Familiar face? 'Love' hormone may help

The "love" hormone linked to feelings of sexual pleasure, bonding and maternal care also appears to help us recognize familiar faces, Swiss researchers said on Tuesday.

Men given oxytocin - involved in nursing and childbirth - more accurately recalled images of familiar faces but the hormone did not help them recognize inanimate objects, Peter Klaver of the University of Zurich and colleagues said.

Their findings published in The Journal of Neuroscience suggest the hormone somehow strengthens the brain's neural networks involved in social memory and may have implications for conditions such as autism, researchers said.