Nature & Nurture #145: Dr. Karen Bales - Neurobiology of Care & Attachment

Dr. Karen Bales is a Professor of Psychology and Neurobiology at UC Davis, and an expert in oxytocin, pairbonding, and the neurobiology of care. 

In this episode we discuss Karen’s background, education, and research on parental care and pairbonding across a wide variety of species including marosets, tamarins, titi monkeys, prairie voles, and seahorses. We discuss the shared evolutionary lineage between humans and other primates, similarities and differences between apes and monkeys, monkey mating and parenting behavior. We then discuss Karen’s experience working with Sue Carter studying oxytocin and the neurobiology of pairbonding in prairie voles, which led Karen to form her own lab at UC Davis studying the oxytocin system in other species. Lastly, we discuss a recent influential study examining the parental behavior of gene-edited prairie voles lacking an oxytocin receptor.