Sidney Padmanaban ’26

Figure 1 Ducklings will often follow the first animal to imprint on them, even if it isn’t a duck.

Imprinting, when a young animal comes to recognize another being as an object of habitual trust, is instinctual and a very important part of relationships. As soon as babies are born, they begin to become imprinted by the people in their lives. Previously, research has shown that monkeys are able to form these attachments with inanimate surrogates, but interestingly enough, only if the surrogate is soft. In the recent research done by Margaret S. Livingstone from Harvard Medical School’s Department of Neurobiology, it was shown that mother monkeys will also only form strong attachments to inanimate objects if the objects are soft, suggesting that infant/mother and mother/infant bonds may be triggered by soft touch.

To test her hypothesis, Livingstone offered stuffed toys to five different female monkeys immediately after the birth of their infants. After the removal of their infants, they displayed significant signs of distress such as loud, constant vocalizations and agitated searches around the enclosure: this is when the stuffed toys were introduced. Three of the females carried around the toy for weeks, months, or sometimes until the toy fell apart. The ways in which the mothers behaved with the toy was indistinguishable from the behavior of mothers with their infants in that the mother continuously held the toy to their chests and exhibited aggressive behavior towards humans and other monkeys when approached. After two of the births, Livingstone left a similar-sized rigid toy along with a soft stuffed toy in the enclosure, and both times, the monkey chose the softer toy, mirroring the effect that soft surrogate mothers had on infant monkeys. This indicates that the softness of something has an effect on whether or not the maternal instinct in the mother or trust in the infant will be triggered. After returning a mother to an enclosure with her infant in it, the mother stayed with her toy instead of going towards her lively infant.

Imprinting is an innate and important process in the development of young infants and children. It acts as a bond of trust and love between parental figures and children, and helps infants develop an attachment style early on in life. By researching the triggers behind maternal instinct, we can develop a better understanding on how to maximize a strong bond between mothers and their infants, and in turn, create healthier attachments between them.

Works Cited:

[1] M. Livingstone, Triggers for mother love. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119, (2022). doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2212224119 

[2] Image retrieved from: https://pixabay.com/photos/black-ducks-ducklings-baby-ducks-3511814/