Oxytocin and its links through scientific lineage

Abstract

Scientific inquiry and methodology are based on third person objectivity. Yet, as humans we experience everything through our first-person lens and second-person relational learning. The purpose of this review is to share the journey of discoveries about science and oxytocin from this author's unique and diverse perspective. Hormones are signaling molecules and long distant messengers required to regulate an organism's physiology and behavior. Oxytocin has taken the lead as the most investigated neurohormone that modulates social cognition, influences parenting behaviors, facilitates within or across-species bonding, and even biologically buffers against stressors such as isolation. Our increasing understanding that social connection, community belonging, and trust in others influence both physical and mental health outcomes, has led to numerous intervention and treatment oxytocin studies across a myriad of conditions. No longer just a way to facilitate female reproduction and lactation, oxytocin is now viewed as the “social influencer” that affects not just women but also men along with its closely related neurohormone, vasopressin. This review uses the narrative lens to illustrate how scientific lineage shapes what we study and how investigating oxytocin has been a microcosm to macrocosm metaphor for our collective social learning as a scientific community.