Hormone oxytocin doesn’t make you gullible

Internet vendors would have you believe that oxytocin — a hormone and neurotransmitter known for regulating social and maternal behaviour — is a “trust elixir.” However, a recent study by Moïra Mikolajczak’s team at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), Belgium, has found that although oxytocin enhances trust, it will not make you gullible. In the study conducted, researchers gave 60 male volunteers either oxytocin or a placebo. The volunteers then played an investment game, in which they were given the option of handing over their money to a trustee partner who could potentially triple their investment. Participants were given a description of their partners, portraying them in either a reliable or unreliable manner, given certain traits such as their hobbies.

Participants given oxytocin made greater transactions with reliable partners than the placebo group, but not when partners were described as untrustworthy. According to Mikolajczak, the results prove the opposite of internet vendors’ claims, that oxytocin “renders people completely naive.”—Sherine Ensan

Source: New Scientist

Stem cell research faces legal quagmire

Barack Obama’s administration has begun appealing an injunction on federally funded embryonic stem cell (ESC) research. On August 23, federal Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that current stem cell legislation violates the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, which prohibits funding of research involving the destruction of human embryos. As a result, 22 major NIH projects worth $54 million have been halted in research areas including spinal injury, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s.

While previously a distinction was made between the collection and the research performed on embryonically derived stem cells, the current injunction dismisses this separation.

The scientific community, both within the United States and abroad, is feeling the impact of this ambiguous legislation. The delay of NIH grants has placed international collaborations in jeopardy and caused many post-docs and graduate students to reconsider entering the legal quagmire of ESC research. While the legal community remains confident that the injunction will not survive appeal, future challenges for ESC bills will surely continue.—Katarzyna Swica

Source: Nature

BPA present in 91% of Canadians

A survey conducted by Statistics Canada has found detectable levels of the synthetic chemical bisphenol A in 91% of Canadians, findings which are consistent with those of other countries, including the United States and Germany. The controversial compound, which is found in plastic water bottles, food containers, and in the lining of cans, has been tied to a number of health concerns, including increased risk of cancer and diabetes. “For the very first time [we] have baseline information against which we can study trends and track what is happening with respect to bisphenol A exposure,” said report author, Tracey Bushnik. The survey, which is the first to examine the prevalence of BPA across the country, measured BPA in urine samples of individuals between six and 79 years of age. BPA levels were higher in children between the ages of six and 11 than adults over 40, and were highest of all in teenagers.—Kimberly Shek

Source: Scientific American