Rhythmically activating this circuit in a social context without mating biases later preference towards a partner, indicating that this circuit's activity is not just
correlated with how quickly animals become Affiliative but causally accelerates it.
For instance, in an observational study of conflict resolution among dating couples, Dr. Lorne Campbell at the University of Western Ontario and
hiscolleagues found that increased Affiliative humor and decreased aggressive humor
enhanced couples' closeness when experiencing conflict with each other.