NEUROBIOLOGY AND THE QUEERNESS OF KINSHIP 107pituitary gland, which in turn stimulates the release of pleasure- inducing
dopamine via the nucleus accumbens. This provides a feeling of reward. As
Churchland puts it, “When a mammalian mother is successful in making
the infant safe and content, endogenous opiates as well as oxytocin are
released, both in the brain of the contented infant, and in the brain of the
relieved mother. Being together feels good” (40). This cycle of social inter-
action and dopaminergic reward establishes what Young calls an “appetite”
for contact. In rats, for example, the smell and sound of young are “now so
attractive that a new rat mother will cross an electrified grid to fetch one”
(Szalavitz 2012, n.p.). In sheep and humans, too, the dopaminergic reward
encourages caretaking. “The same dopamine- reward pathway is engaged
when a mother senses the sight, smell, and sound of her own baby, link-
ing the sensory cues, the emotional feeling, and the reward, and muting
the prefrontal cortex, all of which motivates mothers to nurture. Caring
for a baby feels good, especially if it’s your baby” (Young and Alexander
2012, 102).
What of kin attachments that fall outside the birth mother – infant dyad?
Churchland believes that because of the plasticity of the oxytocin system,
the attachment for adoptive mothers “can be every bit as powerful” — in
other words, as biologically supported — “as attachment to a baby carried
and delivered” (2011, 34). Young’s explanation is that while pregnancy,
birth, and lactation are not absolutely necessary for bonding, a female brain
is. His account is informed by brain organization theory, which argues that
brains are sexually dimorphic. He holds the view that all female mam-
mals have existing circuitry for mothering that is activated by pregnancy
(Young and Alexander 2012, 95). As an example, he cites experiments by
Rosenblatt on maternal behavior in rats. In the first study Rosenblatt (1967)
placed reproductively naïve female rats together with neonate pups. The
adult females’ first reaction to them was either avoidance or aggression.
In a few days, however, they began to approach the pups. After about a
week, they developed species- typical maternal behaviors toward the pups,
crouching above them as if to nurse, licking and grooming, and retrieving
them when they were separated. In a follow- up study Terkel and Rosen-
blatt (1968) infused the bloodstreams of virgin female rats with blood from
rats in late- stage pregnancy. Then they repeated the experiment as before.
These blood- doped rats immediately engaged in maternal behaviors. The