The Importance of Oxytocin in our Bodies

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Oxytocin recently gained popularity in the media as the “cuddle” or “love” hormone, but that view only highlights a small portion of this particular neuropeptide’s actions within the human body and, in fact, most mammalian bodies. According to Dictionary.com, oxytocin is a “polypeptide hormone, produced by the posterior lobe of the pituitary gland, that stimulates contraction of the smooth muscle of the uterus” (Oxytocin). This definition also reveals only a portion of the hormone called oxytocin, and what it provides for the human body and psychological wellbeing. Unlike what the definition implies, oxytocin plays an important role in both the female and male bodies and psychology that far exceeds stimulating the uterus or increasing the cuddle time that couples receive. Oxytocin’s role in the mammalian bodies ranges from an endocrine function, or regulating hormone releases from the brain, to establishing bonding behaviors between pair-bonds and parent-child relationships (Salonia et al. 2005). Although not fully understood, researchers recognize the importance of oxytocin in both female and male lives.

To understand the functions of oxytocin in the body, some biological information needs to be covered. First, discovered in the year 1835 by the Italian scientist Nicholas Farraye, oxytocin has been identified as a hormone that has a dual function as a neurotransmitter (Oxytocin Molecule). Functioning as a hormone and as a neurotransmitters means that oxytocin has peripheral, or hormonal, actions within the body that is carried out through the blood stream and actions that are carried out in the brain through neurons. Most oxytocin originates from the hypothalamus and is then sent to the pituitary gland where it is stored in larg...

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...Maternal and paternal plasma, salivary, and urinary oxytocin and parent-infant synchrony: Considering stress and affiliation components of human bonding. Developmental Science, 14, 752-761.

Oxytocin. (n.d). In Dictory.com. Retrieved from http://www.dictionary.com/definition/oxytocin

Oxytocin Molecule. (n.d.). The oxytocin molecule. Retrieved from http://www.worldofmolecules.com/emotions/oxytocin.htm

Salonia, A., Nappi, R.E., Pontillo, M., Daverio, R., Smeraldi, A., Briganti, A., …Montorsi, F. (2005). Menstrual cycle-related changes in plasma oxytocin are relevant to normal ssexual function in healthy women. Hormones and Behavior, 47, 164-169.

Schneiderman, I., Zagoory-Sharon, O., Leckman, J.F., & Feldman, R. (2012). Oxytocin during the initial stages of romantic attachment: Relations to couples’ interactive reciprocity. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 37, 1277-1285.

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