Oxytocin: The Neurobiological Mystery of Love and Attachment

FULL PROGRAMME

09.00 EDT
Introductions

09.10
Sue Carter
Oxytocin and Love: Myths and mysteries
Understanding the relationship between oxytocin and love offers access to secrets for optimizing wellbeing and health in a world filled with threat and fear. The goal of this presentation is to deconstruct some of the current myths and mysteries that surrounds this phenomenon. Oxytocin is a peptide hormone that can support perceived safety, reproduction and eventually survival. It acts as an anti-inflammatory agent, serving as an internal “fire-extinguisher” with potential benefits for every tissue in the body and against most diseases. Both love and oxytocin support prosocial solutions to stress across the lifespan and are components of nature’s most powerful medicines.

The benefits are especially apparent in the context of chronic stress and trauma. Both are evolutionarily modern and comparatively slow solutions to challenges associated with life on earth. However, they have evolved interactions with more primitive physiological systems – including stress hormones and immune factors – that use more individualistic and faster solutions to stress. In the long-term these more ancient solutions are adaptive but inherently dangerous. We shall consider its effect on resilience and long-term well-being.

10.00
Ruth Feldman
Oxytocin: In the building of love and when love breaks
Oxytocin is an ancient neuroendocrine system that underpins the human capacity to form and maintain affiliative bonds between parents and children, among romantic partners, and with close friends, mentors, and therapists. In this talk, Ruth will describe the model of “biobehavioral synchrony” and talk about the role of oxytocin in the formation of attachment bonds. Ruth will then present studies on some specific disruptions in the oxytocin system when maternal-infant bonding fails, including longitudinal follow-ups of maternal post-partum depression, premature birth, and chronic stress and trauma. We will conclude by pinpointing the role of oxytocin in resilience throughout life.

10.45
Q&A

11.05
Break

11.30
Janice Hiller
Developmental Deprivation, Oxytocin and the Couple Relationship
Couples who struggle with intimacy, both emotional and physical, frequently ask for help with their relationship and may be difficult to treat. Whereas many people enjoy being held and touched by a loved one, some people experience the closeness required by a partner as a stressful demand. There are many factors over the course of childhood development that contribute to adult issues with physical interactions, but absence of parental care is often a feature. Research has shown that oxytocin is crucial for secure bond formation, and the brain’s ability to secrete oxytocin depends in part on sufficient love and care from infancy onwards. Although a direct link between developmental neglect, oxytocin and relationship issues with a romantic partner cannot be made with certainty, it seems highly likely that these factors are connected. In this talk Janice will describe case examples that illustrate how problems with touch and closeness may be traced to insecure early attachment, and how this impact later on physical expression in the couple relationship.

12.15
Q&A With all speakers

13.00
End