WARWICK, England, July 18 (UPI) -- Breastfeeding a baby results in surges of the "trust" hormone oxytocin in the mother's brain, University of Warwick researchers in England said.
Researchers from the University of Warwick, in collaboration with other universities and institutes in Edinburgh, France and Italy, said that oxytocin has long been known to be the trigger that, when released into the blood, causes milk to be let down from the mammary gland. However, when oxytocin is released within the brain, it also helps to strengthen the bond between mother and child.
The neuroscientists found that in response to suckling, the neurons start releasing oxytocin from their "dendrites" as well as from their nerve endings. The dendrites usually create a weak network of connections between neurons.
However the researchers have now shown that the release of oxytocin from the dendrites allows a massive increase in communication between the neurons. This co-ordinates a "swarm" of oxytocin factories, producing massive intense bursts of oxytocin release at intervals of around 5 minutes or so.
The study is published in the journal PLoS Computational Biology.
