Brit discovers Love potion

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Researcher finds female "love potion"

 

Release of oxytocin deepens bonding

 

Joseph Brean

 

National Post, with files from news services

 

A substance released in the brain during sex could be the chemical foundation of love

 

Professor Gareth Leng of the University of Edinburgh has told the British Association Science Festival in Glasgow that a "love potion" released in a woman's brain during sex helps her to form a chemical bond with her partner.

 

Mr.L's team of researchers injected prairie voles with oxytocin, a hormone produced by pituitary gland, which is likely also involved in helping a mother bond with her child at birth and during breast-feeding. In prairie voles, the effect is particularly strong.

 

"If you put a male and female prairie vole into a cage, but don't allow them to mate, they seem to form a kind of friendship. But if you inject oxytocin into the female's brain, she'll form this sexual bond"

 

In humans, oxytocin seems to work for women while vasopressin, a much less understood hormone, appears to play a similar role in male sexual attraction.

 

Dr.L said it isn't surprising the sensation of sex should leave a chemical record long after they've passed.

 

"This type of intense contact does change us" he said.

 

Oxytocin is " a critical element in the bonding process between man and woman," Dr. L said. It permanently alters the brain's hormonal reactions and makes women receptive to one mate rather than another, he said.

 

Dr. L suggested that in humans, the more sex a couple has, the more oxytocin will be released and the more the love will deepen, at least for the woman.

 

"It creates a bond" he said." Many animals also bond for life. It's not going surprise anybody to think something fundamental is happening in the brain"

 

He says it would be dangerous and impractical to inject the hormone to engender feelings of love, however. " So how does a brain fall in love? My answer, perhaps, like yours , would be : a time, aplace, a pair of eyes"