Susan Kuchinskas
My new book, The Chemistry of Connection, explains how our ability to produce and respond to oxytocin influences every aspect of our lives. Meanwhile, I track news and research about oxytocin on my blog, Hug the Monkey.
A magazine assignment about neuroscience introduced me to the fascinating world of the human brain. I learned that science has begun to unravel the mystery of human feeling.
I homed in on one amazing molecule: oxytocin, the hormone that allows us to bond with others. When we're touched with affection, when we make love, even when we hang out with friends, our brains release oxytocin.
This reaction isn't automatic; it's learned after birth, from our mothers. But many things can keep us from developing the oxytocin response, or from developing it in a healthy way.
I'm a journalist and author who's focused on internet technology for most of her career. As a reporter for Adweek, I had a ringside seat for the dotcom circus -- and the later bust. My staff jobs at Business 2.0, M-Business (a defunct mobile internet magazine) and internetnews.com kept me in the middle of the tech industry. I moved into the brave new world of blogging as founding editor of The 360, writing about online advertising, digital media and web 2.0.
I continue to write about science and technology, as I explore the power of human emotions.
A magazine assignment about neuroscience introduced me to the fascinating world of the human brain. I learned that science has begun to unravel the mystery of human feeling.
I homed in on one amazing molecule: oxytocin, the hormone that allows us to bond with others. When we're touched with affection, when we make love, even when we hang out with friends, our brains release oxytocin.
This reaction isn't automatic; it's learned after birth, from our mothers. But many things can keep us from developing the oxytocin response, or from developing it in a healthy way.
I'm a journalist and author who's focused on internet technology for most of her career. As a reporter for Adweek, I had a ringside seat for the dotcom circus -- and the later bust. My staff jobs at Business 2.0, M-Business (a defunct mobile internet magazine) and internetnews.com kept me in the middle of the tech industry. I moved into the brave new world of blogging as founding editor of The 360, writing about online advertising, digital media and web 2.0.
I continue to write about science and technology, as I explore the power of human emotions.
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Articles by Susan Kuchinskas
August 08, 2007
There comes a moment in every marriage when your spouse does something that makes you realize, "He's just like my father (or mother)."
For some people, this is a moment of pleasure. If you were close to your parent of the opposite sex, it's natural that you'd look for the same qualities in your m...
July 28, 2007
It happens to all of us. "I'm in love with the love of my life. Every day is a poem, every night is a fantasy." And then, one day, you wake up.
If you're lucky, you still like that person next to you in bed. He still makes you laugh; she's as smart as ever. If you're not so lucky, that person nex...
July 23, 2007
You know Robert Fulghum's book, "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten?" When it comes to business, everything we know, we learned before preschool.
The studies examining trust -- whether we trust others, and whether we behave in a trustworthy fashion ourselves -- are piling up. It'...
July 10, 2007
If you're a man, you may have found yourself inexplicably engaged in some psychic wrestling match with another guy, your voices getting progressively lower, your muscles pumping up. If you're a woman, you may have watched such a display with bemusement. It's especially weird when it happens at work,...
July 06, 2007
Is the most oxytocin released the first time you have sex? Is less oxytocin released the more partners you have? When I get married, if we have sex frequently, will I release the same amount of oxytocin each time?
With growing awareness of the role of oxytocin in bonding has come concern about ho...
May 04, 2007
Lewis Mehl-Madrona is an M.D. who doesn't see autism as an incurable disease. He says, "I don’t think autism is one thing. I think many things are masquerading under the same label. It's not a one-cure illness, because it's not a one-cause illness."
One thing that sometimes works is oxytocin -- a...
May 03, 2007
Kids with autism spectrum disorder need an immense amount of therapy, and local and national organizations are grappling with how to provide every family with resources and support. At the same time, more families are competing for those limited resources.
And it keeps getting worse.
The Cent...
May 02, 2007
A team from Sue Carter's lab showed that daily doses of oxytocin can prevent the cardiovascular damage caused by loneliness.
Yes, loneliness isn't only psychologically painful. It leads to chronic elevated levels of cortisol that damage the heart and raise blood pressure.
In a study announced ...
April 20, 2007
In Corbett, Ore., 19-year-old Adam Denson died after playing Space Monkey. That's the latest teen craze: You choke yourself until you pass out. With luck, your friends loosen the noose. Adam wasn't so lucky.
Adam had ADHD, and he suffered from depression. But his death wasn't an anomaly. Search t...
April 02, 2007
It's time for another look at an 18-year-old book on repairing the attachment between mother and child.
When Martha G. Welch wrote Holding Time in 1989, the idea of attachment -- the bond between mother and baby -- was something intuitively understood, but not scientifically proven. Since then, ...
March 13, 2007
Nastech, the biotech company that has proprietary technology for intranasal drug delivery, plans to launch phase 2 clinical trials of a synthetic oxytocin treatment for autism within 12 months.
The plan is to use carbetocin, a synthetic used to control bleeding after labor and delivery, to control...