Oxytocin’s Modulating Effect on Pleasure

Abstract

The hormone oxytocin is frequently called the love hormone. Bibliographical revision has revealed that oxytocin is linked to high emotions such as amorous relationships and the sexual act. Oxytocin’s periphery activities which produce contractions in the smooth muscles at childbirth and during breastfeeding have indicated an investigation of its main properties. Research shows that during sexual relationship the plasmatic levels of oxytocin are high. Regions of the limbic system, such as the hypothalamus, tonsils and septo, receive nervations of the ocytosynergic pathways which are involved in the production of basic emotions (fear, anxiety, hunger, satisfaction, pleasure and sexual desire) in lower and higher animals. There is a relationship between the hormones oxytocin, CRH and vasopressin produced in the hypothalamus’s paraventricular nucleus, in which oxytocin seems to produce indirectly an anti-stress activity. Oxytocin’s main activities seem to have a neuron-modulating stance favoring SNC to be involved in situations of high excitability, such as the sexual act, in an adaptive and positive manner. Although its mechanism has not been thoroughly clarified, the more highly developed feelings in humans may be better understood through studies and physiological experiments. These assays may broaden the concept of sexuality and love.