Cited by 365Evolutionary Psychology and Human BehaviorNeuroendocrine regulation and behaviorFace Recognition and Perception

Baby schema modulates the brain reward system in nulliparous women

Open access
Glocker, Melanie L., Langleben, Daniel D., Ruparel, Kosha, Loughead, James W., Valdez, Jeffrey N., Griffin, Mark D., Sachser, Norbert, Gur, Ruben C.·2009·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Abstract

Ethologist Konrad Lorenz defined the baby schema (“Kindchenschema”) as a set of infantile physical features, such as round face and big eyes, that is perceived as cute and motivates caretaking behavior in the human, with the evolutionary function of enhancing offspring survival. The neural basis of this fundamental altruistic instinct is not well understood. Prior studies reported a pattern of brain response to pictures of children, but did not dissociate the brain response to baby schema from the response to children. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and controlled manipulation of the baby schema in infant faces, we found that baby schema activates the nucleus accumbens, a key structure of the mesocorticolimbic system mediating reward processing and appetitive motivation, in nulliparous women. Our findings suggest that engagement of the mesocorticolimbic system is the neurophysiologic mechanism by which baby schema promotes human caregiving, regardless of kinship.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1073/pnas.0811620106

Cites

66 of 66 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Coordinated responses in drive (amygdala) and regulation (cingulate) figure prominently in papers using baby face stimuli.

    “Again, coordinated responses in drive (amygdala) and regulation (cinglulate) figure prominently in these papers.”

    From The human parental brain: In vivo neuroimaging (2011) · cites this paper as Glocker et al., 2009

  • Nucleus accumbens is activated in response to baby schema (Glocker et al., 2009); medial orbitofrontal cortex responds to infant faces relative to adults (Kringelbach et al., 2008); higher levels of infantile features are preferred (Parsons et al., 2011).

    “In addition to activation of nucleus accumbens (NAcc) in response to baby schema (Glocker et al., 2009) and medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) response to infant faces relative to adults (Kringelbach et al., 2008), higher levels of infantile features are preferred (Parsons et al., 2011).”
  • Evidence supports human preference for exaggerated cute/infantile features of baby faces, which appear to activate reward mechanisms within the caregiver and motivate/promote mothers to caregiving, bonding, and attachment.

    “Not only is facial recognition of one’s infant and their emotional state critical to their survival, but evidence supports human preference for the exaggerated cute/infantile features of baby faces which appear to activate reward mechanisms within the caregiver and motivate/promote mothers to caregiving, bonding and attachment.”

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Glocker, M. L., Langleben, D. D., Ruparel, K., Loughead, J. W., Valdez, J. N., Griffin, M. D., Sachser, N., & Gur, R. C.
Affiliations
  • University of Münster (DE)
  • Philadelphia VA Medical Center (US)
  • University of Pennsylvania (US)
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2009-06-02
Volume
106
Issue
22
Pages
9115-9119
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
OpenAlex
W2027558840
Cited by
365
References
66
Citations by year
2026: 12 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 56 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 46 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 8
FWCI
9.72
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • University of Pennsylvania
  • West Virginia University
  • Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes
  • National Institutes of Health (5r01mh060722-10)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH-060722, MH60722)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
Keywords
baby schema, caregiver behavior, nucleus accumbens, mesocorticolimbic system, nulliparous women, cuteness, altruism, infant face perception
MeSH terms
Adult, Altruism, Analysis of Variance, Face, Female, Humans, Infant, Maternal Behavior, Nucleus Accumbens, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Young Adult

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review