Zebrafish without “love hormone” neurons show no desire to socialize with each other

This story originally appeared on Massive Science, an editorial partner site that publishes science stories by scientists. But how the social brain develops has remained unclear, and new research explores oxytocin – often referred to as the "love hormone" – for answers. So to understand the role of oxytocin-producing neurons in social brain development, researchers selectively removed those neurons from their brain circuits early in life and examined the consequences to social behavior once the zebrafish reached adulthood. However, eliminating these cells in adulthood did not affect social behavior, suggesting that oxytocin shapes the social circuit early in life during a critical developmental window. They also found that removing oxytocin neurons early impaired other social brain components, including those required for attention, decision making, and reward.