According to Time.com, nurturing and supporting your young children could enlarge their hippocampus, an area of the brain that’s involved in memory, learning and stress response.

Research has shown that in normal children, having a supportive mom is “directly related to healthy development of a key brain region known to impact cognitive functioning and emotion regulation,” as the authors put it.

The findings provide evidence that the same phenomenon seen in animals is also true in humans: previous research in rats has found that maternal nurture in early life — manifested as licking and grooming — is linked with a larger hippocampus, better memory and a greater ability to cope with stress. In contrast, maternal neglect harms the hippocampus and makes rats more prone to the rodent equivalent of depression.

“For years studies have underscored the importance of an early, nurturing environment for good, healthy outcomes for children,” said study author and professor of child psychiatry Joan Luby in a statement. “This study, to my knowledge, is the first that actually shows an anatomical change in the brain, which really provides validation for the very large body of early childhood development literature that had been highlighting the importance of early parenting and nurturing. Having a hippocampus that’s almost 10% larger just provides concrete evidence of nurturing’s powerful effect.”

The article says that children aren’t the only ones boasting bigger brains: moms are too. “In 2010, a study in Behavioral Neuroscience found that women’s brains may actually increase in size during new motherhood, particularly in mid-brain regions associated with pleasure and in the prefrontal cortex, which is linked to reasoning, judgment and planning — something all mothers do a lot of.”

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/01/nurturing-moms-may-boost-childrens-brain-growth/#ixzz1lG4RVW1q