Word: oxytocin
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...happens, scientists should in principle be able to help people like Washington for whom sex just isn't working. And indeed, over the past decade or two, scientists have identified many of the pieces of this complex puzzle. It clearly involves testosterone, along with other hormones, including estrogen and oxytocin, and brain chemicals such as dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine. And there are numerous other bodily chemicals that turn us on, ranging from the commonplace, nitric oxide, to the obscure, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide...
...prairie vole, form long pair bonds with their mates, as human beings do. Others, such as the montane vole, have only transitory liaisons, as do chimpanzees. The difference, according to Tom Insel and Larry Young at Emory University in Atlanta, lies in the promoter upstream of the oxytocin-and vasopressin-receptor genes. The insertion of an extra chunk of DNA text, usually about 460 letters long, into the promoter makes the animal more likely to bond with its mate. The extra text does not create love, but perhaps it creates the possibility of falling in love after the right experience...
...music's emotional impact, there is some indication that music can affect levels of various hormones, including cortisol (involved in arousal and stress), testosterone (aggression and arousal) and oxytocin (nurturing behavior) as well as trigger release of the natural opiates known as endorphins. Using PET scanners, Zatorre has shown that the parts of the brain involved in processing emotion seem to light up with activity when a subject hears music...
...Oxytocin is another chemical that has recently been implicated in love. Produced by the brain, it sensitizes nerves and stimulates muscle contraction. In women it helps uterine contractions during childbirth as well as production of breast milk, and seems to inspire mothers to nuzzle their infants. Scientists speculate that oxytocin might encourage similar cuddling between adult women and men. The versatile chemical may also enhance orgasms. In one study of men, oxytocin increased to three to five times its normal level during climax, and it may soar even higher in women...
Common sense suggests that the safest way to induce an abortion is to use the hormone oxytocin, which nature produces when it is time for a fetus to leave the womb. But nature does not always abide by man's logic. Oxytocin in large doses can induce an abortion, but not until the 20th week of pregnancy. And most unwanted pregnancies should be ended no later than the 16th week. Until now this has required surgical intervention-scraping out the contents of the womb, which involves some risk of bleeding and infectious complications even in a well-run hospital...