This MRI Does Not Show the Secretion of Hormones in the Child’s Brain
The Claim
A Magnetic Resonance Imaging picture shows dopamine and oxytocin hormones appearing over the child’s brain because of his mother’s kiss on his forehead.
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Emerging story
Facebook and Twitter users have circulated a magnetic resonance imaging claiming it shows Dopamine and Oxytocin hormones appearing over the child’s brain because of his mother’s kiss on his forehead.
Misbar’s Analysis
The magnetic resonance imaging picture circulating does not show the secretion of hormones in the child's brain because of his mother's kiss.
Using Google's reverse search, we were able to find the image that accompanied Rebecca Saxe's 2015 article in Smithsonian magazine.
Dr. Saxe mentioned that this MRI was not made for diagnostic purposes, not even for science. She added that she just wanted to try it.
Dr. Rebecca Saxe denied that the image had anything to do with oxytocin, hormones, kissing, or breastfeeding in a tweet. She went on to say that the active areas on the MRI in the image are real functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) results from hemodynamic responses while watching a movie of faces versus a movie of scenes.
"There is no way to directly measure the release of oxytocin or its levels in the brains of living humans," according to the Massive Science website.
However, Oxytocin levels in the human brain can not be measured directly for the moment.
