This is the part of the brain associated with the processes of motivation.
When we look at a baby, our brains recognise the features that make us relate to our own young, as outlined in baby schema, and this causes a surge of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
This chemical is also involved when we fall in love, and it is an enjoyable feeling.
Our brains commit that rewarding feeling to memory, letting us know to do it again, and the emotional response triggered by the cuteness also stimulates the motivation to care for the animal.
This reaction is so ingrained in our brains that it can be triggered by other things, such as a cute insect, or even inanimate objects with certain features that trigger our ‘cute’ response.
In the animal kingdom there are some animals that, once born, have to look after themselves almost immediately.
Most insects, reptiles and fish do this, for example, and generally these types of creatures are notoriously ‘not cute’.
Although they may have some redeeming features, the features the baby schema denotes as ‘classically adorable’ are largely missing from their profiles.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3244601/The-science-CUTE.html#ixzz4b2A4x07n
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Puppy
