{"id":755426,"date":"2026-04-26T23:47:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T23:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/755426\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T23:47:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T23:47:27","slug":"scientists-say-grandma-brain-is-real-heres-what-that-means-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/755426\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Say \u201cGrandma Brain\u201d Is Real \u2014 Here\u2019s What That Means"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"woman<\/p>\n

Scientists Explain “Grandma Brain”Sam Edwards – Getty Images<\/p>\n

My son-in-law recently introduced me to his friend the following way: \u201cThis is Kate. She\u2019s an interesting person and a good conversationalist \u2026 unless Anne is in the room. In that case, don\u2019t even try.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anne is my toddler-aged granddaughter, and I am guilty as charged. Something happens to me when I\u2019m with her. I\u2019m enchanted. Bewitched. Besotted.<\/p>\n

It turns out that this isn\u2019t just love, though there\u2019s plenty of that. I\u2019m experiencing \u201cGrandma Brain.\u201d That\u2019s not a technical term, but there is a scientific explanation for what\u2019s going on. Neurological research has shown that something unique happens to our brains when we see our grandchildren \u2014 and it may explain our intense devotion and delight.<\/p>\n

Dr. James Rilling<\/a>, a professor in Emory\u2019s Department of Anthropology and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University, scanned the brains of 50 grandmothers while showing them photos of their grandchildren. (The study didn\u2019t include grandfathers.) What he discovered was brain activity that, at least in part, explains the intense grandmaternal bond.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat really jumps out in the data is the activation in areas of the brain associated with emotional empathy,\u201d Rilling says. \u201cThat suggests that grandmothers are geared towards feeling what their grandchildren are feeling when they interact with them. If their grandchild is smiling, they\u2019re feeling the child\u2019s joy. And if their grandchild is crying, they\u2019re feeling the child\u2019s pain and distress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retired teacher Janet Meisel, who has three grandsons, wrote an essay on Medium<\/a> with a title that\u2019s a near-perfect illustration of the heightened emotional empathy that Rilling\u2019s study revealed. Titled \u201cAre Grandparents Supposed To Feel This Much Love?\u201d her subtitle reads, \u201cSometimes it feels like my heart will burst with joy and sometimes with pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the difference between being a mom and a grandma, Meisel writes, \u201cI had given my children so much of myself, but this feeling was different. It was love on steroids.\u201d<\/p>\n

What makes the new research particularly interesting is that the grandmothers\u2019 brains did not light up in the same areas when women looked at pictures of their own children.<\/strong> When photos of their offspring were shown to the same women, a different area was activated, one associated with cognitive empathy. With cognitive empathy, a person can understand what another is feeling and why. But with emotional empathy, a person experiences what someone else is feeling.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s no surprise to Nancy Claus, a Connecticut grandmother of two. \u201cIt\u2019s like a melting,\u201d she says, sighing. \u201cIsabella\u2019s just at this magical stage where you hold her, she looks into your eyes, locks on you, and just bursts into this smile. She\u2019s just wiggling with happiness all over and then I feel so happy, just flooded with this warm, delightful feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grandparents tend to joke, \u201cIf I\u2019d known how great it would be to be a grandparent, I\u2019d have done it before I had kids.\u201d This sentiment has less to do with brain activity than it does with the relationship. (\u201cI can enjoy the kid and then hand them back.\u201d) Grandparents, of course, have less responsibility than parents. Combine that with heightened emotional empathy swirling around in their brains and a \u201cdon\u2019t sweat the small stuff\u201d sensibility of many older folks, and it makes for a joyful ride.<\/p>\n

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Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI could have a terrible day or a wonderful day, but as soon as I walk into the room with my grandson or my granddaughter, anything that happened before just dissipates,\u201d says Melanie Schaffran, a New York grandmother. \u201cI\u2019m in complete rapture. Not to say I\u2019m not aware of the mess being created, but it doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

For mothers and fathers, mess does matter. Parents are often up to their ears in work stress, financial stress, kid stress, eldercare stress and everything else pulling on them at the stage of life when kids are young.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even remember that life,\u201d says Marti Gallardo, a Texas grandmother of three, with two more on the way. \u201cWe were just so busy.\u201d Gallardo, now retired from her career in advertising sales, chatted while covered in \u201cgreen apple peel spit.\u201d She was watching her 14-month-old granddaughter, Clare, who only likes the inside of apples. As a grandma \u2014 and a woman who was no longer has to rush to work looking professional nor worry about if the baby is eating the right foods \u2014 Gallardo was relaxed.<\/p>\n

Rilling\u2019s original research was conducted in 2021. His study included placing 50 grandmothers in MRI machines and observing their reactions to photos of grandchildren who ranged from ages three to 12. The women were also shown photos of their own biological children as adults, as well as pictures of unknown people of all ages.<\/p>\n

The data is still being analyzed. Currently, Rilling is studying saliva samples to see whether grandmothers have more oxytocin \u2014 nicknamed \u201cthe love hormone\u201d for the good feeling it produces \u2014 compared to women of the same age who are not grandmothers. His team is also exploring if being a grandmother affects the rate at which the brain ages, with the hypothesis that it slows the process. He also hopes to conduct longitudinal studies by taking brain images and studying hormones before and after women become grandmothers. Rilling also plans to study the brains of grandfathers.<\/p>\n

The biology of grandparents is \u201cunexplored territory,\u201d Rilling says. \u201cA lot of research on older people\u2019s brains is in the context of pathology and degeneration. Here we\u2019re looking at healthy older brains and what they may have been designed for.\u201d He believes his is the first study to examine grandmothers\u2019 brain activity.<\/p>\n

\"grandma<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

That said, other non-neurological studies have made the connection between being an active grandparent and better health. AARP conducted a comprehensive survey of grandparents and in its summary refers to grandkids as \u201cthe elixir of life.\u201d Benefits include a more physically active lifestyle, more sociability and improved mental well-being.<\/p>\n

The Berlin Aging Study<\/a>, which tracked health outcomes of more than 500 people ages 70 and older, found that grandparents who helped care for their grandchildren had lower mortality rates over a 20-year period than those who did not. Plenty of research has also documented the benefits to grandchildren of having grandparents in their lives.<\/p>\n

Why have grandmother\u2019s brains evolved as they have? As an anthropologist as well as a psychologist, Rilling speculates that close grandmaternal bonds make it easier for parents to reproduce and continue the species. Or to put it in everyday terms, if parents have some help with the first baby, they\u2019re more likely to go for number two. Or three.<\/p>\n

That may explain another facet of intense grandmother love. The recognition of past, present and future in a grandchild\u2019s face. \u201cI see little bits of my mother in Olivia already,\u201d Claus says of her 2-year-old granddaughter. \u201cI don\u2019t want to burst into singing \u2018Circle of Life\u2019 here, but it\u2019s seeing your genes passing on and moving to the future. Seeing the next generation, the continuity, just brings a contentment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"grandma<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

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