Report: Rodents may offer insight to monogamy

[Kadie]

Report: Rodents may offer insight to monogamy

Thu Jun 17, 7:05 AM ET Add Top Stories - USATODAY.com to My Yahoo!
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

Could the day come when a simple bit of gene therapy might cure infidelity?

In a report out today, researchers say they were able to perform that bit of molecular magic on the meadow vole, a mouse-like rodent. The genes involved are the same in humans, they say, though the mechanism is likely to be far more complex.

By transferring a single gene to the pleasure center of the naturally promiscuous male vole, researchers at Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta were able to make it happily monogamous, they say in a letter in the journal Nature.

They're not actually suggesting gene therapy can fix human infidelity, but the research has important implications for brain disorders, such as autism, that make it difficult for people to bond with others.

more... http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=676&e=5&u=/usatoday/20040617/ts_usatoday/reportrodentsmayofferinsighttomonogamy

[HuckleB]

1. Oh brother.

Umm. Our brains are bigger than the brains of meadow voles. I could go on, but why bother. This is just ridiculous.

[papau]

2. Besides- the altered faithful males ignored the kids-unlike reg Faithful

males - so we need a few different shots.

And the female version is a different shot which they did not report on - so it may not work.

There is a lot more research to do before this comes to market!

[geniph]

3. The whole premise annoys me

they're assuming all non-monogamy comes from a lack of bonding to the primary partner, which is crap. I know a hell of a lot of successful, happy marriages (including my own) which are mutually non-monogamous and still maintain a strong pair bond. It's the cardinal rule for successful polyamory in my family - the pair bond comes first.

Why would we need to be "fixed" anyway? Non-monogamy isn't a problem for a lot of us, it's a conscious choice.