Love May Not Conquer All, But It Might Help Beat Addiction - - TIME Healthland
While love doesn't always conquer all, it can be a potent antidote to addiction, according to a growing body of research. The latest study on the matter examined male prairie vole behavior, finding that those that had bonded to a female partner were less interested in taking amphetamine than bachelor voles.
"These results indicate that the pair-bonding experience decreased the rewarding properties of amphetamine," says Kimberly Young, an author of the study and a postdoctoral student at Florida State University.
Unlike rats or mice, prairie voles form lifelong bonds with their mates, more closely approximating human social behavior, which is why scientists like to study them. For the current research, which was published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers looked closely at how pair-bonding and amphetamine affected voles' brains.
The first experiment involved 30 male voles, 17 of which had been allowed to mate and form pair bonds; the rest were virgins. The voles were allowed to explore a set of two cages, connected by a tube, to see which cage they preferred. Then, [...]
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