prairie voles are among the most doting
mammals on earth like some humans males
and female prairie voles formed lifelong
bonds share parenting duties and males
jealously guard females in contrast a
nearly identical cousin has adopted a
more swinging lifestyle when the
promiscuous cousins have sex there are
no strings attached and no cuddling
afterwards in fact if they get too close
they’re more apt to fight and to
playfully nibble
what’s driving these two distinct
approaches to mating and could the
answer help us understand human
relationships when young peered into the
vole brains he discovered that both
species were releasing the same love
cocktail as humans but there was one big
difference between the Volt species only
the monogamous voles had sufficient
brain hardware in the form of receptors
that could soak up the bonding chemicals
hormones like oxytocin and vasopressin
can only act by binding to a receptor
it’s sort of like a key in a lot well
when we looked in the brain of the
parade voles we found that these reward
areas were loaded with oxytocin and
vasopressin or sensors the promiscuous
voles
have fewer receptors and young suspects
that could explain their free loving
lifestyle
to investigate his theory young turn to
a virus his plan was simple he injected
a virus into the brain of a promiscuous
foal the virus sliced into the voles DNA
and inserted the instructions to create
more receptors brain scan images
revealed success but would the new
receptors change behavior to find out
young mated the virally altered vole
with a female and then separated the
couple next he tethered the mated female
in a box
at the other end of the box he tied down
a temptress and finally he introduced
the virus injected vole would the male
remember the days in the love nest or
would he be back on the prowl
in an evolutionary flip-flop the virally
altered vole returned to dote on his
mate a virus that altered just one gene
had dramatically changed their behavior
mammals on earth like some humans males
and female prairie voles formed lifelong
bonds share parenting duties and males
jealously guard females in contrast a
nearly identical cousin has adopted a
more swinging lifestyle when the
promiscuous cousins have sex there are
no strings attached and no cuddling
afterwards in fact if they get too close
they’re more apt to fight and to
playfully nibble
what’s driving these two distinct
approaches to mating and could the
answer help us understand human
relationships when young peered into the
vole brains he discovered that both
species were releasing the same love
cocktail as humans but there was one big
difference between the Volt species only
the monogamous voles had sufficient
brain hardware in the form of receptors
that could soak up the bonding chemicals
hormones like oxytocin and vasopressin
can only act by binding to a receptor
it’s sort of like a key in a lot well
when we looked in the brain of the
parade voles we found that these reward
areas were loaded with oxytocin and
vasopressin or sensors the promiscuous
voles
have fewer receptors and young suspects
that could explain their free loving
lifestyle
to investigate his theory young turn to
a virus his plan was simple he injected
a virus into the brain of a promiscuous
foal the virus sliced into the voles DNA
and inserted the instructions to create
more receptors brain scan images
revealed success but would the new
receptors change behavior to find out
young mated the virally altered vole
with a female and then separated the
couple next he tethered the mated female
in a box
at the other end of the box he tied down
a temptress and finally he introduced
the virus injected vole would the male
remember the days in the love nest or
would he be back on the prowl
in an evolutionary flip-flop the virally
altered vole returned to dote on his
mate a virus that altered just one gene
had dramatically changed their behavior
Please follow and like us: