Profs & Pints Alameda: Love Lessons from Animal Research

Profs and Pints Alameda presents: “Love Lessons from Animal Research” a look at what studies of monkeys voles and sea horses tells us about what happens in our brains when we love or lose another with Karen L. Bales professor of psychology and scholar of the neurobiology physiology and behavior of animals that socially bond.

You wouldn’t expect titi monkeys to sit down next to you and give you relationship advice but nonetheless you can learn a lot from them when it comes to affairs of the heart. Just ask Professor Karen Bales whose research includes setting up “speed dating” experiments involving them.

They’re among several animal species—most of them monogamous—that Dr. Bales studies in researching social bonding in animals and what happens in their brains when they experience attraction rejection long-term relationships and finding themselves alone.

She’ll be sharing her findings and the insights they offer us humans when Profs and Pints brings her to Alameda’s Faction Brewing on February 13th the eve of Valentine’s Day. No matter what your relationship status you’ll love being there.

Getting at the question of whether first impressions matter she’ll discuss the aforementioned monkey “speed dating” experiment and how its findings have been applied to research involving humans’ partner choice. You’ll learn how first impressions predict the timing and strength of any pair bond and how considerations such as a potential partner’s popularity and desire to be in a relationship factor into the mix.

What happens in the brain when you fall in love? You’ll gain insights on that based on neurobiological research showing how pairing causes animals such as voles and monkeys to experience increased brain activity especially in brain region involved in social reward and social memory. We’ll also look at how partners have profound effects on each other’s internal states with the effects varying for males and females and we’ll examine the neurobiology underlying our responses to partner loss.

You might be asking: What do sea horses have to do with anything? It turns out that they undergo changes in their brightness or “luminance” to signal messages to a partner so the study of them potentially sheds light on the evolution of nonverbal cues like the smiles you’ll see on the faces of those around you. (Tickets available only online. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus processing fees. Doors: $17 or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image from Rawpixel / Public Domain

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