Shy Smile Support Site for people with Social Challenges - Did You Get enough Love, when Little?

Jackie_S writes "Scientists are getting closer to understanding some social problems, and providing suitable treatment.

It has been known for a while, that the hormones oxytocin and arginine vasopressin affect sociability.

These hormones are produced when we’re physically held, cuddled and comforted.
Research by Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the USA and recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has revealed relevant information.

The scientists observed the behaviour of the hormones oxytocin and arginine vasopressin in a group of children who had been born in orphanages and later adopted into loving families.
We already know that our ability to produce oxytocin and arginine vasopressin (the sociability hormones) is determined by bonding and comfort received, in most cases, from the mother.
These sociability hormones have a key role in the stress response system, as well as in our ability to connect and bond with others.

Eighteen children aged about four and a half who had been born in orphanages and therefore missed out on early cuddling contact from their mother and father.

All eighteen children had since been adopted and had received plenty of love and affection.

Comparing these 18 adopted children with a group of children who had grown up with their natural parents, the scientists discovered that some of the adopted children displayed behaviours which would be considered different, such as seeking comfort from a stranger, even when their adoptive parent was available and present.

When there levels of oxytocin and arginine vasopressin were measured, the orphaned children were found to have substantially lower levels of vasopressin than the children who had been brought up by both parents. Vasopressin is a hormone which is considered crucial in recognising familiar people.

All the children took part in a half-hour test in which they sat on either their mother's lap, or a female stranger’s lap, while playing an interactive computer game and getting physical contact, such as tickling, whispering and patting.

Oxytocin levels rose only in the children who had been brought up from birth by their natural families and had played the game while sitting on their natural mothers’ laps.

The adopted children’s oxytocin levels did not rise, revealing that contact immediately after birth and in the subsequent months may be crucial to the production of sociability hormones later in life.

This may raise questions as to whether people with social anxiety, who were still brought up by their natural parents, received enough cuddles and contact while tiny.

Feel free to have your say, either by adding a comment or in the forums.
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