Love has a survival advantage because it promotes pairing for survival of a species, and it is an ideal setting for the care and protection of young children.

Friendship and real social networks are important for promoting health and  well being. We know a lot about the transmitters involved in “falling in love,” and a lot about the corresponding brain circuits.

Phenylethylanine and dopamine involved in the initial euphoria which probably acts in the pathways between the limbic system concerned largely with the cortical areas with reasoning.

An individual’s face is an impression or an element in how attractive you might appear to others. The degree of symmetry which is linked to how muscular or feminine they appear has been shown to be a important aspect of facial attractiveness. A study shown that these properties are involved in sexual pairings in groups of Europeans. African hunters gatherers and one group of non human primates seen below and left, because the relationship is common in two human groups and it may be Universal. It seems therefore that symmetry and how masculine or feminine a face appears are linked to a underlying biological mechanism and genetic fitness as a mate.

Oxytocin the feel good factor is a hormone produced by the hypothalamus and released by stimulation of the sex and reproductive organs the final stages of child birth. It produces a pleasurable feeling that promotes bonding. This could be because like the closely related vassopressin oxytocin helps the processing of social cues involved in recognition of individuals  and may play a role in laying down shared moments of memories. It is possibly oxytocin playing an addictive effect like dopamine, and it may be a reason why people feel anxious sometimes at being separated from loved ones that are involved with them.

Humans or homo sapiens from attachments and bonds of intimacy and affections with people, animals, and objects, know the importance of attachments and can be undermined by observances of babies in orphanages during WW2 who were provided with food and shelter but no nurses or mothers to bond with. This was not the cure that a mother could bring to the child. They experienced long term problems and did not gain weight and some of them died from not being touched by a mother. They became emotionally and physically stunted in growth and simply died. A mother’s instinct to bond with her baby is natural and built right into a brain and it is shown and proven by mothers being shown a picture of their offspring smiling, and of other’s babies smiling that evoke a similar reaction of smiles and bonding but not strong ones. This is a triggered response and triggered strong activity in the dopamine reward system and these can be weakened responses when its not your own offspring but still evokes a biological response. FACTs of Science by Carolyn d Hogarth

 

Reason to support and love mothers in child rearing experiences.

To remove a child from it’s mothering by any action is cruelty beyond ever known by those who do it, and with no consideration of what it did to the child. I will not fight you, but cruelty to children, well documented and known by Science. FACTS…