Scientists confirmed the importance of this area in maternal rescue efforts by using drugs to suppress the activity of the left auditory cortex: The drug-treated males apparently ignored the crying baby.
According to the research team’s online report in the Nature Journal, when oxytocin was injected into the left auditory cortex of unpaired females, oxytocin significantly increased the rate of response of female mice to search for help. For some females that are injected with oxytocin, the effect is “almost immediate,” Froemke said. “They did not have any prior rescue and then – suddenly, they are just like motherhood!
Based on the other experiments they conducted, the researchers found that oxytocin helped mothers learn and establish memories of crying for young mice and motivated them to look after their pups. The young say “Oxytocin guarantees both the brain’s attention to these social signals and the changes in their behavior.”
Neurobiologist Robert Emory University said the discovery of this new mechanism for oxytocin is groundbreaking. “We did not expect oxytocin to work in the brain at first, but that’s a real surprise now (in this area).” He and other researchers believe oxytocin is likely to also be involved in the olfactory bulb and vision Signal processing. And if this is the case, this substance, known as the “hormone of love,” is expected to promptly improve the treatment of diseases such as autism or postpartum depression.
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