TABLE 1.

Biochemical interaction between Bowlby’s mother-infant tie and Freudian drives.

Parameter	Bowlby’s mother-infant tie	Freudian drives
Initiating activation factor	oxytocin (women and infants) vasopressin? (men)a	adenosine (sleep)b angiotensin II (thirst) ghrelin (hunger) testosterone (sexual drive)
Source	excitation of sensory nerves	excitation of organs
Intensification	(self-intensification) oxytocin (intensification by amines) 5-hydroxytryptaminec (intensification by imperative motor factors) angiotensin II at birth ghrelin at postnatal periods
Inhibition factor	testosterone (mother only)	competing Freudian drived
Termination factor	adenosine (sleep) β-endorphin	5-hydroxytryptamine oxytocin (hunger)
Drive specific area	caudal nucleus tractus solitaries	arcuate nucleus (hunger)b subfornical organ, area postrema and organosum vasculosum of lamina terminalis (thirst) medial preoptic area (sexual drive) tuberomammillary nucleus (sleep)

^a, Feldman and Eidelman found a causal role of the initial mother–infant tie immediately after birth for the effectiveness of the father-infant bond which was typically developed during the third month of infant’s life (Feldman and Eidelman, 2007). The authors cannot find any reliable data sets with a man as exclusively caregiver after birth. Therefore the impact of oxytocin in a father-infant tie is unknown. ^b, Reference: (Kirsch and Mertens, 2018). ^c, Dopamine and noradrenaline can also intensify oxytocin signaling (vide infra). ^d, Reference: (Kirsch, 2019).