Check or vaccination?
When a kiss is preferable to sex
Tatiana Pichugina, RIA Novosti
Many animals kiss, but only humans do it so intimately and passionately. There is no consensus among scientists about the functions of this nonverbal form of communication, although experiments indicate its connection with good mood and good health. On World Kiss Day, RIA Novosti tells what science knows about its nature.
If we consider a kiss as a touch, then its analogue is found in a variety of animals. For example, fish touch each other with their mouths, and pigeons with their beaks, male fruit flies lick a female before mating, cats and dogs rub against a partner.
Bonobo monkeys kiss after a fight to calm each other down, and sometimes – just like that, for no reason. Of the primates, chimpanzees also kiss. However, to penetrate the tongue into the partner's mouth, exchanging saliva, is peculiar only to people. And not for everyone. Representatives of about ten percent of traditional cultures rub, lick or sniff their partner instead of kissing.
It cannot be said that the kiss is sufficiently studied. The so-called science of kissing, philematology, founded a few years ago, has not yet achieved any special results. Unless they counted the number of muscles involved in a kiss, and how many calories are burned at the same time. A light kiss requires the work of two or three muscles, for which the body spends two or three calories. Up to 34 facial muscles and 112 body muscles participate in a passionate kiss. In a minute of such a kiss, 26 calories are burned. During a kiss, fluids and microflora are exchanged, which may not be safe. It is also known that the lips are hundreds of times more sensitive than the fingertips.
The Kiss gene
The big question is whether a kiss refers to innate instincts or is acquired in the process of training, upbringing. The first assumption is supported by the fact that primates also kiss, but humans have many genes in common with them, including those that determine sexual behavior.
Since not all cultures know the kiss, and the second hypothesis should not be discarded. Anthropologists believe that at the dawn of evolution, human ancestors chewed coarse food to feed newborns. When the child's teeth appeared, the mother continued to touch his cheek with her lips to calm him down. This has been preserved by the peoples of Papua New Guinea and the San tribe in southwest Africa.
Scientists from Oxford University Robin Dunbar and Raphael Wlodarski cite three hypotheses of why a kiss is needed: it helps to choose a more "high-quality" partner, promotes the establishment of long-term attachment, serves as a prelude to sex. Their research confirmed the first hypothesis.
According to the authors of this work, at the moment of a kiss, a person receives information about a potential sexual partner. Simply put, the taste and smell of saliva, the body help with the choice. And first of all it concerns women, so they appreciate a kiss more than men.
Nice and useful
Kissing plays an important role during adulthood and the transition to sexual life, as it is associated with positive emotions. However, this issue is poorly understood. Perhaps it is only firmly established that kissing is very common among teenagers, and out of connection with sex.
Some works are devoted to the connection of kisses and health. There is an increase in the level of pleasure hormones (endorphin and dopamine) and activation of catecholamines, signaling chemical compounds in the brain. Also, kissing slightly increases blood pressure and pulse, increases the production of saliva. However, researchers cannot say which mechanism leads to this, and therefore avoid categorical conclusions.
As for the exchange of microbes – perhaps it could even serve as an evolutionary advantage.
British scientists from The University of Leeds and Central Lancashire put forward a bold hypothesis that a kiss is something like a vaccination against cytomegalovirus (herpes family). Primary infection during pregnancy with this virus leads to fetal blindness or death, while an adult tolerates the disease calmly. Thus, people could transmit a little bit of the virus to each other so as not to put their offspring at risk. By the way, this method only works with monogamous behavior.
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