Allen Orr offers samples of Brooks’s tale on human nature (“The Social Animal”), in the NYRB:
> As Julia and Rob semi-embraced, they silently took in each other’s pheromones. Their cortisol levels dropped.
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> Later in their relationship, Rob and Julia would taste each other’s saliva and then collect genetic information.
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> When parents do achieve this attunement with their kids, then a rush of oxytocin floods through their brains.
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> But the caudate nucleus and the VTA [ventral tegmental area] are also parts of something else, the reward system of the mind. They produce powerful chemicals like dopamine, which can lead to focused attention, exploratory longings, and strong, frantic desire. Norepinephrine, a chemical derived from dopamine, can stimulate feelings of exhilaration, energy, sleeplessness, and loss of appetite. Phenylethylamine is a natural amphetamine that produces feelings of sexual excitement and emotional uplift.
If anything, Keats contra Dawkins was too mild in describing the effect of science on other worthy human activities!
—ravi