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Why Women Have Sex On The Brain
TheTimes.com.uk ^ | 9-8-2001 | Nigel Hawkes

Posted on 09/09/2001 7:56:10 AM PDT by blam

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 08 2001
Why women have sex on the brain

BY NIGEL HAWKES

Scientific study has answered the question of why we fall in love in the most unromantic way possible

THE question that has perhaps most obsessed and mystified the poets, philosophers and thinkers — why do we fall in love? — has been answered in the most unromantic way possible: by the scientific study of the humble prairie vole.
Music was the food of love in Shakespeare’s book, but the truth, according to Professor Gareth Leng of the University of Edinburgh, lies in a “love potion” created in women’s brains after the act of sex, which helps her to form a bond with her partner.

Professor Leng, speaking to the British Association Science Festival in Glasgow yesterday, said that it is all in the chemistry because of evidence gleaned from the vole, which engages in enormous bouts of sexual intercourse, far in excess of that needed for reproduction.

“If you were to spend (many hours in) intense sexual activity with a partner, something fundamental might happen to your behaviour,” he said. “That’s often what you see in animals. Many animals bond for life. It’s not going to surprise anybody to think something fundamental is happening in the brain.”

Oxytocin, produced by the pituitary gland in the brain, is probably also involved in creating the bond between mother and child at birth and during breast-feeding. In prairie voles, a monogamous species, the effect is especially strong.

“If you put a male and female prairie vole into a cage, but don’t allow them to mate, they seem to form a kind of friendship. But if you inject oxytocin into the female’s brain, she will form this sexual bond.”

Professor Leng said: “We’re talking about 24 hours of constant copulation.” Translated to human behaviour, he said, this could mean that the more sex a couple have, the deeper their bond becomes, at least on the woman’s side.

“So how does a brain fall in love? My answer, perhaps, like yours, would be: a time, a place, a pair of eyes.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs
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To: Senator Pardek
Another reason why males and females are incompatible...

I've often thought that if men had the same stamina as women, the whole species would starve to death in a few weeks.

161 posted on 09/10/2001 2:04:31 PM PDT by js1138
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To: Achille
What rock did you crawl from under? You're scary.
163 posted on 09/10/2001 2:13:24 PM PDT by DallasDeb
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To: one_particular_harbour
#162: My thought exactly.
164 posted on 09/10/2001 2:15:06 PM PDT by DallasDeb
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To: blam
Nice Guys Don't Get Laid
by Marcus P., Jr. Meleton (Paperback - June 1993)
The publisher, Sharkbait Press, sharkbaitp@aol.com , November 4, 1998
Hope You Enjoy Nice Guys Don't Get Laid

Greetings from Sharkabait Press! We hope you'll check out our book Nice Guys Don't Get Laid and the reviews we've received. The book brings attention to a new perspective on dating and relationships, with a good balance of humorous and honest material. As mentioned in the January 14, 1996 issue of Sunday Advocate Magazine, author Marcus "Meleton wrote Nice Guys Don't Get Laid because he was frustrated that women often broke dates to go out with jerks. It happened to him-and, yes, he is a legitimate meber of the nice guys category." Meleton says, "You're such a nice guy, why can't you get a date?-The question answers itself." Women respond to the book by asking what to do about their attachments to jerks, often dropping their boyfriends after reading Nice Guys Don't Get Laid. In an interview in the August/September issue of Complete Woman Magazine, Meleton provides advice in the article "One-Night Stands," citing examples of how to deal with them from the book. In addition to the tremendous media response to Nice Guys Don't Get Laid, the book has been used by psychologists to both educate men on what attracts women and to deprogram women with "Jerk Dependency" tendencies. Every person can find themself in this book, either somewhere on the Jerk/Nice Guy scale or among the women who date (or don't date) them.
165 posted on 09/10/2001 2:29:05 PM PDT by sendtoscott
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To: one_particular_harbour
Nice guys don't get laid because they're too busy whining about it...

Yea, but it is a funny book.
168 posted on 09/10/2001 5:47:00 PM PDT by sendtoscott
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To: blam
Oxytocin... Where can you order a liter size bottle online?
169 posted on 09/10/2001 6:06:22 PM PDT by truth_eagle
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To: RLK
It isn't going to happen on this thread.
170 posted on 09/11/2001 4:18:42 AM PDT by Maelstrom
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171 posted on 07/28/2008 9:49:18 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_________________________Profile updated Friday, May 30, 2008)
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