We were excited ourselves a while back about the prospect of a sex chip for our brains, and the monogamy gene, and the same researcher who brought us that idea, Dr. Larry Young, has written a piece in the magazine Nature about mammalian pair bonding that takes it one step further. He talks about how the chemical processes involved in love and monogamous relationships may be able to be switched on or off using a pill.
Read the whole piece or Tierny’s piece on it if you’re curious, but in summary:
-Said pill could be used as a sexual aid, and a converse pill could be invented that suppressed love feelings, a sort of “love vaccine” that would, as Tierny puts it, keep “spouses going through midlife crises [from eloping] with their personal trainers.”
-This is just theory at this point, based on Dr. Young’s findings in his studies of little rodents called prairie voles.
-Young’s studies of prairie voles will have to be replicated in humans before any of this love drug crap is more than science fiction.
So, in short, watch out this weekend. Don’t go making any sketchy decisions about getting married or some shit; the cure for your disease won’t be available for at least another decade.
RELATED:
Monogamy May Be Curable, Say Researchers
New Sex Chip Is Like a Buttplug for Your Brain
Anti-Love Drug May Be the Ticket to Bliss (NY Times)