Put Away Your Electronic Binky, Mommy, And Pay Attention To Your Baby
Annoyingly, some "parent" was loitering outside my gate the other day, talking on her cellphone -- long enough and loudly enough for me to be able to be well-briefed on her life while seated (behind closed doors and windows) at my desk.

The woman had a stroller she had been pushing, but her kid was loose -- fiddling with pieces of somebody's car (not the woman's).

The woman was too engaged in her call to stop her kid from grabbing at and pulling at the person's car.

And frankly, from what I saw over my fence -- after I looked over it because of the persistent yakkity from her loud call and the sounds her kid was making -- her kid could have toddled into the street.

And sure, we all get distracted, but it's possible that when mothers are turning away from their infants and toddlers to attend to their cellphones, it may affect the children's brain development:

New research from a UCI press release:

Put the cellphone away! Fragmented baby care can affect brain development: UCI study shows maternal infant-rearing link to adolescent depression

In short:

UCI's Dr. Tallie Z. Baram and colleagues discovered that erratic maternal care of infants can increase the likelihood of risky behaviors, drug seeking and depression in adolescence and adult life.

And the study was conducted on children with whiskers and tails -- as in, on rodents. However:

Its findings imply that when mothers are nurturing their infants, numerous everyday interruptions - even those as seemingly harmless as phone calls and text messages - can have a long-lasting impact.

Dr. Tallie Z. Baram and her colleagues at UCI's Conte Center on Brain Programming in Adolescent Vulnerabilities show that consistent rhythms and patterns of maternal care seem to be crucially important for the developing brain, which needs predictable and continuous stimuli to ensure the growth of robust neuron networks. Study results appear today in Translational Psychiatry.

The UCI researchers discovered that erratic maternal care of infants can increase the likelihood of risky behaviors, drug seeking and depression in adolescence and adult life. Because cellphones have become so ubiquitous and users have become so accustomed to frequently checking and utilizing them, the findings of this study are highly relevant to today's mothers and babies ... and tomorrow's adolescents and adults.

"It is known that vulnerability to emotional disorders, such as depression, derives from interactions between our genes and the environment, especially during sensitive developmental periods," said Baram, the Danette "Dee Dee" Shepard Chair in Neurological Studies.

"Our work builds on many studies showing that maternal care is important for future emotional health. Importantly, it shows that it is not how much maternal care that influences adolescent behavior but the avoidance of fragmented and unpredictable care that is crucial. We might wish to turn off the mobile phone when caring for baby and be predictable and consistent."

...The UCI team - which included Hal Stern, the Ted & Janice Smith Family Foundation Dean of Information & Computer Sciences - studied the emotional outcomes of adolescent rats reared in either calm or chaotic environments and used mathematical approaches to analyze the mothers' nurturing behaviors.

Despite the fact that quantity and typical qualities of maternal care were indistinguishable in the two environments, the patterns and rhythms of care differed drastically, which strongly influenced how the rodent pups developed. Specifically, in one environment, the mothers displayed "chopped up" and unpredictable behaviors.

During adolescence, their offspring exhibited little interest in sweet foods or peer play, two independent measures of the ability to experience pleasure. Known as anhedonia, the inability to feel happy is often a harbinger of later depression. In humans, it may also drive adolescents to seek pleasure from more extreme stimulation, such as risky driving, alcohol or drugs.

Why might disjointed maternal care generate this problem with the pleasure system? Baram said that the brain's dopamine-receptor pleasure circuits are not mature in newborns and infants and that these circuits are stimulated by predictable sequences of events, which seem to be critical for their maturation. If infants are not sufficiently exposed to such reliable patterns, their pleasure systems do not mature properly, provoking anhedonia.