Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. Here in our wide world of problems, you
Speaker 1: can bet that someone out there is willing to sell
Speaker 1: you a solution. For example, if you want to go
Speaker 1: on more dates, there are supplement brands that will sell
Speaker 1: you nasal sprays containing oxytocin and naturally occurring hormone produced
Speaker 1: in the human brain. Since these sprays aren't approved by
Speaker 1: the US Food and Drug Administration, they can't be sold
Speaker 1: as a cure or treatment for anything, in particular in
Speaker 1: our bodies. The hormone is chiefly responsible for triggering contractions
Speaker 1: in pregnant women and letting down milk during lactation, and
Speaker 1: is sometimes prescribed for those purposes. But if you've followed
Speaker 1: pop health headlines over the last decade, you know that
Speaker 1: oxytocin has also been shown to enhance feelings of social
Speaker 1: bonding and improve sociability in people with autism. Oxytocin levels
Speaker 1: have also been shown to spike during orgasm and positive
Speaker 1: touch experiences, and people dosed with extra oxytocin have been
Speaker 1: shown to have warmer, fuzzier feelings towards their spouses and partners.
Speaker 1: New lovers have been found to have higher natural oxytocin
Speaker 1: levels than their single peers, all of which has earned
Speaker 1: oxytocin the catchy nickname the love hormone. But while decades
Speaker 1: of research have proven that oxytocin clearly has a role
Speaker 1: in bonding us to our social and sexual partners, it's
Speaker 1: not a magic bullet or magic nasal sprits to achieve
Speaker 1: romantic bliss. Experts warn that there is still plenty to
Speaker 1: learn about this popular neuropeptide, and the oxytocin is likely
Speaker 1: not the only ingredient in the complex biochemical soup that
Speaker 1: we call love. For the article this episode is based
Speaker 1: on How Stuff Works, spoke with doctor Bradley Anawalt, who's
Speaker 1: the chief of Medicine at the University of Washington Medical
Speaker 1: Center and board certified and endocrinology, so he's a hormone specialist.
Speaker 1: He's had a front row seat as scientists have uncovered
Speaker 1: oxytocin's curious effects on brain chemistry and human behavior. He
Speaker 1: spoke about studies showing that doses of intranasal oxytocin light
Speaker 1: up the same reward centers in the brain as do
Speaker 1: sexual arousal chocolate cake and drugs like cocaine, and that
Speaker 1: people treated with oxytocin are more attracted to images of
Speaker 1: faces that resemble their spouse, and that men in relationships
Speaker 1: will stand farther back from an attractive stranger while under
Speaker 1: the influence of extra oxytocin. But Anawalt says it's important
Speaker 1: to distinguish that in most of these studies, the administration
Speaker 1: of oxytocin nasal spray doesn't make the recipient fall in
Speaker 1: love with anyone. It's more accurate to say that the
Speaker 1: extra dose of the hormone enhances our emotional reaction to
Speaker 1: people with whom we are already romantically or socially bonded.
Speaker 1: A Walt pointed specifically to the study in which men
Speaker 1: in committed relationships who were treated with oxytocin preferred to
Speaker 1: stand farther away from an attractive research assistant compared to
Speaker 1: those treated with placebo. The study authors concluded that oxytocin
Speaker 1: might play a role in promoting monogamy in men. For animal,
Speaker 1: the question is whether the oxytocin influences monogamy by enhancing
Speaker 1: sexual attraction or by reinforcing social expectations. Annawalt said If
Speaker 1: I'm bonded to a female partner, that means I love
Speaker 1: the person or I'm strongly attracted to her and my
Speaker 1: feelings for that person are accentuated by the oxytocin, and
Speaker 1: therefore I respond differently to her than to other women.
Speaker 1: That's one plausible explanation. Another explanation is that oxytocin is
Speaker 1: simply reinforcing a social relationship I have with somebody. I'm
Speaker 1: supposed to be with my female partner, and I'm not
Speaker 1: supposed to be with this other woman. Oxytocin is a
Speaker 1: neurotransmitter and hornyrmone that's produced by the hypothalamus in the brain.
Speaker 1: It's released during sex, breastfeeding, and childbirth, all activities that
Speaker 1: have to do with bonding. It could be nature's way
Speaker 1: of promoting familial support by reinforcing positive feelings with people
Speaker 1: were already physically close to. Researchers have tested natural oxytosin
Speaker 1: levels and the blood of both men and women before, during,
Speaker 1: and after sexual activities, and oxtosin levels go up as
Speaker 1: arousal increases during female orgasm. Oxytocin likely plays a similar
Speaker 1: role to what it does in childbirth. A flood of
Speaker 1: the hormone into the bloodstream triggers smooth muscle contractions in
Speaker 1: the uterus and pelvic muscles. A body massage has also
Speaker 1: been shown to increase natural oxotosin levels in the bloodstream,
Speaker 1: another sign that physical pleasure is mediated by oxytocin in
Speaker 1: some way. But Anawalt was quick to point out that
Speaker 1: it's not all about sex. He said, the flip side
Speaker 1: of this is that reading a good book also increases oxtose.
Speaker 1: It may be that a relaxed state, or a general
Speaker 1: state of pleasure, is associated with high oxytocin levels. There
Speaker 1: are a number of interesting findings indicating that oxytocin alone
Speaker 1: isn't enough to produce happily bonded relationships. The effect that
Speaker 1: oxytocin has depends on the overall quality of our existing relationships.
Speaker 1: A twenty ten study, for example, administered oxytocin or placebo
Speaker 1: to a group of men and asked each of them
Speaker 1: to describe their mother's parenting style. You might expect that
Speaker 1: men who received oxytocin would have warmer recollections about their moms,
Speaker 1: but that was only true with men who also described
Speaker 1: their current relationships as healthy and happy. Men who were
Speaker 1: more anxiously attached in their current relationships described their mothers
Speaker 1: as less caring on oxytocin than just placebo. Another study
Speaker 1: showed that doses of oxytocin increase in group favoritism and
Speaker 1: the exclusion of others. The researchers concluded that the close
Speaker 1: social bonds enhanced by oxytocin come at a cost to outsiders,
Speaker 1: who are viewed as even less trustworthy. Follow Up studies
Speaker 1: found similar associations between oxytocin and negative emotions like envy, distrust, favoritism,
Speaker 1: and schadenfreud. This reinforces the idea that oxytocin appears to
Speaker 1: function as an emotional enhancer and not, as one of
Speaker 1: the study authors put it, an all purpose attachment panacea.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article does Oxytocin Make
Speaker 1: Us Fall in Love? On HowStuffWorks dot Com written by
Speaker 1: Dave rus. Brainstuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Speaker 1: how stuffworks dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler Klang.
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