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