Oxytocin is a hormone believed
to boost social bonding, cooperation, love, monogamy and even risky behavior in
humans. A new study found that a form of the so-called "love drug"
helps fish navigate social situations, suggesting the hormone has had an
enduring behavioral role in vertebrates.
"We already knew that
this class of neuropeptides are ancient and are found in nearly all vertebrate
groups," researcher Sigal Balshine of McMaster University in Canada said
in a statement. But the new findings, published this month in the journal Animal Behaviour, suggest the hormones'
function also has been conserved, Balshine explained.
The researchers examined the
cichlid fish Neolamprologus pulcher,
of Lake Tanganyika in Africa, which form permanent hierarchies made up of a
dominant breeding pair and several helpers that look after the young and guard
their territory.
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