How to Get Over a Breakup According to the Most Monogamous Animal health and wellness

At best, it gives clues about getting over a breakup. At its worst, it’s a neat little allegory about love and forgetting. A study conducted with prairie voles showed that when these rodents are reunited with their mates, they experience a burst of the happiness hormone dopamine. However, after a period of isolation, the effects diminish. In short, over time, rats recover from their former partner. But they don’t forget it.

“We know that they remember their partner even after not seeing them for four weeks,” explains Zoe Donaldson, a behavioral neuroscientist at the University of Colorado Boulder and lead author of the work. They behave as if they know him, but their reaction at the neuronal level is not the same. After a month of no contact, they don’t feel the same desire to meet or hug. This is quite a long period of time, considering that their life expectancy is about two years. “It’s the same as what happens with us humans: we don’t forget those we love even after they’re gone, although what they meant to us, their place in our daily lives, has to be reestablished.”

Behavior of Prairie Voles (microtus ochrogaster) began to attract scientific attention in the 1970s, when in an experiment at the University of Illinois, they observed that there was a species of rat that fell into a trap two by two. In joints. It was then discovered that this species, unlike its relatives, the prairie dogs, maintains monogamous and exclusive relationships throughout its life. It is estimated that only 3% of mammals are monogamous. Since then this small rodent has become the unit of measurement of love in science. It has been proven in various studies that these animals share the care of their offspring or that they feel empathy towards their partner. When she gets stressed they become tense and try to cheer her up with physical contact. Many people remain alone until their death after becoming widows.

Most of the analyzes conducted so far focused on the initial stage of falling in love, which has been increasingly reflected not only by cinema, but also by science. “Let’s just say this is the fun part of the research, the hedonic fascination,” admits Dr. Donaldson. But their study, published this month in the journal current biologyKnown for analyzing steady love and how it fades away over time and distance.

After the stage of falling in love comes quiet love. He explains, “The foundation is built where you start to associate a person… well, or a vole… with this really enjoyable and satisfying experience.” Over time, relationships become stable. The lovers begin to form a routine. They share the mortgage or bills. “And the partner becomes an important source of reward, motivation, and support,” the expert says. “We wanted to know what role dopamine plays in maintaining these bonds.”

To find out, his team isolated a lovebird in a cage. It had two transparent doors and two levers. Activating one opened a door and allowed him to reach his partner. Activating another for an unknown sample. They found that rodents in the first case released more dopamine than in the second. When they met their partner, they hugged more often and experienced a greater increase in dopamine in their core when they did so. accumbens (The area of ​​the brain that is responsible for managing reward circuits).

Donaldson explains, “We believe this increased dopamine release helps keep bonds alive over time, motivating couples to re-unite when away from each other.” However these effects diminish with time and distance. To the point where the loving tone overcomes the absence of its ex and is available to start a new life. “This change in dopamine dynamics allows them to form a new bond, something they do not do while the previous bond is still intact,” the doctor explains. That’s why Donaldson described the incident as a way of “getting over the breakup”.

Applicable to people?

This study may be relevant to understanding how people recover from loss. Especially in the case of patients with prolonged grief disorder, who find it difficult to deal with these situations. According to Donaldson, this is because the dopaminergic signal generated by the partner may not adapt after the loss, which would hinder the healing process.

Prairie voles aren’t exactly like people. They do not cheat, nor do they deconstruct themselves to try new relational models, fight monogamy or practice polygamy. “It’s true that humans are capable of having different types of relationships and types of families,” Donaldson acknowledges. “But the important thing is that we, like them, can create lasting bonds as a couple. And we probably use similar neurobiological mechanisms to do this.

Diego Redoller, professor of Psychobiology and Neurosciences at the University of Oberta in Catalonia and researcher in the Cognitive Neurolab, values ​​very positively the study, with which he has no connection. But he is more cautious about drawing parallels with human behavior. “The formation of our bonds can be partly explained by the dopamine that is secreted in accumbens“, to explain. “But it’s far more complicated. “Oxytocin and vasopressin also play very important roles.” Furthermore, human behavior is not based solely on instinct. “In the prefrontal cortex of the brain, there is an activity that allows us to adapt our response to the moral and regulatory environment in which we live,” he explains. Therefore, even if he secretes dopamine like a prairie vole, a man will not immediately try to socialize and mate with his former partner as soon as he sees him. This is a bit more complicated. “The amount of dopamine in our core can increase accumbens That leads us to a certain orgasm or bonding stimulus, but the prefrontal cortex will allow us to adapt to that response.

Although the reaction is different, the incentive is the same. And in the world of voles the lessons learned by these scientists have clear translation into human couple relationships. “We are social creatures and the bond between couples is one of the strongest bonds we’re ever going to make,” says couples psychologist Lorenelle Fraley. Therefore, when a relationship breaks down, zero contact is decisive. “An emotional dependence develops and when you break it you enter a period of abstinence. You will not give alcohol to a drunkard; If you are quitting tobacco, you will not smoke two cigarettes on Monday and Wednesday. It makes you more attracted, it means intermittent reinforcement,” says the expert. Same thing happens with love.

“When a relationship ends, grief sets in and it takes some time to adjust. This is very difficult to do if you are in contact with the person you left. Fraley explains that over time, the bond with a former partner weakens, as is the case with prairie voles. The solution isn’t as simple as pressing a lever and opening the door with a new partner. The time to overcome this will be longer than the four weeks reported in the study. But, at the brain and neuronal level, the mechanism is very similar. In love and oblivion, we are like prairie voles.

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