Social hormones

I read a note in science about the discovery of social neuropeptides in nematodes (of all things).  Nematodes (roundworms) are highly diverse little suckers, with over half of the described species parasitic. They're almost everywhere and, from personal experience, suck to try to identify. 

 

I'm sure someone likes you little guys...

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Social neuropeptides (like oxytocin) stimulate various important behaviors in mammals, like maternal, reproductive, and aggressive behaviors, as well as (it is thought) to mediate some grouping actions. They're implicated in things like young-bonding and pair bonding (in ewe-lamb and voles, respectively).  So, it's sort of interesting that these things were found in nematodes.

I don't know too much about social neuropeptides, so I did a bit of reading about them and found the following article that's fairly interesting: Social vocalizations can release oxytocin in humans by Seltzer et al. Social neuropeptides are most often released with physical contact, so, it got me to wondering if the increased rates of depression in this country are related, at all, to the lack of physical contact. Humans are wired to be social species, so perhaps the required stimulus for neuropeptide release is not being met via social contact in online interactions. I know this is not a novel concept, and many people, both bloggers and social scientists, have done excellent jobs at describing and exploring this, so I won't muddle my way through it.

 

This has little to do with what I'm talking about. But they look like they're 

going to be bonding fairly soon.

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I definitely fall into the group of people with very little physical contact with others (which doesn't mean I don't necessarily crave it -- I'm just afraid of overstepping social boundaries, I guess). However, Seltzer et al. suggests that vocalizations may stimulate the same levels of neuropeptide (in this case, oxytocin) release as direct physical contact.  Mother-daughter duos were used to explore hormone release and, while kiddos that received complete contact -- physical, vocal, and non-verbal contact -- were the quickest to return to an "unstressed" state, kids who received only verbal comfort showed a similar hormonal profile.

Whew! I guess I'm not destined to fall deep into a spiral of gloom and doom as long as I can still call and chat with my sister on the phone.