Left side cradling a baby-like doll induces positive emotional effects in female students

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Left side cradling a baby-like doll induces positive emotional effects in female students Susanne Suter1*, Harriet Huggenberger1, Steffen Richter2, Terry Blumenthal3 and Hartmut Schachinger2 1 University of Basel, NCCR SESAM, Swiss Etiological Study of Adjustment and Mental health, Switzerland 2 University of Trier, Clinical Physiology, FB I- Psychobiology, Germany 3 Wake Forest University, Department of Psychology, United States Cradling represents a unique type of mother-infant interaction. A left side cradling preference of infants and baby-like dolls has been demonstrated in human females, irrespective of handedness. To explain this behavioural bias right hemispheric specialisation of decoding visual, acoustic, and tactile emotional signals of left perceptual field origin was suggested. This implies that emotional child signals could have a greater impact on the caregiver’s affective state when originating in the left than right perceptual fields. This may represent a key reinforcing mechanism responsible for the left side cradling preference, but this has never been tested. In the present study, sixty-two nulliparous female students were holding an appetitive baby-like doll on the left and on the right arm while reflexive startle eye blinks to binaural acoustic noise probes, as well as heart rate variability (HRV), were assessed. During left side cradling startle eye blink magnitude (p < .05) was significantly attenuated. Low frequency HRV was decreased (p = .053) as was the very low frequency HRV (p < .05), high frequency HRV was significantly (p < .05) increased during left side cradling. Attenuation of startle occurs in positive affective contexts, and high frequency HRV is a reliable marker of vagal activity known to increase in appetitive, non-stressful contexts. Thus, our results indicate that appetitive infant signals have more positive effects on biology-based affective processes of the female caregiver when presented in her left perceptual fields. Conference: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting, Rhodes Island, Greece, 13 Sep - 18 Sep, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster presentations Citation: Suter S, Huggenberger H, Richter S, Blumenthal T and Schachinger H (2009). Left side cradling a baby-like doll induces positive emotional effects in female students. Conference Abstract: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.08.2009.09.315 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 15 Jun 2009; Published Online: 15 Jun 2009. * Correspondence: Susanne Suter, University of Basel, NCCR SESAM, Swiss Etiological Study of Adjustment and Mental health, Basel, Switzerland, susanne.suter@unibas.ch Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Susanne Suter Harriet Huggenberger Steffen Richter Terry Blumenthal Hartmut Schachinger Google Susanne Suter Harriet Huggenberger Steffen Richter Terry Blumenthal Hartmut Schachinger Google Scholar Susanne Suter Harriet Huggenberger Steffen Richter Terry Blumenthal Hartmut Schachinger PubMed Susanne Suter Harriet Huggenberger Steffen Richter Terry Blumenthal Hartmut Schachinger Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.