Oxytocin: The Love Molecule?

And now Sci can finally get down to writing the hefty post in the oxytocin series, what she likes to call the effects on the soft stuff. The emotions, memory, trust, that kind of thing. She didn’t know if she’d make it, for verily, this little grad student hath earned her ramen this day in looooooong experiments and time slaving away in the salt mines laboratory. But she is here! Her ramen is eaten! And it is TIME!
Oxytocin: Effects on the State of Love and Trust
aka “The LOVE molecule?”

(Right now, this is Sci’s definition of love)
Sigh…Sci has heard so many people call oxytocin “the love molecule”. Almost as many people as she has heard call dopamine the “reward molecule”, or serotonin the “happy molecule”. Based on the previous examples, Sci now officially reserves the right to call norepinephrine the “holy s**t we’re going to DIE” molecule.
What do all these have in common? They are all SO MUCH MORE COMPLICATED THAN THAT. But for now, we’re just going to stick to oxytocin. The “love molecule”?! You don’t know the half of it!