Scientists illuminate the neurons of social attraction
The ancient impulse to procreate is necessary for survival and must be hardwired into our brains. Now scientists from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine have discovered an important clue about the neurons involved in that wiring.
Using advanced deep brain imaging techniques and optogenetics, the UNC scientists found that a small cluster of sex-hormone-sensitive neurons in the mouse hypothalamus are specialized for inducing mice to “notice” the opposite sex and trigger attraction.
This study, led by Garret D. Stuber, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and cell biology & physiology, and Jenna A. McHenry, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate in Stuber’s lab, identified a hormone-sensitive circuit in the brain that controls social motivation in female mice.
“These neurons essentially take sensory and hormonal signals and translate them into motivated social behavior,” said Stuber, who is also a member of the UNC Neuroscience Center.
The findings, reported in Nature Neuroscience, illuminate the neural roots of opposite-sex social behavior in mammals, and may also be relevant to certain psychiatric illnesses.
Source:
http://news.unchealthcare.org/news/2017/january/scientists-illuminate-the-neurons-of-social-attraction
Journal article:
https://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v20/n3/full/nn.4487.html
Image:
These are neurotensin cells in the medial preoptic brain area, imaged by Jenna McHenry, PhD, through a 2-photon microscope attached to a live mouse.
#neuroscience #optogenetics #neuralcircuits #socialbehavior #neuroimaging
I do wonder when or if they would do it with humans. I expect there may be similarities in brain activity, although humans are more sophisticated constructs that other mammals, emotionally and intellectually driven, so it would be more difficult to assess the results. I'm sure there are different reactions that take place when the attraction is physical or psychological. Perhaps more energetic when both types of attraction exist.
ReplyDeleteSam Collett if i use my knowledge after all this years, i can say that is a perfect combination between physical and psychological attraction! I think is the perfect cocktail... :D
ReplyDeleteFor the gender issues Jay Gerlach, humans rule that with the law and/or the religion, despite that a large proportion of the heterosexuals don't agree with these legal arrangements and more, it depends mostly of the kind of society for each country, of the level of application of the Human Rights some would say.. This is truly that distinguishes the humanity from the natural world.
ReplyDeleteBut a question raises, Sam Collett if the sexual attraction is driven by specialized neurons, using the long-sought pheromones Kyle Macland, as proven many times by scientists (the perfect mating complies with the compatibility of the genomes), I'm asking myself if the females are more sensitive to that stimulation than the males, in other words, for the human kind, is it always the woman who chooses her partner? If no social pressure thwarts the 'natural' choice...
As I read the summary, pheromones are only implicit in "sensory signals" while "sex hormone" refers to the own hormones of the neurons owner... in the case of humans I'd expect non-chemical sensory signals to dominate.
ReplyDeleteThere are studies, showing that the selection of people, related to their genetic compatibility, concerns not only sexual relationships but also friendship. This applies to both same-sex and various-sex friendships. There is no certainty, that pheromones are the basis of this phenomenon – but there probably exist some more general mechanism of creating social bonds.
ReplyDeleteWhen someone is talking about "genetic compatibility", it is usually about compatibility of immune systems. The partners are selected so that the immune systems are neither completely identical nor completely different. They have to be a little like and a little other. It is possible that some role in these processes plays our microbiome…
Mariusz Rozpędek That's exactly what I summarized. The genetic compatibility means in fact the immune system compatibility when involved in relationship.
ReplyDeleteI arrive late in this conversation but strikes me the apparent shadow of a paradox with having immune system identity reduced to genetic identity, given the acquired immunity component.
ReplyDeleteBoris Borcic Good point. But G+ isn't the place to develop thoroughly the scientific subjects... When the comments excess 10 lines, most of us just 'take a quick look' on them.
ReplyDeleteBertrand Nelson The more flaky the channel and the audience, the more anything that may survive inattention counts as teaching (which, in my opinion, is the case of your inadvertent suggestion that our immune system is not to be understood as learning).
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of things to take into consideration when it comes to this subject. In my opinion the picture is much more complex and intricate. But this is an important piece of the puzzle. And yes Bertrand Nelson, I do read your long comments. If some of the references are clicking my neurobuttons I'll follow the subject even if I do not comment.
ReplyDeleteBoris Borcic Our resistance has both innate and acquired components. We know that the immune system has a lot of learning opportunities and has a kind of memory. Of course, the range of possible responses of this system is based on the genetic basis – that shapes it. Too much compatibility does not provide an adequate variety of adjectives. In turn, too much divergence, can limit the adaptive capacity of the immune system.
ReplyDeleteMariusz Rozpędek "Of course, the range of possible responses of this system is based on the genetic basis – that shapes it."
ReplyDeleteI think it wise to expect few if any aspect of a trained immune system to be with security inferable from the genetic identity of origin.
Corina Marinescu I never doubt that you take the time to read my comments or my posts :-) But I think that the format of the social medias implies some limitations to a proper conversation, too many shortcuts, too many personal considerations due to the anonymity limit the scope of the deepness of the chats. If you add to this that in my case I'm a French national, living among French speaking people, and that I have to deal with what we call in French 'les faux amis': ambiguities between French expressions similar to the English version but with a different meaning.... Famous simple examples: sensible and sensitive means sensé and sensible respectively in French and this is only a vocabulary example, to express precise concepts, the English doesn't overlap exactly the French way of seeing things..
ReplyDeleteThat's why I admit that for the immune system, I haven't took the time to differentiate the inherited and the acquired components Boris Borcic.
Anyway Corina your posts are always interesting and of a high value and they always tickle my neurons, while on your side they click on your inner keyboard :-)
Hello, I have browsed most of your posts. This post is probably where I got the most useful information for my research. Thanks for posting, maybe we can see more on this. Are you aware of any other websites on this subject.attraction psychology facts
ReplyDelete