Lecture: 12/13 Love and Attraction

Explain what deprivation of the mother-child relationship does to the development of attachment disorders later in relationships?

Different groups of Romanian children adopted at different ages had differing severity of symptoms.
Background - Romania had instituted strict policies encouraging the birth of more children than what was able to be looked after, ultimately resulting in a high amount of these children being sent to state-care.

Explain how normal variations of material care can have impacts on development?

Liu et al examined individual differences in rat maternal care, such as high vs. low levels of licking and grooming and high vs. low levels of arched back nursing. They gound that those how had high levels of maternal attended had less Corticosterone receptors in the hippocampus.

Explain gene x environmental interactions in the context of attraction?

Kaufman et al. used a database of children who were removed from parents into state care because of allegations of abuse or neglect as well as a community control to assess for both depression and their Serotonin Transport genotype. They found that those with two short alleles were more likely to show severer signs of depression.

Explain what Vasotocin is and its relation to turtle nesting behaviour?

Vasotocin is a hormone found in reptiles that spikes in mother turtles as they lay their eggs and drops shortly after.

What is the relation between Vasotocin and Oxytocin and Vasopressin?

Vasotocin has evolved into two hormones in mammals

Oxytocin and Vasopressin. These two hormones are important in mammalian reproductive and attachment behaviours.

Explain the role of oxytocin in the female rat brain using the pup retrieval test?

In a female mother rat, when a pup is isolated, the mother will retrieve and place back in the nest, this behaviour will not occur for virgin female rats. Blocking and increasing oxytocin in the female brain respectively will prevent or increase maternal behaviour in virgin rats. This findings has also been duplicated in when using optical stimulation → wherein light is used to stimulate oxytocin in female rodent behaviour.

What is a specific mechanism by which the Oxytocin would changes brain behaviour?

In rat litters, pups emit distress calls at a specific sound frequency. Oxytocin neurotransmitters have axons that spread to the auditory cortex. Findings that virgin rats don't even hear the litter, compared to mother rats and how stimulating the virgin rats' auditory cortex , suggests that Oxytocin may tune the brain sensory systems to respond to offspring and shape maternal behaviour.

Explain the role of vasopressin in male vole brains

Vole are some of the only rodents to show paternal behaviour, depending on chemical injections of vasopressin or an antagonist in the male prairie vole brain, paternal behaviour either increases or decreases.

Explain the male brain mechanisms inside marmoset brains?

there is significant findings suggesting that fatherhood increase Vasopressin receptor expression in the male marmoset brain.

Explain imprinting as an early view of attachment behaviour?

under the idea that any behaviour elicited is innate, fixed, complex and automatic. Attachment of an infant to its mother can be explained by these processes, infants automatically attach to their mother.
Most of the research on this came from Lorenz’s research in baby ducklings and their mothers.

Explain early conditioning theories (J.B Watson) of attachment behaviour?

Argues that attachment is not annate, instead it is acquired through experience, specifically through conditioning, for example during early human infancy, a mother is a conditioned stimulus, breast milk is an unconditioned stimulus and emotional attachment is conditioned response.
Argues also that parents should limit display of affect in case this encourages excessive attachment in the infant.

Explain attachment theory?

Based on Harlow’s monkey experiments, (aka the cloth monkey vs. non-cloth monkey thing) attachment theory postulates that there are 3 x types of parental sensitivity

secure, avoidant and resistant/ambivalent. And these eventually leads to three types of attachment styles in adults

Secure Adults – who find it easy to get close to other and do not worry about being abandoned
Avoidant Adults - who are uncomfortable being close to others, and for whom it is difficult to allow themselves to depend on others
Anxious/ambivalent adults - who constantly worry if their partners likes them or won’t want to be with them, wish to merge completely with the other person.

What are the differences between Prairie Voles and Montane Voles?

Prairie voles form lifelong monogamous bonds vs. montant voles are polygamous.
An inspection of these rodents' behaviour can demonstrate how brain mechanisms are different according to the differing amounts of attachment the rodents have for each other.

What is the Partner preference test?

3 x voles are placed in 3 x chambers of a box. In the middle chamber a vole is placed, and behaviour is tracked on whether the vole goes towards the chamber with it’s partner vole, or to a stranger.
Comparisons between Montane voles and prairie voles find that, montane voles are much more likely to stay in their own chamber, compared to that of the Prairie vole who preferred to stay with its partner.

What did the blocking of oxytocin in females brains do during contact time in the partner preference test?

They were more likely to spend less time with their monogamous partner and go to the stranger chamber.
Generally, the conclusion is that the blocking of oxytocin in the female brain prevents the formation of monogamous bonds.

What did research in male prairie voles vs. meadow voles on the role of vasopressin find?

Typically, male prairie voles express a large amount of vasopressin as compared to other types of vole, ( due to a larger number of this type of receptor) research has found that if you were increase the number of vasopressin receptors in the brain you increase pair-bond formation in a meadow vole.

Explain the idea of mouse first-aid?

The observation that mice will perform ‘first aid’ procedures on cage-mates after operations and if the mouse lies inert, and will not perform the same procedures if the mouse is unknown to them. Research found that this holds across sexs and that therefore, familiarity between partners is more important than biological sex.

How did the alteration of oxytocin being increased change mouse first aid beahviour?

It increased it and inhibited it if oxytocin was reduced as well.

What is the difference between Oxytocin and Vasopressin?

• :  Oxytocin: mother-infant attachment and monogamous relationships 

• Vasopressin: father-infant attachment and monogamous relationships ; 

Explain the idea of an opponent process account of attachment?

A process is reward produced by contact with loved one, whereas opponent B process is separation distress • Across time the B process increases and although romantic interactions arouse the A process, the B process has grown significantly. So, interactions fail to produce an A-state (reward). They simply alleviate the B-process (separation distress)

Draw comparisons between the A and B process between attachment and addiction?

In theory, the B process causes significant distress due to reducing the intake/use of attachment → similarities between depression, insomnia and irritability after a breakup vs. after withdrawal.
In the A-process, imaging studies find that similar parts of the brain lights up as when taking drugs vs. viewing a picture of a loved one.

What are the unifying principles of attachment?

• There are shared behavioural and brain mechanisms for different kinds of attachment and love (e.g., filial attachment, romantic attachment). •

• These mechanisms are slightly different for males and females within a species (e.g., oxytocin for females and

• Although there are some important differences, the behavioural and brain mechanisms for attachment are also shared across mammalian species, including humans, indicating that they have been evolutionary history. conserved across

• The brain mechanisms for attachment and love overlap with those underlying other motivated behaviour

What is optogenetics?

Aims to control neural activity by turning neurons on/off via light, ion-conducting microbial opsin and virtual mediated gene transfer, animals need to be implanted with a cannula and tethered at test.

What is chemogenetics?

Aims to control neural activity by genetically modifying neurons to react to a specific injection of protein (DREAD), animals don’t need to be implanted with a cannula, and needs no operation on animals.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of optogenetics vs. chemogenetics?

Optogenetics
Allows for millisecond control
Need viral delivery
Canula needs to be implanted
Tethered animal

Chemogenetics
Means you don’t have to implant into the animal
Minutes/hours to be reacted with.

How does the Pavlovian conditioning of tolerance explain overdoses?

According to this theor, the environmental cue acts as predictive cue that you will take the drug– This produces activation of the CR (opponent process to drug effect)– As people increase dose, the environmental cues signal the body should activate the CR– If someone addicted to drugs, takes the drug in a novel environment the CS is not present and so they do not activate the CR– Leads to overdose ( commonly seen in injecting room situations)

What is the core characteristic of the B-process in opponent processing theory?

the b-process is strengthened with use and weakened with disuse.