Short Description: Hormone in brain senses isolation and drives contact-seeking behaviour, finds study
Hormone in brain senses isolation and drives contact-seeking behaviour, finds study
Wako [Japan], February 8 : The COVID-19 pandemic made everyone well versed with the feelings of loneliness, or perceived social isolation. This was also a major stress for those who socialized a lot and increased the risk of various mental and physical health issues such as depression, substance abuse, obesity, and premature death in them. A new study opened up about the indicator of social isolation in animals.
Kansai Fukumitsu and others at the RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS) in Japan found a molecular indicator and regulator of social isolation in female mice. Their study was published in 'Nature Communications'.
The study reported that social contact-seeking behaviour in mice was driven by the peptide amylin in the medial preoptic area (MPOA) of the forebrain, and that being alone decreased the amount of amylin in this brain region.
Previous research by the RIKEN CBS group, led by Kumi Kuroda has shown that in mammals, the drive for maternal care also came from the MPOA. Specifically, the amylin-responsive neurons in the central MPOA (cMPOA) are required for maternal motivation. As is often the case in scientific discovery, the initial connection between amylin and loneliness was inadvertent. "While studying amylin signalling in maternal care, we noticed that the amount of amylin in the cMPOA depended on the housing conditions of the mice," explained Kuroda.
( Details and picture courtesy ANI, the content is auto-generated from the feed.)
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