Oxytocin In The Body

Addicted to Love, written by Steven Johnson is an article that discusses the effect of oxytocin on the brain. Throughout the article, Johnson examines effects of oxytocin, the study of oxytocin in rodents, and the relationship of addiction and oxytocin. Johnson discusses the general effects oxytocin can have on the human brain while explaining some general behaviours. He then discusses a study conducted on oxytocin in prairie and montane voles. Lastly Johnson dissects the phrase “addicted to love” and proves that this could actually be true.

The hypothalamus produces hormones that travel in blood vessels to the anterior pituitary, stimulating it to produce other hormones.

Throughout this video, I learned that oxytocin is a type of hormone that is released when someone gives a hug, therefore, oxytocin is nicknamed the, “cuddle,” hormone. But, oxytocin is also the hormone responsible for controlling, or influencing, social instincts, meaning, the hormone allows the individual to create stronger relationships with already close relationships. The beauty of oxytocin, is that the hormone allows the individual to, “crave,” physical contact with family and friends, while simultaneously enhancing an individual’s empathy levels, and, creates a willingness to be helpful and supportive. Oxytocin allows for individuals to feel more caring and compassionate towards others. However, oxytocin is a stress hormone, which occurs as a stress response. The stress response creates a need for support, because the body is demanding the individual to express how they feel to someone instead of holding it in. Oxytocin responds to the body and the brain, most importantly, the heart, which contains receptors specifically for oxytocin, because oxytocin helps the heart cells regenerate and heal. The physical benefits of oxytocin is further strengthened by social contact and support, whether it is family or friend. When an individual is reaching out for support while under stress or helping someone while influenced by a stress

The case is about the same with thyroid hormones. The hypothalamus is apart of the brain that produces thyroid-releasing hormones. This hormone pairs with what is known as our pituitary gland to begin the production of a thyroid-stimulating hormone. This pairing up acts on the thyroid in order to produce thyroid hormones, which travel through our bodies.

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter in the brain that has an immense effect over many functions of the brain. “Cells that make serotonin use tryptophan hydroxylase, a chemical reactor which, when combined with tryptophan, forms 5-hydroxytryptamine”. Serotonin can be discovered three key parts of the body. However, the main location of serotonin lies within the intestinal walls. It is also located within large blood vessels throughout the body and the central nervous system. The most commonly studied area of the body when it comes to serotonin, is how this neurotransmitter effects the central nervous system. The functions of serotonin are abundant and can include the regulation of many important attributes of the human body such as appetite, sleep, mood, behavior, endocrine regulation, and depression.

In the Bate, Duchainec, Burnsd, & Hodgsone (2012) article, it was hypothesized that repeated administration of oxytocin would enhance the process of recognition in memory The processes of acquisition and retrieval of memories is a critical function of the amygdala. During the process of recognizing threatening stimuli, amygdala activity is enhanced. The researchers of this study thought that oxytocin might be able to influence the process of recognition memory because oxytocin influences emotional regulation during encoding. The goal of this experiment was to examine how memory performance would be influenced by single oxytocin administration before encoding and repeated administration before encoding and retrieval.

Identifying the involvement of neuropeptides in prosocial behaviours by, identifying what prosocial behaviour involves. Understanding that these neuropeptides play a role in many types of responses, this essay will focus on bonding behaviours and identifying the importance of bonding between animals and humans. Followed by identifying the individual systems involved in vasopressin and what impact this has on bonding behaviours and the effect of oxytocin on bonding behaviours. Finishing with an overall conclusion, regarding the findings and possible adaptions to future research.

“Hormones are chemical messengers that are secreted directly into the blood from the Endocrine glands, which carries them to organs and tissues of the body to exert their functions. There are many types of hormones that act on different aspects of bodily functions and processes.” Oxytocin, sometimes referred to as the “love hormone”, has been associated with several types of social behavior. It acts as both a hormone and neurotransmitter in the brain, and it is thought to have co-evolved with vasopressin. In women, oxytocin is released in huge amounts during labor also known as facilitating birth and breastfeeding. However, this hormone has been secreted in various behaviors in both genders. The question I’m here to answer is specifically oxytocin's impact on behavior and I believe that there is a genuine correlation with

Recent research published on March 2nd in PNAS has found that oxytocin may play a key role in promoting neurotypical social behaviors.

Just as Mcgregor and Bowen (2012) demonstrated the effect of oxytocin on addictive behaviors, Ross and Young (2009) show how oxytocin effects and regulates affilitative behaviors. Up until about 50 years ago, the role of oxytocin was mostly focused on regulating female behavior and reproduction (parturition and lactation). More recent studies have shown a more generalized role for oxytocin in modulating affilitative behavior in both sexes. This was proven by examining the behavioral effects of oxytocin, which is formed by the plasticity in the neural expression of the oxytocin receptor. Oxytocin plays an important role in mother-infant attachment, and since mating results in vaginocervical stimulation, which releases oxytocin in the brain,

The endocrine and nervous system are two control systems of the human body that are interconnected with each other. The nervous system can be described as fast-acting with short-term effects, while the endocrine system is slower-acting with longer lasting effects. The hypothalamic-pituitary axis is one example of a connection between the two systems where neurons can signal the release of hormones from specific endocrine glands.

“Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness associated with substantial social and occupational dysfunction. While positive psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia often respond to anti- psychotic medications, negative symptoms and cognitive impairments are difficult to treat, necessitating novel interventions” (Davis et al., 2013). This article looks deeper at social cognition. Social cognition can be defined as the mental operations that underlie social interactions, including perceiving, interpreting, and generating responses to the

The endocrine system in the human body stores a chemical known as hormones. Hormones are released by endocrine glands into the bloodstream and travel throughout the body carrying messages. A hormonal impulse is similar to a nerve impulse only much slower. The messages carried by the hormones trigger different behaviors. Hormones can affect behavior in many ways such as: Mental activity or tiredness, boredom or excitement, sexual

The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder around the world varies but is quite high in both developed and developing countries. For instance, in the USA, 7.8 percent of people have PTSD (Kessler et al., 1995), while in Sri Lanka 40 percent of the population suffers from this disorder (Hollifield et al., 2008). In addition, the majority of people have high stress levels in their everyday life, which is not necessarily linked to a clinical condition. Stress could highly affect one’s mood and productivity; therefore, it is important to know how to cope with it effectively and what causes and prevents it. For example, hormones can often affect one’s stress levels. As such, previous research showed that

I really think that I would have to say that Oxytocin was one of the most interesting topics in chapter 2.