responsive to mothers' voices. "The extent of the regions [of the brain] that were engaged was really quite surprising," Vinod Menon, a psychiatry professor at Stanford shared in a statement.

The study also revealed that a mother's voice could activate the areas of the brain normally associated with rewards. As such, children's brains became trained to hearing their mom's voice more rapidly so that they can get the "rewards." 

The finds contribute to the growing literature emphasizing children's preferences to hear their mom's voice compared to the voice of other people. Past studies have shown that as early as infancy, babies can easily identify their mother's voice. 

While the new study was focused on children, past research has shown that more and more people, including adults, experience being soothed when they hear their mother's voice. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of adults making sure they never lose contact with their parents and communicating with them on a daily basis has increased steadily since 1989.  

Between parents, adults still seek to hear their mom's voice, regardless if both father and mother are still living. A research published in the American Association of Critical Care Nurses Journal revealed that a mom's voice is not only familiar and pleasing, but also therapeutic.