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Being a good mum is the most natural thing in the world – literally.
For scientists claim to have found a gene in women's brains that determines the strength of their natural maternal instincts and how much effort they put into bringing up their kids.
Dubbed the 'Good Mother Gene', it is found in a specific group of brain cells and can control crucial biological behaviour such as protecting, feeding or raising children.
When these neurons were reduced in mice, they spent less time licking, nursing and retrieving their young.
The cells are triggered by oestrogen and contain the ER alpha receptor, which receives chemical signals in maternal care and sexual behaviour.
Mice with lowered ER alpha levels responded to their babies differently from normal mice but showed similar aggression when defending nests.
"Manipulation of a specific gene in a specific group of neurons can drastically alter the expression of a biologically crucial behaviour," explained lead researcher Dr Ana Ribeiro, of New York's Rockefeller University.
"These effects are remarkably specific, as even related behaviours are unaffected by these manipulations."
It was previously known the medial preoptic area of the brain controlled aggression, sexual receptivity and maternal care in mice but the underlying mechanisms remained elusive.
Does this ring true for you in real life as opposed to mice studies?
Wise words on motherhood
- <p> “You’re not a mother until you’ve had nits.”</p> <p> <strong>TV star Coleen Nolan</strong></p>
- <p> “I was not a classic mother...I didn’t bake cookies. You can buy cookies, but you can’t buy love.”</p> <p> <strong>Actress Raquel Welch </strong> </p>
- <p> <strong><em>“</em></strong>Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shovelling the walk before it stops snowing.”</p> <p> <strong>Actress Phyllis Diller</strong></p>
- <p> “Ask your child what he wants for dinner only if he is buying.”</p> <p> <strong>Author Fran Lebowitz</strong></p>
- <p> “Life is tough enough without having someone kick you from the inside.”</p> <p> <strong>Comedienne Rita Rudner</strong></p>
- <p> “Having a baby is like watching two very inefficient removal men trying to get a very large sofa through a very small doorway, only in this case you can't say, 'Oh, sod it, bring it through the French windows.'"</p> <p> <strong>Comedienne Victoria Wood</strong></p>
- <p> “You can’t qualify in the subject but you’re expected to have a vast number of qualifications: chauffer, diplomat, vet, clown, Blue Peter presenter, chef, paramedic, critic, referee, weapons inspector, therapist, computer expert, liar.”</p> <p> <strong>Actress Imogen Stubbs</strong></p>
- <p> “A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.<strong>"</strong></p> <p> <strong>Author </strong><strong>Tenneva Jordan </strong></p>
- <p> "The first time you leave your child at school you're faced with a tough decision - down the pub or back to bed?”</p> <p> <strong>Comedienne Jo Brand</strong></p>
- <p> "There never was a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him asleep.” </p> <p> <strong>Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson</strong></p>
- <p> “A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child."</p> <p> <strong>Actress Sophia Loren </strong></p>
- <p> "Any mother could perform the jobs of several air-traffic controllers with ease."</p> <p> <strong>American writer Lisa Alther</strong></p>
- <p> “Nothing will ever make you as happy or sad, as proud or as tired as motherhood.”</p> <p> <strong>Author Elia Parsons</strong></p>
- <p> "A mother “is a nutritionist, a child psychologist, an engineer, a production manager, an expert buyer, all in one.”</p> <p> <strong>Anthropologist Margaret Mead </strong></p>
- <p> “Motherhood is “having someone else to blame when there is a rude smell in the air.”</p> <p> <strong>Actress Jane Horrocks</strong></p>
- <p> “You know you really are a mother when: you use your own saliva to clean your child's face; your child throws up and you catch it.”</p> <p> <strong>Humorist Erma Bombeck</strong></p>
- <p> “The story of a mother’s life: Trapped between a scream and a hug.”</p> <p> <strong>Cartoonist</strong><strong> Cathy Guisewite</strong></p>
- <p> “Motherhood is not for the fainthearted. Frogs, skinned knees, and the insults of teenage girls are not meant for the wimpy.”</p> <p> <strong>Author Danielle Steel</strong></p>
- <p> “Never being number one in your list of priorities and not minding at all.”</p> <p> <strong>Model and designer Jasmine Guinness</strong></p>
- <p> “Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help mom with the dishes.”</p> <p> <strong>Writer P.J. O’Rourke </strong></p>
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