Civilpooch

According to researchers, a dog’s gaze trig­gers release of ox­y­to­cin in own­ers. Oxytocin is refered to as the "Trust Hormone," or the "Hormone of love."

Researchers found "in­creases in the hor­mone lev­el that were highly cor­re­lat­ed to “the fre­quen­cy of be­hav­ior­al ex­changes in­i­ti­at­ed by the dog’s gaze,” in the Dec. 14 is­sue of the re­search jour­nal Hor­mones and Be­hav­ior. They concluded “in­ter­ac­tions with dogs, es­pe­cially those in­i­ti­at­ed by the dog’s gaze, can in­crease the uri­nary [ox­y­to­cin] con­centra­t­ions of their own­ers as a man­i­festa­t­ion of at­tach­ment be­hav­ior.” (World Science)

Other research has found that "having this hormone "available" during positive experiences, and not being depleted of it during negative experiences, is associated with well-being in relationships." From Oxytocin - the hormone of love.

I certainly feel MY brain is on the edge of chaos. Research shows this might be true for all of us.

ScienceDaily (Mar. 19, 2009) — Cambridge-based researchers provide new evidence that the human brain lives "on the edge of chaos", at a critical transition point between randomness and order. The study provides experimental data on an idea previously fraught with theoretical speculation.

Self-organized criticality (where systems spontaneously organize themselves to operate at a critical point between order and randomness), can emerge from complex interactions in many different physical systems, including avalanches, forest fires, earthquakes, and heartbeat rhythm

ScienceDaily (Mar. 17, 2009) — Adults of many animal species play a crucial role in the social development of youngsters. A new study reveals that the ratio of adults to young plays a much more important role in social development than the mere presence of adults.

Marie Bourjade, Alice de Boyer des Roches and Martine Hausberger of the University of Rennes 1, France, studied the effects of the adult-young ratios in naturally-formed groups of Przewalski horses on aggression rates and social cohesion of young horses. Previous studies led by the laboratory have shown that this ratio plays an essential role in song acquisition in songbirds (which has parallels with human language development) and so the authors sought to find a more general principle regarding the effects of adult-young ratios on social behaviour.

Magnificent motherhood misfires

From Assignment America