The Science of Love

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/02/live-chat-the-science-of-love.html ... 3:06 Dr. Diane Witt: Love is a hypothetical construct with many interpretations and many dimensions. Social attachment is an essential component of love and understanding how an attachment forms and is maintained is the subject of much current research in the field of neurobiology. In fact, social neuroscience is now a newly established subdiscipline. Love and social attachments are usually involved in reproduction but it is also involved in a sense of safety and reduction in anxiety. Brain reward pathways are of particular interest. Thursday February 9, 2012 3:06 Dr. Diane Witt 3:06 Marc Bekoff: Current research on love in animals shows clearly that individuals of many diverse species form long and enduring social bonds and that they grieve the loss of loved ones very deeply. It's not that difficult to see this in many animals. And it's real love not "love". Thursday February 9, 2012 3:06 Marc Bekoff 3:09 [Comment From Dianalindsay@gmail.com Dianalindsay@gmail.com : ] What impact do the love chemicals have on the immune system and our innate power to heal? Thursday February 9, 2012 3:09 Dianalindsay@gmail.com 3:09 Dr. Diane Witt: The strengthening of reward pathways and reduction in stress levels have positive effects on the immune system. Thursday February 9, 2012 3:09 Dr. Diane Witt 3:11 [Comment From Diana McGuinness Diana McGuinness : ] Is the devastating pain of heartbreak a necessary effect of love (what goes up must come down) or is there an evolutionary basis for it? Do other mammals feel ( ie display symptoms of) heartbreak as acutely as humans do? Do polyamorous mammals display symptoms of heartbreak or jealousy? Thursday February 9, 2012 3:11 Diana McGuinness 3:12 Marc Bekoff: It's known that individuals of many different species display deep grief and heartbreak. Jane Goodall among others have seen animals, in her case chimpanzees, show radical changes in behavior after a loved one dies, the best example being Flint, a young chimpanzee who died soon after his mother Flo died. I've also seen first hand grief in wild elephants. There's also some compelling new research on chimpanzees that shows deep mourning, I've also seen this in birds. So, there can be no doubt that other animals grieve and show heartbreak. I've written about this in a number of essays on my blog in Psychology Today. Thursday February 9, 2012 3:12 Marc Bekoff 3:13 [Comment From Kim Kim : ] Are there differences between male and female brain activity for love? Can you differenciate between sexual love and emotional love? Thursday February 9, 2012 3:13 Kim 3:13 Dr. Diane Witt: Many of the neural substrates for love are laid down during the early developmental stages of life at the same time that gender differences are being established. So gender differences in stress responsivity plays a major role in subsequent responses to social bonding. Thursday February 9, 2012 3:13 Dr. Diane Witt 3:15 [Comment From Jason H Jason H : ] What examples of love and other emotions do we see in animals other than humans? Thursday February 9, 2012 3:15 Jason H 3:15 Marc Bekoff: Many nonhumans display love and other emotions. These include joy, happiness, grief, jealousy, envy, embarrassment, and disgust. A good place to look for the latest data on animal emotions would be my books The Emotional Lives of Animals and The Animal Manifesto and also on my Psychology Today blogs. We know know that mice, rats, and chickens display empathy and the list of "surprises" is growing rapidly and when I think of how many animals live in large social groups they aren't surprises at all. Thursday February 9, 2012 3:15 Marc Bekoff 3:17 [Comment From Novem Novem : ] Are humans a monogamous species? I've heard a friend describe humans as serial monogamists while others have argued that humans are polygamous. What does the science say? Thursday February 9, 2012 3:17 Novem 3:17 Dr. Diane Witt: It depends on how you define monogamy. Current research focuses on selective social affiliation and attachment, but this might not necessarily mean sexual monogamy. ... 3:24 [Comment From Niki Niki : ] Do you believe there is a biological basis for non-monogamy? Thursday February 9, 2012 3:24 Niki 3:24 Dr. Diane Witt: There is ample evidence in a number of species that differences in neurochemicals and their receptors in the brain differ in their distributions in key brain areas that drive mechanisms underlying a suite of behaviors for monogamy and nonmonogamy. Monogamous and nonmogomous species behaviors include those associated with reproduction, social attachment and parental behavior. Thursday February 9, 2012 3:24 Dr. Diane Witt 3:27 [Comment From Cygnata Cygnata : ] Are there strong correlations between pheremonal responses and those attributed to love? In other words, do animal relationships that seem to include a high amount of emotional attachment also seem to be more strongly influenced by pheromones? Thursday February 9, 2012 3:27 Cygnata 3:27 Marc Bekoff: Many nonhumans use pheromones in all sorts of social communication and odor is often the most salient sense in their social encounters including strong social attachments that we can call love. Unfortunately, our noses aren't as sensitive as theirs and we lose all sorts of important information because of this. There's a large literature especially in rodents about the role of odor in courtship and bond formation that's readily available on the web. Your question is an important one because if we're to study other animals we need to know about their sensory capacities and not assume they're just like us, for they're not. Thursday February 9, 2012 3:27 Marc Bekoff 3:29 [Comment From Christopher Beattie Christopher Beattie : ] What role do the hippocampus and amygdala play, if any, in love and affection in animals? Thursday February 9, 2012 3:29 Christopher Beattie 3:29 Dr. Diane Witt: Yes the hippocampus plays an important role in social recognition and the amygdala is part of the limbic system that plays a role in reward pathways ensuring reinforcement of bonds, selective aggressive and defense behavors in mate guarding, and associated parental behavior. So these areas are key for the initiation and maintenance for social bonding and the expression of associated behaviors. Thursday February 9, 2012 3:29 Dr. Diane Witt 3:32 [Comment From Kathi Kowalski Kathi Kowalski : ] Following up on the heartbreak question--The examples cited deal with grief when a loved one dies. On the flip side, are there examples in the animal kingdom of one partner breaking up with another, thus causing heartbreak int he other partner? Thursday February 9, 2012 3:32 Kathi Kowalski 3:32 Marc Bekoff: This is a very good question. Of course it's hard to know what the term "breaking up" means (even in humans!) but we do see on occasion musical partners within a group and moping and grief being displayed by the individual who's dissed. Often it's hard to know what the former of lover is experiencing because they leave their group. On the other hand, because the integrity of a group such as a pack of wolves or coyotes depends on the number of individuals who are there to defend food, territory, or youngsters we see a rapid recovery because all the individuals are needed for the survival of the group. So, yes, heartbreak is deeply felt for nonhumans as it is for (some) humans. Thursday February 9, 2012 3:32 Marc Bekoff ... 3:35 [Comment From Amanda Amanda : ] You spoke earlier of gender differences playing a part in social bonding. Do you mean social differences or biological ones? Thursday February 9, 2012 3:35 Amanda 3:35 Dr. Diane Witt: Both. Parental behaviors (social differences) that differ as a function of the sex of the offspring in addition to biological differences during development may impact reponsivity to social encounters and behaviors in adulthood. Thursday February 9, 2012 3:35 Dr. Diane Witt 3:39 [Comment From Karin K. Karin K. : ] Does there seem to be a difference between how captive animals vs. non-captive animals feel and express love? Thursday February 9, 2012 3:39 Karin K. 3:39 Marc Bekoff: There really isn't that much difference in how love is expressed except in captivity animals are often handled and moved around as if they're unfeeling objects and they display deep grief when close friends and loved ones are taken from them. This is one of the main problems with zoos because animals are moved around as if their objects for profit with little to no concern for how they feel about being separated from close friends. There are many examples about which I write in my books and on Psychology Today. Thursday February 9, 2012 3:39 Marc Bekoff 3:42 [Comment From Rhoda Rhoda : ] Do you think that mirror neurons play an important role in social bonding or pair bonding? Does that role differ between humans and other animals? Thursday February 9, 2012 3:42 Rhoda 3:42 Dr. Diane Witt: It is possible that mirror neurons may play a role in social bonding, but it is equally possible that classical conditioning (think Pavlov's dog salivating after a bell rings) of oxytocin or vasopressin release could be involved in social bonding. A perfect example is the classical release of oxytocin that women experience when they are lactating and they hear a baby cry which induces milk letdown. In addition, the fine tuning of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system are key for maintaining the social bond. Thursday February 9, 2012 3:42 Dr. Diane Witt 3:46 [Comment From Sherry Marts Sherry Marts : ] How well do current research methods distinguish between what is going on within an animal's brain and what is going on in the researcher's brain - by which I mean anthropomorphizing the animal's behavior or even their biochemistry? Thursday February 9, 2012 3:46 Sherry Marts 3:46 Marc Bekoff: This is a great question. I think that the charge of being "too anthropomorphic" is way overblown in that we HAVE to use human terms to describe, interpret, and explain what other animals are feeling. Charles Darwin put for the notion of of evolutionary continuity arguing that the differences among species are differences in degree, rather than kind. So, the bumper sticker for continuity is "If we have something, "they" (other animals) have it too. WE ARE NOT INSERTING SOMETHING HUMAN IN OTHER ANIMALS THAT THEY DON'T HAVE. And across mammals we know that we all share the same structures in the limbic system that are important in feeling emotions. I've written about anthropomorphism being self-serving double-talk and refer you to an essay I wrote for Psychology Today on this. One more thing - most people including researchers now don't seem to worry that much about being anthropomorphic because when done carefully we really do learn a lot about other animals and also are very good at predicting their behavior. Thursday February 9, 2012 3:46 Marc Bekoff 3:51 [Comment From Jason H Jason H : ] In terms of a scientific understanding of emotions, what kind of advances do you see possibly coming in the next 5 to 10 years? Thursday February 9, 2012 3:51 Jason H 3:51 Dr. Diane Witt: Advances that allow us to explore the genetic and epigenetic underpinnings of emotions and what it means in terms of individual variability in behavior would offer insight into how social organizations might have evolved and how individuals survive. For humans, refinement of imaging techniques would allow for temporal resolution in understanding the neuroanatomy, neurocircuitry (optogenetics) and behavior associated with emotional responses. Such integrative approaches will require input from multiple scientific and engineering disciplines. ... 3:58 [Comment From Marty Zahn Marty Zahn : ] Going back to the question/answer about pheromones, you said that we lose out on a lot of information because our sense of smell is relatively poor. Do we have to be consciously aware of an odor (read pheromone) for it to influence our behavior. Thursday February 9, 2012 3:58 Marty Zahn 3:58 Marc Bekoff: Good follow-up Marty .,. No, we don't have to be conscious aware of an odor to show a response. Indeed, some suggest that a good deal of our behavior is influenced by stimuli of which we're consciously unaware. The important message is that we need to pay close attention to those senses that are most salient to other animals and not assume they're like us. Consider, for example, ultrasound in bats and infrasound in cetaceans and elephants. Thursday February 9, 2012 3:58 Marc Bekoff 4:01 [Comment From Karin K. Karin K. : ] Dr. Witt, you mentioned the classical example of the release of oxytocin that women experience when they are lactating and they hear a baby cry which induces milk letdown. Is it also possible that humans who feel a very high level of compassion for suffering animals (incl. human animals) have a larger release level of oxytocin [or other neural chemical(s)] that precedes this higher level of compassion? Likewise, is it possible that people who generally feel (and thus also express) a lower level of compassion for suffering animals are lacking sufficient levels of such neural chemicals? Thursday February 9, 2012 4:01 Karin K. 4:01 Dr. Diane Witt: Most of the research to date on the field of social bonding has focused on the process of bonding and the associated release of neurochemicals, but less is known about the object of the attachment. We know most about sign stimulus value of the offspring during the mother/infant bond, but it is difficult to factor in the role that compassion might play when exploring the human/animal bond. Research in this area is needed. ... Additional reading: Oozing toward love Swordtail fish pee aphrodisiac Successful flies make love, not war Today's Guests Marc Bekoff Marc Bekoff is professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has published many essays and books, including The emotional live of animals. His homepage is marcbekoff.com and with Jane Goodall, http://www.ethologicalethics.org/. Diane M. Witt Dr. Diane M. Witt has served for the last nine years as the Neural Systems Cluster leader and a Program Director at the National Science Foundation. Previously, she conducted neuroscience research at the National Institutes of Health and Binghamton University in upstate New York. Dr. Witt earned her PhD at the University of Maryland at College Park and her BS and MS at the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign.