Neuroscience

Mere moments spent searching with the words “chocolate” and “sex” on the internet generates numerous references to the aphrodisiac power of chocolate…or women’s preference for chocolate over sex. The latter might be seen as an aphrodisiacal canard. Does it prove that chocolate is sexy if women prefer it to actually having sex?

Given the tons of information floating around on Oxytocin, it’s no surprise that some questions follow. One fact many people have heard is that Oxytocin is released in large quantities upon orgasm. One logical question that follows is: If I have sex with someone, will I fall in love with that someone? Maybe, maybe not.

Under the category of “Not in a thousand years would I have thought of that study,” Dijkstra and colleagues find that if you assume the body posture you were in when an event occurred you have a better recall of it.

This week’s NYT Science section gives those of us in relationship science plenty to talk about by dedicating the bulk of this week’s Science section to a variety of topics related to relationships. A hodgepodge of factoids about relationships reflects the lack of coherence apparent in relationship science as we try to pull together information from as divergent fields as evolutionary biology and online survey research. However, it also reflects a failure by scientists to present the areas of research in which coherence is emerging.