#Winning at SfN Poster Lotto with Vodka and the Vacillating Voles
This is a guest post in our #NPGsfn11 blog series and posted on behalf of Zen Faulkes.
Browsing through the Neuroscience poster session, I was stopped by an unusual title. Almost all the posters around me featured mice, but I spotted ?vole? in the title of this poster. I had to find out why these scientists zigged when all the others zagged.
The presenter, A.M. Anacker, had a great answer. Prairie voles are well known for pair bonding. This is the vole equivalent to going steady or marriage. This has been the subject of some very elegant neuroethology, which was partly responsible for the rise in people?s awareness of oxytocin.
This lab was trying to use the vole?s monogamous pair bonds to test for the potential effects of alcoholism on social relationships.
?I?m guessing your hypothesis is that the effect of alcohol on relationships will be bad.? They replied that they didn?t necessarily hypothesize that. I was thinking about severe alcohol use, but the presenter pointed out to me that in humans, alcohol has a reputation as a social lubricant. I couldn?t help but to think of the B.A.N.T.E.R. party later that evening.
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