What exactly draws our attention to infants?

Washington DC: Big eyes, chubby cheeks, button nose, soft skin, infectious laugh and a captivating smell! While our hearts have already melted with the description, it is almost impossible to point out what exactly draws our attention to these cute cotton balls.

However, we have an answer now!

According to a research led by Oxford University, the cuteness of a baby is designed to appeal to all our senses.

They explain that all these characteristics contribute to 'cuteness' and trigger our care giving behaviours, which is vital because infants need our constant attention to survive and thrive.

Morten Kringelbach, who led the work at the University of Oxford together with Eloise Stark, Catherine Alexander, Professor Marc Bornstein and Professor Alan Stein, said: "Infants attract us through all our senses, which helps make cuteness one of the most basic and powerful forces shaping our behaviour."

Reviewing the emerging literature on how cute infants and animals affect the brain, the Oxford University team found cuteness supports key parental capacities by igniting fast privileged neural activity followed by slower processing in large brain networks, which also involved in play, empathy, and perhaps even higher-order moral emotions.

The data shows that definitions of cuteness should not be limited just to visual features, but also include positive infant sounds and smells. From an evolutionary standpoint, cuteness is a very potent protective mechanism that ensures survival for otherwise completely dependent infants.

Kringelbach said ,"This might be a fundamental response present in everyone, regardless of parental status or gender, and we are currently conducting the first long-term study of what happens to brain responses when we become parents."

The study shows cuteness affects both men and women, even those without children.

The research has been published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences.