To see if oxytocin was really the key ingredient to this bonding behavior, Insel and his colleagues took a closer look at the biochemical dimensions of the vole brain. They found that even in the absence of mating, when OT is injected into the brain of a female prairie vole, she forms a bond with the male to whom she is exposed. Similarly, an OT antagonist blocked the preferences induced by mating. To confirm the link between OT and bonding, Insel's team plans to actually measure cellular levels of OT in the brain during mating. |
http://www.emory.edu/WHSC/HSNEWS/PUB/EM/EMSum98/vole.html
I don't know if I wanna know how