sex stimulates the release of vasopressin and oxytocin in people, as well as voles, though the role of these hormones in the human brain is not yet well understood.but while it is unlikely that people have a mental, smell-based map of their partners in the way that voles do, there are strong hints that the hormone pair have something to reveal about the nature of human love: among those of man's fellow primates that have been studied, monogamous marmosets have higher levels of vasopressin bound in the reward centres of their brains than do non-monogamous rhesus macaques.
雖然抗利尿激素和催產(chǎn)素在人腦內(nèi)的角色仍未被透徹了解,但與田鼠一樣,人體在受到性刺激時也會釋放這些荷爾蒙。盡管與田鼠不一樣,人類不太可能有一張基于嗅覺的神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)伴侶圖譜,但若干線索已有力說明,這兩種荷爾蒙能揭示一些人類戀愛的本質(zhì)∶在已被研究過的人類靈長目同伴之中,一夫一妻制小長尾猴的大腦獎賞中樞系統(tǒng)中,抗利尿激素水平較非一夫一妻制的恒河短尾猿高。