Hug the Monkey

Progesterone + Oxytocin Link in Female Bonding

A study by Stephanie Brown at the University of Michigan found that women who performed "closeness tasks" with a partner had elevated levels of progesterone in their saliva. Furthermore, a week later, the women with more progesterone in their spit were more willing to make sacrifices for the partner.

The study is "Social closeness increases salivary progesterone in humans."

According to the LA Times Blog, the study used progesterone in the saliva as a marker for oxytocin in the brain. Other human studies assume that increased levels of oxytocin in the blood correlates to increased levels in the brain; saliva tests for oxytocin are still being developed. Not having to draw blood makes these tests much easier for the researchers.

It's notable that the later coooperation task was playing a cooperative computer game, in light of some recent editorials saying people needed to get off Facebook and onto face-to-face.

According to the LA Times, in a press release, Brown said,

"Most of the hormones involved in bonding and helping behavior lead to reductions in stress and anxiety in both humans and other animals," the lead author of the paper, Stephanie Brown, said in a news release. "Now we see that higher levels of progesterone may be part of the underlying physiological basis for these effects."

Science Central has a good description of the experiment.

The bottom line: For women, hanging out with friends -- even if you're on the computer --  is really healthy, and makes you a better person. The same thing doubtless holds true for men.

PETA Calls for Oxytocin Ban

In India, oxytocin is commonly given to dairy cattle to increase their milk production. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have called for a ban on the practice.

Scientists there have found that when humans consume milk from treated cows, they also take in excess oxytocin, which leads to menstrual and other problems.

Does anyone know if the U.S. dairy industry also uses oxytocin?

Recovering from MDMA Burnout

People always ask, "How can I get more oxytocin? How can I strengthen my oxytocin response?" Today, I got an email from someone who said he had taken a lot of MDMA (Ecstasy) in the past. He was now clean and very healthy, but feeling "autistic."

He wondered whether it was safe to take oxytocin nasal sprays, and if there was anything he could do to generate oxytocin on his own. Here's what I answered:

As you probably know, MDMA releases oxytocin. This effect is likely the cause of much of the pleasurable feelings of MDMA. Scientific studies and anecdotes show that MDMA's effects seem to diminish over time. People seem to burn out on it.

This could be because, while this hasn't exactly been shown with oxytocin, scientists and doctors know that when you take an external hormone for extended periods of time, you internal production tends to slow and maybe even stop. It happens with testosterone and estrogen, for example. Many scientists who work with oxytocin in human studies think it's likely that taking oxytocin could diminish one's natural production.

It sounds like you have taken the first steps to getting very healthy and are ready to take the next steps.

It's very likely that you can boost your natural ability to release oxytocin into the brain, where it will create feelings of connection with others.

I think of the oxytocin response as a muscle. If a muscle is very weak, or has been injured, you need to start slowly and gradually build up its strength.

I think a problem that many of us have is connecting with another human -- engaging in a mutual oxytocin response -- is difficult, because human communication and relationships are so complex. It's often better to start with a smaller step. If you love animals, get a pet and care for it.

Another terrific thing to do, that many of us shy away from, is taking care of someone who is sick. I know it sounds absolutely terrifying, but volunteering at a hospice, or helping someone who is terminal, can be completely life-changing. Care-taking builds a different kind of oxytocin response, one that's separate from the infatuation/romance thing that for many of us is our main experience of bonding with another.

 Call it altruism or generosity, both aspects of oxytocin. In my own experience, learning to care for someone who was sick was the beginning of healing and the ability to love and connect more deeply.

Oxytocin Cools Marital Spats

Inhaling oxytocin helps couples fight fair, a new study shows.

When couples sniffed oxytocin and then engaged in a mock argument, those who'd inhaled the good stuff showed more positive communication and engaged in less negative behaviors. They also had lower levels of cortisol, indicating they didn't get as stressed out by the fight. The study was led by Beate Ditzen under the aegis of Markus Heinrichs, the University of Zurich scientist who did the original human oxytocin studies.

I reported on an earlier study by Bitzen that showed the same results: Oxytocin Keeps the Lid on Spats. Also, Adam Guastella in Australia, is studying the use of oxytocin inhalants as an aid to couples therapy.

The article is "Intranasal Oxytocin Increases Positive Communication and Reduces Cortisol Levels During Couple Conflict" by Beate Ditzen, Marcel Schaer, Barbara Gabriel, Guy Bodenmann, Ulrike Ehlert, and Markus Heinrichs. Authors Ditzen and Ehlert are affiliated with the Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Ditzen is also with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia. Schaer, Gabriel, and Bodenmann are from the Department of Psychology, Institute for Family Research and Counseling, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland. Heinrichs is affiliated with the Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. The article appears in Biological Psychiatry, Volume 65, Issue 9 (May 1, 2009), published by Elsevier.

Luckily, Elsevier's PR person gave this a better title: Love Potion #1?

More Evidence of Human Pheromones

Pink Kitty Nose
Originally uploaded by lissalou66.

Thanks to Matthew for sending me the link to this Wired blog post about research into the human response to inhaling sex hormones. George Preti of the Monell Chemical Senses Center, found that women were better able to detect human body odor when it was masked by scent or deodorant.

Researchers there are doing lots of interesting research into how human olfaction, aka smelling, influences behavior.  I've written about their study showing that lap dancers make more money when they're fertile. They've also shown differences in the way gay and straight people respond to inhaling androgens.

I think they are moving toward proving that humans respond to pheromones just like the rest of our butt-sniffing mammalian cousins, thanks to the vomeronasal organ, which is not so vestigial as they thought. I think this is important and valuable, because it reminds us that our animal bodies are as important as our analytical cerebral cortexes.

And, for the purposes of this oxytocin-centric blog, I think we also inhale molecules of oxytocin given out by others, which helps initiate trust.

Guys! Have Some Gratitude -- It's Good for You

Men are not only less apt to express gratitude than women, they're also less likely to feel it, according to a study of reactions to getting a gift by Todd Kashdan of George Mason University. According to Science Daily,

He found that women compared with men reported feeling less burden and obligation and greater levels of gratitude when presented with gifts. In addition, older men reported greater negative emotions when the gift giver was another man.

Kashdan, a psychologist, puts it down to differences in the way girls and boys are raised: Boys are taught to control their softer side.

True, but I can think of another explanation: We know love, trust and generosity are part of the expression of oxytocin in the brain and in the bloodstream.  Certainly gratitude fits in here. And males are less responsive to oxytocin than women, because testosterone mutes its effects.

So, the boys can't help it. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't try.

As director of the Laboratory for the Study of Social Anxiety, Character Strengths, and Related Phenomena at Mason, Kashdan studies happiness, and he's found that gratitude is one of the three most essential factors in a happy life.

I Heart Pepsi

I have a theory that advertising and brand messages can evoke the oxytocin response in us humans. This hasn't been validated by science yet, but it makes sense. Sociologists talk about parasocial relationships, that is, relationships with people we haven't actually met, such as celebrities or fictional characters.

Fans express their desire and love for characters in TV shows in the same way as they might talk about a real person, and they sometimes cry real tears over fictional events. So why would their love be less real -- or less oxytocin-producing?

I ran across this December 2008 article in Science Daily that provides another piece of evidence. Vanitha Swaminathan, Karen M. Stilley (University of Pittsburgh), and Rohini Ahluwalia (University of Minnesota) found that someone's attachment style influenced their reactions to brands.

The kind of bond we have with our mother -- the way our oxytocin response forms -- depends on how she treats us. We then tend to apply the mode of loving we learned from her to our future relationships. Psychologists group them into three or four "attachment styles."

From the article:

According to the authors, anxiously attached individuals are more influenced by "brand personalities," the idea that a brand possesses humanlike traits, such as sincerity or excitement. "Because of a low view of self, anxious individuals use brands to signal their ideal self-concept to future relationship partners and therefore focus more on the personality of the brand," the authors write.

What this says to me indirectly is that our attachment to a brand uses the same brain circuits and neurochemistry as our attachment to another human. So brand loyalty is a kind of love that's as real as any other.

Dog-Gazing Raises Your Oxytocin Levels

This is only the second study I know of assessing the relationship between oxytocin and having a pet. The Boston Globe reports that dog owners who gave commands to their pets while looking at them had higher levels of oxytocin in their urine. And, owners who were closer to their dogs had higher levels than those who were less attached.

Actually, the article gets it a bit wrong: and the difference is pretty interesting. In fact, the title of the article is, "Dog's Gaze at Owner Increases Urinary Oxytocin During Social Interaction." I like this, because it identifies the dog as an active and important participant in the interaction.  The researchers were Mino Nagasawa, Takefumi Kikusui, Tatsushi Onaka, and Mitsuaki Ohta.

Read the brief article, referencing the unpublished study from Japan, here: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/01/04/surprising_insights_from_the_social_sciences/?page=2

For info on the previous study, read My Dog Really Does Love Me.

Let Us Elevate Together

At this time of the year, most of us are celebrating something, whether a religious holiday, the winter solstice, or just a new calendar year to look forward to. In the States, the relentless holiday cheer can be overwhelming. But there can be real emotion behind it: an emotion becoming famous recently as elevation.

Elevation, according to University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt, is feelings of hope, inspiration and connectedness, but not with another person. Rather, with an idea, an ideal or a leader. An interesting experiment by Haidt shows that this emotion is also produced by oxytocin, probably acting via the vagus nerve. (The vagus is also involved in satisfaction from food and sex.)

Haidt brought lactating women and their babies to his lab and showed them a video of either a Seinfeld clip (the control) or an inspiring segment from The Oprah Winfrey Show. Half the mothers who watched Oprah either leaked breast milk or nursed their babies; none of the Seinfeld group did.

Elevation is discussed in a new book, Born to Be Good, by Dacher Keltner, which comes out in the next week or two. Keltner provides the vagus nerve connection.

From Emily Yoffe of Slate (by way of Mark Hemingway at the National Review):

Keltner believes certain people are "vagal superstars"—in the lab he has measured people who have high vagus nerve activity. "They respond to stress with calmness and resilience, they build networks, break up conflicts, they're more cooperative, they handle bereavement better." He says being around these people makes other people feel good. "I would guarantee Barack Obama is off the charts. Just bring him to my lab."

He says that oratory is a powerful way of inducing elevation, which is why a good speech can turn the audience into a unified group. Oxytocin and vagus nerve stimulation would seem to be behind the feelings we experience at political rallies, in church, at sports events and a variety of other group experiences.

It can be all too easy to snicker at other people's moments of elevation if we don't share their particular passion. Personally, I'm going to try during this season to find and honor elevation wherever I can.

"Season of Care" Is Good for Your Health

Another example of things we intuitively feel and science has finally proved. Taking care of someone else is good for your health, probably because caregiving releases oxytocin. This is something I put in my book without scientific backup.

The University of Michigan study by Stephanie Brown tracked the health and longevity of couples over 70  living together. (The article is by HealthDay News Service, reprinted on Forbes.com.)

... providing care for your spouse for more than 14 hours a week was associated with a significantly decreased risk of death compared to those who provided no spousal caregiving.

Brown said that she thinks the health benefit comes from reduced stress due to the release of oxytocin. They didn't test the couples' blood, so I guess this remains conjectural. I don't see why these health benefits wouldn't extend to someone taking care of an older relative, a horse, etc.