Could a pill save your marriage?
Jan 11, 2009
COULD a pill or a squirt up your nose save your marriage? Maybe, according to a researcher who is studying the chemical basis of the most elusive of emotions — love.
COULD a pill or a squirt up your nose save your marriage? Maybe, according to a researcher who is studying the chemical basis of the most elusive of emotions — love.
Larry Young, of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, wrote in the journal ‘Nature’ that “Biologists may soon be able to reduce certain mental states associated with love to a biochemical chain of events,â€
He says his ultimate quest is not a high-tech love potion, but to shed light on serious conditions like autism, which affects the ability to form social attachments, by studying brain chemicals involved in emotional attachment.
His study of prairie voles has shown that a quick dose of the right hormone can drastically alter relationships.
The rodents are a good model for human relationships.Young says unlike other animals, they form lifelong pairs and raise their young together.
“It is a chemical reaction. At least in voles we know that if you take a female and place her with a male and infuse her brain with oxytocin, she will quickly bond with that male,†he says.
Taking away her natural levels of oxytocin — a hormone involved in labour, nursing and social bonding — means she will reject a male as a mate no matter how many times they physically copulate.
“Experiments have shown that a nasal squirt of oxytocin enhances trust and tunes people into others' emotions,†Young wrote in the Nature article.
Peter Klaver of the University of Zurich and colleagues said men given oxytocin — a hormone involved in nursing and childbirth — more accurately recalled images of familiar faces, but the hormone did not help them recognise inanimate objects.
Their findings suggest the hormone somehow strengthens the brain's neural networks involved in social memory and may have implications for conditions such as autism.
Only recently the hormone was found to have a function in men — in sexual arousal and function.
Improved dating chances
“Internet entrepreneurs are already marketing products such as Enhanced Liquid Trust, a cologne-like mixture of oxytocin and pheromones designed to boost the dating and relationship area of your life,†he wrote.
Young sees a potential role in fixing damaged marriages. “If we could use a drug in combination with marital therapy, that may be desirable,†he said.
Young is also convinced that love does not boil down to one single hormone. Other studies have shown that differences in a gene called major histocompatibility complex, which affects the immune system, may be involved in initial sexual attraction.
For males, the hormone vasopressin appears to be more important.
“Any mammal, when the mother has babies, they are bonded to those babies and would do anything to protect the babies.
That is an ancient brain chemical that is ubiquitous, and stimulates the bond,’he says.
Humans — and perhaps prairie voles — have evolved to use that mechanism to stimulate pair bonds, Young says.
“Either way, recent advances in the biology of pair bonding means it will not be long before an unscrupulous suitor could slip a pharmaceutical ‘love potion’ in our drink.
And if they did, would we care? After all, love is insanity,†he wrote.
Reuters
Larry Young, of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, wrote in the journal ‘Nature’ that “Biologists may soon be able to reduce certain mental states associated with love to a biochemical chain of events,â€
He says his ultimate quest is not a high-tech love potion, but to shed light on serious conditions like autism, which affects the ability to form social attachments, by studying brain chemicals involved in emotional attachment.
His study of prairie voles has shown that a quick dose of the right hormone can drastically alter relationships.
The rodents are a good model for human relationships.Young says unlike other animals, they form lifelong pairs and raise their young together.
“It is a chemical reaction. At least in voles we know that if you take a female and place her with a male and infuse her brain with oxytocin, she will quickly bond with that male,†he says.
Taking away her natural levels of oxytocin — a hormone involved in labour, nursing and social bonding — means she will reject a male as a mate no matter how many times they physically copulate.
“Experiments have shown that a nasal squirt of oxytocin enhances trust and tunes people into others' emotions,†Young wrote in the Nature article.
Peter Klaver of the University of Zurich and colleagues said men given oxytocin — a hormone involved in nursing and childbirth — more accurately recalled images of familiar faces, but the hormone did not help them recognise inanimate objects.
Their findings suggest the hormone somehow strengthens the brain's neural networks involved in social memory and may have implications for conditions such as autism.
Only recently the hormone was found to have a function in men — in sexual arousal and function.
Improved dating chances
“Internet entrepreneurs are already marketing products such as Enhanced Liquid Trust, a cologne-like mixture of oxytocin and pheromones designed to boost the dating and relationship area of your life,†he wrote.
Young sees a potential role in fixing damaged marriages. “If we could use a drug in combination with marital therapy, that may be desirable,†he said.
Young is also convinced that love does not boil down to one single hormone. Other studies have shown that differences in a gene called major histocompatibility complex, which affects the immune system, may be involved in initial sexual attraction.
For males, the hormone vasopressin appears to be more important.
“Any mammal, when the mother has babies, they are bonded to those babies and would do anything to protect the babies.
That is an ancient brain chemical that is ubiquitous, and stimulates the bond,’he says.
Humans — and perhaps prairie voles — have evolved to use that mechanism to stimulate pair bonds, Young says.
“Either way, recent advances in the biology of pair bonding means it will not be long before an unscrupulous suitor could slip a pharmaceutical ‘love potion’ in our drink.
And if they did, would we care? After all, love is insanity,†he wrote.
Reuters