A mother’s love is like none other, and each child is loved unconditionally, but the special relationship a mother has with her daughter has no competitor.
Apart from the obvious tasks that are more fun to do with your little girl- like painting your nails together and going dress shopping- there is a connection that goes much deeper.
Research can now show you a glimpse into the beautiful synchrony you share with your daughter alone.
Any mother with a son and a daughter has experienced the difference in how they connect with them.
Each special and important in their own way, but different nonetheless.
After your daughter makes a poor choice, she wants to tell a backstory about what led her to such a perilous outcome equipped with every emotion.
When your son makes a poor choice and is confronted he wants to get the emotion out as quick as possible or not at all, whichever results in the conversation of the event being over the quickest.
Sound familiar?
It is exactly this emotional processing that allows our neurology to lock in with our daughters.
Scary Mommy reports:
“According to a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, the part of the brain that regulates emotion is more similar between mothers and daughters than any other intergenerational pairing (mother-son, father-daughter, father-son).”
The corticolimbic circuitry plays a role in mood regulation, the study reveals, and it is this part that “shows a matrilineal-specific transmission patterns.”
Not every child is the same, and the nurture side of development can definitely influence how deep this bond goes, but the science shows a truth mothers have felt with their daughters for generations.
It’s not just emotional processing for this unique human connection that the study found.
Corticolimbic circuitry also gave the researchers insight into the genetics that influence mental health.
Lead author Fumiko Hoeft, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, shared how the corticolimbic system is closely associated with depression.
The study has found “these matrilineal associations may be tightly linked to greater vulnerability for daughters but not sons in developing depression when their mothers have depression.”
The results of the study aren’t conclusive, but definitely show an area of research that could aid mothers and daughters in being preventative concerning their mental health.
If a mother with depression knew her daughter was more at risk for suffering from the condition then she could look out for warning signs, seek therapeutic intervention before it set it, and hopefully prevent a young lady from having to deal with the debilitating results of depression.
The researchers proudly boast that this study is the first to use intergenerational MRIs, carefully observing brain patterns to expose the links between a mother and daughter’s brain.
If you want to tighten that emotional bond you have with your daughter try a mother-daughter date, as Mommy Underground has previously reported.
It can be anything from a classic day at the salon to exploring new gardens together.
Let your emotional processing work for you in the relationship.
Try empathy when your daughter gets emotional- and she will at some point- knowing that she is operating with similar patterns you have only without the years of experience in processing them in a healthy way.
There is nothing in the world that can replace the bond you have with your daughter, make sure she knows that.