Social Morality In a Bottle
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Whiff of 'Love Hormone' Helps Monkeys Show a Little Kindness
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Baby monkeys. Oxytocin, the "love hormone" that builds mother-baby bonds and may help us feel more connected toward one another, can also make surly monkeys treat each other a little more kindly. (Credit: © David Cloud / Fotolia)
ScienceDaily (Jan. 5, 2012) — Oxytocin, the "love hormone" that builds mother-baby bonds and may help us feel more connected toward one another, can also make surly monkeys treat each other a little more kindly.
Administering the hormone nasally through a kid-sized nebulizer, like a gas mask, a Duke University research team has shown that it can make rhesus macaques pay more attention to each other and make choices that give another monkey a squirt of fruit juice, even when they don't get one themselves.
Two macaques were seated next to each other and trained to select symbols from a screen that represented giving a rewarding squirt of juice to one's self, giving juice to the neighbor, or not handing out any juice at all. In repeated trials, they were faced with a choice between just two of these options at a time: reward to self vs. no reward; reward to self vs. reward to other; and reward to other vs. no reward.
"The inhaled oxytocin enhanced 'prosocial' choices by the monkeys, perhaps by making them pay more attention to the other individual," said neuroscientist Michael Platt, who headed the study and is director of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. "If that's true, it's really cool, because it suggests that oxytocin breaks down normal social barriers."
Earlier work by Platt's group had shown that macaques would rather give a reward to another monkey when the alternative is no reward for anyone, a concept they call "vicarious reinforcement." Their data in the latest study show an apparent improvement in vicarious reinforcement about a half-hour after exposure to oxytocin. Interestingly, for the first half-hour, the monkey was more likely to reward itself.
The researchers also tracked the monkeys' eye movements. Typically after making a prosocial choice, they will shift their gaze to the other monkey. Under the influence of oxytocin, the gaze lingered a bit more when they made other vs. neither choices.
The hormone is currently being evaluated as a therapy for autism, schizophrenia and other disorders that are marked by an apparent lack of interest or caring about others, Platt said. It seems to give patients increased trust and better social skills, but not much is known about how that process works, or whether the effects would be consistent over the long term.
This study may help establish monkeys as a good behavioral and pharmacological model for understanding oxytocin therapy, Platt said.
The nebulizer mask used in these tests is also more pleasant than the sprays now being used on humans, he added. "We were able to make the inhalation very tolerable by using the pediatric nebulizer," Platt said. "This may be much better for treating young children with autism or related disorders than the typical nasal spray, which can be uncomfortable. It may deliver the hormone more effectively, too."
The researchers were also able to determine for the first time that nasally administered oxytocin actually travels into the brain. "Understanding how oxytocin works in the brain, where the site of action is, and the long-term consequences of treatment can't be done in humans," Platt said. "And rodent models are too distant behaviorally and neurologically to provide much insight."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120105145835.htm
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
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I wonder if oxytocin would help treat shyness.
Maybe, but it's a bitch trying to find study volunteers to come forward.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
(remove double post please)
Want to treat shyness? SMOKE POT. Your social dynamics will change just like THAT. *snaps fingers*
The government should legalize pot, and legal pharmaceuticals should be a lot easier to get -- maybe over-the-counter. I don't know how necessary a lot of what psychiatrists do is; a lot of people, if not most, might be able to regulate their own meds. Of course, precautions are necessary. There are a lot of dangerous drugs with potentially dangerous side effects, but the middle man could eventually be taken out.
I read that pot could cause schizophrenia and exacerbate symptoms in people who already have it. I should look for the research and cite it. Atheistextremist's article said that oxytocin might treat schizophrenia, so maybe it could be used to get rid of paranoia caused by pot. They could even be sold in the same aisle at the drug store.
Why didn't it make Rush Limbaugh a socialist? Too far gone perhaps.
Religion Kills !!!
Numbers 31:17-18 - Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
http://jesus-needs-money.blogspot.com/
Oxycontin - What rush took
Oxytocin - "love" hormone
That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence- Christopher Hitchins
Pot can make you a little paranoid, but not tweaking or causing any form of psychotic behavior. That shit is a giant industry myth perpetrated by lobbyists strictly against the miracle drug.
The tiniest amount makes me extremely paranoid, causing me to shiver and curl into a ball. Plus, I get auditory hallucinations, sensations of heart palpatations or heart attack, and nausea. I don't enjoy it and don't recommend it.
It is scientifically safer than alchohol, however.