Oxytocin is the bonding hormone. There are many ways to release oxytocin - a massage, an orgasm, cuddling, breast feeding, and touch in general. It is the evolutionary glue that keeps us coming back for more (let's not discount dopamine, though). It facilitates our ability to be a (relatively) monogamous species and also pair-bonding between mother and offspring. But, are these it's only roles?
I was thinking the other day about Major Histocompatibility Complexes (MHC). MHC is a group of genes that determine our immune system's ability to recognize pathogens as such. MHC variation in homo sapiens sapiens' (our) gene pool varies widely. It is evolutionarily advantageous for us to mate with someone who has a MHC that is different than ours. That way, our offspring's immune system is ready to ward off a larger number of pathogens. Interestingly, the phenotype of our MHC is our body odor. The range of variability in our potential mates' MHC that would be advantageous to our offspring is hard-wired into our olfactory bulb. Thus, if you like the smell of someone (sans cologne, deodorant and anything else that masks the body's true odor), you can be fairly certain that your MHC's have a relatively wide margin of variation. But, really - how often do you get close enough to someone to know that they smell good? Surely oxytocin can facilitate this interaction.
But, then again, which came first - the chicken or the egg? This is just a hypothesis, and it does appear that facilitating monogamy and pair-bonding between mother and offspring is oxytocin's primary role. But if my hypothesis is true, it would certainly enhance oxytocin's fecundity over evolutionary time.
Discuss
john Kuti on January 27, 2008, 2:00 PM
The attraction of opposites was evolutionarily advantageous for all traits in monogamous creatures with slow developing offspring (birds and us). Monogamy is the extension of the mother/offspring bond that connected males to their mates and children. In humans it has to last at least until the child is mature, and we call it love. Cheating is the vestigial primate behavior where opposites didn’t matter in male or female dominant social structures.
Ryan Smith on May 15, 2008, 4:45 AM
Although humans are relatively monogamous, it is still the male’s most primitive objective to spread his seed as much as possible, and the females objective to make sure she finds a mate that is not just trying to do just that…thats way the the dating game starts out the way it does-males chasing down females until he finds one that can persuade him otherwise
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