Oxytocin (OT) is a hormone that plays an important role in social behavior—it has even been nicknamed “the love hormone” and “liquid trust.” Increased levels of OT have been associated with greater caring, generosity, and trust. But does OT increase people’s trust in just anybody or does it act more selectively? [continue reading…]
August 2010
Before surgery, Gloria Lucio, 57, who has Alzheimer’s, gets a hug and kiss from her son, Valentin, 18, as her husband, Don Jones, looks on. She is part of a clinical trial at UCLA Medical Center in which holes were drilled in her skull and either an experimental drug or placebo was injected into her brain. Link to view photos
Source: LA Times
People are increasingly overlapping their media habits – tapping out e-mails while watching TV, reading a paper while answering texts from friends. But, asks Hugh Wilson for the BBC Magazine, does media multi-tasking mean instead of doing a few things well, we are just doing more things badly? link to read more
Source: BBC Magazine
Image: Flickr
The hormone oxytocin has come under intensive study in light of emerging evidence that its release contributes to the social bonding that occurs between lovers, friends, and colleagues. Oxytocin also plays an important role in birth and maternal behavior, but until now, research had never addressed the involvement of oxytocin in the transition to fatherhood.
A fascinating new paper by Gordon and colleagues reports the first longitudinal data on oxytocin levels during the initiation of parenting in humans. They evaluated 160 first-time parents (80 couples) twice after the birth of their first child, at 6 weeks and 6 months, by measuring each parents’ oxytocin levels and monitoring and coding their parenting behavior. [continue reading…]
