Love and Oxytocin

Love and Oxytocin

Love is all around us. However, not all the love we see is romantic love. Psychologists and other researchers alike try to elucidate romantic love. Why does it happen? Which are the neural correlates or neuronal substrates of romantic love? Neurohormones oxytocin and vasopressin have been implicated in the formation of long-term monogamous bonds. For example, see prairie and mountain voles.

Further, empathy is an important part of human relationships. Empathy is defined as the ability to feel or experience another’s internal states emphatically. In other words, it goes back to understanding the other person. Understanding, trust, communication and empathy all represent key ingredients in the formation of long-term relationships. However, how we react to others, and particularly how we interact with new lovers may be predicted by our genes.

Love is around us... Photo by Elena

For example, a genetic study showed the neurobiology of at least one emotional parameter: empathy. Thus, Schneiderman et al. (2013) argue that romantic relationships may be mediated by an oxytocin related gene. Furthermore, while conferring both advantages and disadvantages to psychological, and at times even physical health, it is difficult to overlook the importance romantic attachment plays in people’s lives. Most songs and movies have at least some component centering on love. Still, the researchers isolated a gene which may be responsible for quality of early stage relationships by mediating oxytocin.

Communication and trust have been countlessly cited as predictors of marital and relational satisfaction. Notwithstanding, communication is a diverse and complex subject altogether. To illustrate, much of communication is non-verbal. Facial expressions, tone of voice, body language and even the way we dress all convey a message. To make a long story short, in communication, a sender encodes and sends a message, which is then received and decoded by the receiver. Clearly, communication break-downs occur in many situations. Also, happy couples differ greatly in their communication patterns from unhappy ones. Needless to say, couples can always seek couple counselling to improve their communication styles.