OXYTOCIN
- SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
News:
A fish can sense
another's fear, a study shows
What's
in the news?
●
The new study shows that fish can detect fear in other fish, and
then become afraid too – and that this ability is regulated by oxytocin, the
same brain chemical that underlies the capacity for empathy in humans.
Key
takeaways:
●
The researchers demonstrated this by
deleting genes linked to producing and absorbing oxytocin in the brains of
zebrafish, a small tropical fish often used for research.
●
Those fish were then essentially
antisocial – they failed to detect or change their behaviour when other fish
were anxious.
Oxytocin:
●
It is a female hormone.
●
It has also been dubbed the love hormone, hug hormone, cuddle
chemical, moral molecule, and the bliss hormone due to its effects on behavior,
including its role in love and in female reproductive
biological functions in reproduction.
Produced from:
●
Oxytocin is a hormone that is made in the
brain, in the hypothalamus.
●
It is transported to, and secreted by, the
pituitary gland, which is located at
the base of the brain.
Features:
●
It acts both as a hormone and as a brain neurotransmitter.
●
The release of oxytocin by the pituitary
gland acts to regulate two female reproductive functions - Childbirth and
Breast-feeding.