If the male prairie vole were a human guy, we might call him “highly evolved.” Among the world’s 5,500 mammalian species, he’s among the roughly 5% who, for the most part, mate for life ...

Using gene editing, researchers have engineered prairie voles with no oxytocin receptors. These monogamous mammals were thought to rely on oxytocin to form social bonds but new results suggest ...

Prairie voles take pains to comfort their stressed out pals and relatives, perhaps offering a rare example of empathy in the animal kingdom, according to a new study in Science.

[Related: Prairie Voles Show Empathy Just Like Humans. Prairie voles are small rodents found in the Midwest and also are one of only a few monogamous mammal species .

Many of those studies involved prairie voles, which mate for life and are frequently used to study human behavior. "Oxytocin might be 'love potion number nine,' but one through eight are still in play ...

Prairie voles don't fall in love in the same way humans do, but they do form these pair bonds that are lifelong. In a funny kind of way we're watching what the brain is doing as this is happening.

Prairie vole populations boom and bust in cycles, fluctuating from a handful of animals per acre during a crash, up to several hundred per acre during peak years.

The biological signature of desire of being with the one we love results in a rush of dopamine that can light up the brain.

Before male prairie voles put a ring on it, they can't tell one single lady from another, according to a new study in the October issue of Animal Behavior.. But after forming a bond, the males ...

Female prairie voles had different baseline activities in the brain circuit in question before bonding, and these varying levels of connectivity actually corresponded to a tendency to cuddle up ...

Chronic social defeat stress in prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster): A preclinical model for the study of depression-related phenotypes. Journal of Affective Disorders , 2024; 351: 833 DOI: 10. ...