Hannah Holmes > Quotes

“Oxytocin is an ancient neurotransmitter chemical. Animal lineages much older than the mammals—amphibians, reptiles, worms, even the egg-dumping fish—all sport some version of it. For hundreds of millions of years animals have been practicing sexual reproduction. And for that long they’ve also needed a chemical pry-bar to push them into proximity. Why”
― Hannah Holmes, Quirk: Brain Science Makes Sense of Your Peculiar Personality

“The facet most primed for conflict is liberalism. Most industrial cultures now govern themselves with laws and elected lawmakers. This pits two extremes against each other: Liberal personalities that see every human as equal clash with low-liberalism people, who have greater faith in laws than in people.”
― Hannah Holmes, Quirk: Brain Science Makes Sense of Your Peculiar Personality

“In a way, Openness looks like Extraversion. But Extraversion is a pattern of throwing open the doors and walking out through them. Openness is a tendency to throw open the doors and invite the whole wide world to come in. The “approach” energy is what they share. High Openness indicates an embrace of mental stimulation and mental exercise. An Open personality is attracted to ideas, the more unfamiliar, the better. This”
― Hannah Holmes, Quirk: Brain Science Makes Sense of Your Peculiar Personality

“Oddly, a handful of studies argue that vasopressin afflicts the sexes equally when it comes to … song and dance. A little background: Theorists have long nursed a hunch that music and dance both evolved as aids to human reproduction—but probably not in the way you think. Both these rhythmic behaviors helped mothers to calm offspring so that the wailing wouldn’t attract predators, and the mother could get some work done. That part of reproduction. From there song and dance broadened into mating displays that advertised a person’s physical and intellectual quality.”
― Hannah Holmes, Quirk: Brain Science Makes Sense of Your Peculiar Personality

“Moreover, Neumann believes the primary function of oxytocin is to protect the brain from the hormonal havoc caused by birth and parenting. “Sexual steroids fluctuate up and down in the brain during birth,” she says. The roller coaster can cause stress, anxiety, and depression. But oxytocin appears to shut down the brain’s normal stress reaction, in both rats and humans. The world can burst into flame and fall to pieces around a mother with a newborn infant, and she will smile and coo and sigh with happiness. Or fearlessness. Trusting”
― Hannah Holmes, Quirk: Brain Science Makes Sense of Your Peculiar Personality