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Follow up - OT - Deuteronomy - Vole Study

Last week's lesson on Deuteronomy was about Heavenly Father teaching the Israelites to care for others with an open heart, and we linked this to animal altruism, where there have been cases of animals willingly helping others (in their own or other species) without any apparent self-interest involved. 

I introduced the hormone oxytocin and said that it had been shown to play a role in regulating the ability of animals to express complex caring behaviour. In experiments where scientists removed this hormone from voles, a species which is known for being monogamous and bonding for life, the affected vole partner would suddenly lose all interest in their mate. We used this idea of removing something important, and analysing the effects it would have, in our lesson, where we imagined that we had been commanded by Heavenly Father to NOT care for others, and we thought through what this would mean in our day-to-day lives.

The hormone removal experiment invited several questions from children who were curious about how this happened. The experiment is described in a 2015 paper titled "Central oxytocin receptors mediate mating-induced partner preferences and enhance correlated activation across forebrain nuclei in male prairie voles", which was published in the Hormone Behavour journal (link to paper).

Oxytocin functions by binding to a receptor protein in neurons in the brain, switching it on in the process. This switching on process leads to lots of follow-in activity that affects how some parts of the brain work, particularly in the hypothalamus, a region that affects hormonal control throughout the body. (The oxytocin receptor proteins can be found mainly in this region.)

The experiment functions by blocking the binding of oxytocin with its target receptor. This is done by introducing an "antagonist" drug which binds to the receptor instead of oxytocin, and blocks its switching on activity in the process. In the study, male voles underwent surgery to implant catheters into their brains, and these catheters were used to infuse the antagonist twice into the brains. (A control group received cerebrospinal fluid instead of the antagonist, to rule out the effects of the surgical procedure affecting the study results.) The results showed that the animals that received the antagonist were less involved in cuddling and intimacy with their partners than the control animals. 

Overall the lesson went well, the animal talent show part was well received, and this negative study got the children curious and involved in the discussions. 


A vole. Photo by Heather Wilde on Unsplash



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