Lessons in Love From Voles

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For years, scientists have known that oxytocin is important in facilitating the feeling of love in humans. How do they know? Prairie voles. For years, scientists have relied on the cuddly rodents to help us humans understand how this protein works in our brains. But within the past few years, research has complicated that understanding, prompting the question: Can love prevail without the "love" hormone? (encore)

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Transcript

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0:50.5	Hey, shortwavers, Emily Kwong here. It's Valentine's Day.
1:00.4	So, seems like the perfect time to take a deep dive into the neuroscience of Lerve.
1:02.6	Specifically, rodent love.
1:08.1	I'm here with John Hamilton NPR's own expert on Mureen Romance.
1:09.1	Hello, John.
1:13.6	Hi, Emily, and way too casually drop that AP vocabulary word. Respect.
1:14.3	Thank you, thank you.
1:15.7	But Valentine's Day, you know, it does give us a brilliant excuse to talk about a very
1:20.9	special rodent, one that gives love a good name.
1:24.3	Which rodent are we talking about?
1:26.1	Well, of course, we are talking about the humble
1:28.4	prairie vole. You've probably seen one, but you might not have realized it because you thought it was a
	...

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