By studying MRI brain scans of people newly in love, scientists are learning a lot about the science of love: Why love is so powerful, and why being rejected is so horribly painful.
In a group of experiments, Dr. Lucy Brown, a professor in the department of neurology and neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, and her colleagues did MRI brain scans on college students who were in the throes of new love.
While being scanned, the students looked at a photo of their beloved. The scientists found that the caudate area of the brain — which is involved in cravings — became very active. Another area that lit up: the ventral tegmental, which produces dopamine, a powerful neurotransmitter that affects pleasure and motivation.
Dr. Brown said scientists believe that when you fall in love, the ventral tegmental floods the caudate with dopamine. The caudate then sends signals for more dopamine.
“The more dopamine you get, the more of a high you feel,” Dr. Brown says.
Love or sex? … Brains in love and brains in lust don’t look too much alike.
In studies when researchers showed erotic photos to people as they underwent brain scans, they found activity in the hypothalamus and amygdala areas of the brain. The hypothalamus controls drives like hunger and thirst and the amygdala handles arousal, among other things.
In the studies of people in love, “we didn’t find activity in either,” according to Dr. Fisher, an anthropologist and author of “Why We Love — the Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love.”
… At some point, the two do become linked. People in love have elevated levels of dopamine. Lots of dopamine, in turn, triggers the production of testosterone, which is responsible for the sex drive in both men and women.
… In their work with the lovestruck, the scientists found brain differences between men and women.
“The men had quite a bit more activity in the brain region that integrates visual stimuli. This isn’t surprising considering that men support the porn industry and women spend their lives trying to look good for men,” says Dr. Fisher.
… The scientists found that women in love had more activity than men in the areas of the brain that govern memories. Dr. Fisher theorizes that this is a “female mechanism for mate choice.” There are no visual clues for whether a man is fertile, but if a woman really studies a man and remembers things about his behavior, she can try to determine whether he’d make a reliable mate and father.
… Now their research is centered on the flip side of love. They’ve recruited college students who’d just been rejected by their sweethearts. Again, the scientists performed MRI’s while these students looked at photos of the objects of their affection.
This time, the results were different, Dr. Brown says. The insular cortex, the part of the brain that experiences physical pain, became very active.
“People came out of the machine crying,” she said.
[Elizabeth Cohen: cnn.com]
“But, as I’ve said before, if I had to, I mean had to, it would be with Elvis, Mister Clean, or a firefighter.”
“Music is sex.”
Investigating the neurophysiology of love and sex