‘Love Hormone’ Oxytocin May Not Be Needed For Mating After All, Study Suggests

Topline

Oxytocin, a hormone previously thought to be necessary for forming social bonds like mating and giving birth, may not be as essential as researchers previously thought it to be, a study out Friday found.

Key Facts

The biology of pair bonding and parenting is not solely controlled by oxytocin, the neurotransmitter often referred to as the “love hormone,” researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, found.

The study, published in the journal Neuron, used prairie voles, one of the few mammals known to form lifelong monogamous relationships, to test the hypothesis.

Throughout a 15-year period, researchers compared prairie voles bred with and without oxytocin receptors and found that prairie voles who lacked the “love hormone” were still able to perform parenting and attachment behaviors.

It was previously believed oxytocin was needed to give birth and for lactation, but researchers found female prairie voles without oxytocin receptors were capable of giving birth in the same way as prairie voles with the “love hormone.”

The lactation results were less conclusive, with half of the prairie voles able to nurse without the oxytocin receptor, researchers said.

In previous studies that used prairie voles to better understand the role of oxytocin, researchers believed the behaviors they were seeing were biological, but this study suggests some of the attachment behaviors may be learned.

Key Background

In the 1990’s multiple studies published showed that an oxytocin receptor—a natural hormone responsible for influencing social behaviors and relationships— was critical for the display of social monogamy. A 1992 study from the New York Academy of Sciences, for example, found that infusions of oxytocin could speed up the formation of partner preference in prairie voles. That study expanded on earlier findings that connected the importance of oxytocin with sexual behavior, birth and lactation.

Tangent

It’s not just love: Oxytocin has been shown to help with overall sociability, too. Researchers said these findings move them closer to “an eminently druggable target” for alleviating symptoms in psychiatric disorders. These findings build on a 2017 study from researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine who found that understanding the role of oxytocin could help those who struggle with social connection and ultimately help researchers develop medications for people with neurological disorders, including depression and autism.

Further Reading

Dogs Also Cry Out of Happiness Because of Oxytocin Or The “Love Hormone” (Forbes)

Maybe Oxytocin Is A Human Pheromone. But Maybe There’s No Such Thing. In 15 Facts. (Forbes)