Men and women can now thank a dozen brain regions for their romantic fervor. Researchers have revealed the fonts of desire by comparing functional MRI studies of people who indicated they were experiencing passionate love, maternal love or unconditional love. Together, the regions release neurotransmitters and other chemicals in the brain and blood that prompt greater euphoric sensations such as attraction and pleasure. Conversely, psychiatrists might someday help individuals who become dangerously depressed after a heartbreak by adjusting those chemicals.
Passion also heightens several cognitive functions, as the brain regions and chemicals surge. “It’s all about how that network interacts,” says Stephanie Ortigue, an assistant professor of psychology at Syracuse University, who led the study. The cognitive functions, in turn, “are triggers that fully activate the love network.” Tell that to your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day.
Graphics by James W. Lewis, West Virginia University (brain), and Jen Christiansen.
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19 Comments
Add CommentWhy Serotonin is set to low?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell, if you think about, love doesn't necessarily make us feel POSITIVE in every way :P We get concerned about our loved one, we feel jealousy and aggression towards others, and we act in ways to keep our loved one OURS.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSerotonin makes us feel secure, stable. It gives us a sense of well being. Well, think about it from an evolutionary sense; when our potential mate is at risk, it'd be more advantageous to be aggressive, a bit insecure, and possessive :P So when in love? Serotonin is low.
It's ok; we have dopamine to keep us happy. But that's why love and vulnerability go hand it. Also why cortisol is high, and thus STRESS is high.
Haha, no offense to lovers, but it's a misconception that love makes a person feel nothing but good! As put in this diagram, love makes us "obsessive, aggressive, and stressed!"
Happy Valentines Day! <3
If uncertainty and doubt are the most powerful aphrodisiacs, with dopamine promoting exploration, learning, and reward, and cortisol slowing protein synthesis and new learning,elevated serotonin levels would develop only after the first flush of passion has mellowed to confident contentment. SSRi antidepressants raise serotonin, but dampen interest, desire, and orgasmic capacity, but do reduce obsessionality and anxiety.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI really like the idea of the little slider controls for the various mental parameters. Now, I know that that device was used as an illustration to facilitate explanation of the brain's systems in this article, BUT, if science could equip us with little sliders like that on the side of our head so that we can manually manipulate those paramaters, then I think that would help us humans a lot to cope.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUnfortunately, the sliders should have really been represented as indicator dials, like dashboard instruments, rather than controls...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisbut, maybe the idea is exactly not to cope with it :))
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI once read that love is a complete loss of ego boundaries that allows for the species to continue.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot sure how that fits into the neurochemistry.
if there were no value in evolving a reflective intelligence capable of coping with emotional neurotransmitters and enabling self determining neuro-plasticity [how you think and feel changes the structure of the brain] the brain would never have evolved to do so. we would have remained as helplessly neurotic and overactive as the animals we evolved from. intelligence is better than sliders. it can reconfigure the brain to override and even delete detrimental emotional pathways LIKE NO OTHER ANIMAL CAN should we 'care' enough to do so. certain emotions stifle freedom and creativity. intelligence evolved for beneficial reasons, use it and share its benevolence.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe are neurochemistry. Every thought, every perception, every feeling, every perception of our thoughts and feelings, and every perception of our perceptions are all neurochemistry. What else? Magic? My concept of self is an ongoing complex pattern of firing neurons. And so is everything else within my experience.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHope this doesn't raise anyone's cortisol levels. If so, I am truly sorry. It was not my intention. My dopamine levels are pretty good right now. :)
the root cause of 'who you think you are' (conceptualized as ego) is 'who you feel you are' (felt as soul). e.g., animal feelings evolved before thought. therefore love (devotion in animals) is a primal instinct ensuring mating and nuturing of an animal species, just as fear and aggression are and can cause emotional blindness and suffering.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisa benign intelligence also ensures the survival of a species minus emotional suffering. therefore learning to think clearly and care calmly ensures the survival of an intelligent species free to explore the universe. it is not the destiny of intelligence to remain imprisoned and primarily ruled by vicious and blindly devotional emotions. we are going where no animal has gone before.
couldn't agree more. that's been my 'actual' experience so far. the rest has been an intangible wank.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow, I like your optimism. I sure hope your right.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this(Bree, I think my oxytocin level just went up. Thanks)
I think this presents a very limited and perhaps unclear overall picture of love. It would be interesting to see what sample size, age demographic, etc. was represented in this study. Other studies indicate that marriage extends life expectancy because it lowers stress, despite what our culture might otherwise suggest. Civil marriage isn't synonymous with love, but for the sake of assigning arbitrary "kinds" of love (like unconditional love and passionate love...is there a difference in the early days?) I think marriage represents another "kind" of love that I expect would result in at least some chemical results inverse to those published above.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNeurology and science in general have totally failed thus far to explain consciousness, sentience, and the subjective experience. It is my personal opinion that love is too complex to evaluate without at least a firm theory concerning what allows us to be self-aware. I'm not sure it can be answered by science, but I do not wish to stray into spiritual or philosophical matters. Even with this limited information, the practical application seems viable among psychological patients. However, I would stop there - these chemical processes and their (simplified) effects, are secondary and cannot, on their own, give us a complete understanding of love. I would argue that it does not even scratch the surface.
One reader commented that it would be nice if we had these handles on the side of our head. If anyone is familiar with this field, I have a question - why is it that some of these chemicals, particularly dopamine and vasopressin, do not have a history as controlled abused substances? I am aware that several illegal recreational drugs to induce production and/or release of dopamine, or make the brain more sensitive to its effects, but why not the pure form? Are there medications that take direct advantage of these pathways? (I am also aware that oxytocin is itself an illegal drug that comes in several forms).
i agree with the above. it's more an image declaring it's love to the brain & neurology ^^ The not so future will bring some more understanding (untill then we have romance).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Human Sliders that were mentioned would take all purpose in life away since it really is true you can't appriciate high's without low's.
'The Butterfly Effect' movie seems to represent some possible results on what could happen if you had the sliders ;-) Maybe we already have them, only time will tell...
+ You also release oxytocin when you play with your dog I believe because it seems to create a strong bond. So not all forms are illegal ;-)
We, our thoughts, and our senses are not neurochemistry, but rather a reflection of neurochemistry, an expression we perceive of its processes. Moreover our neurochemistry, as it is with the atoms of our bodies, exists as local temporal condensations of light, as explained in quantum physics. Sentience therefore appears either as an aspect, or along with, such interplay of particle and photon, matter and light, which we view as our selfs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell, NASA says the Voyagers carry the EEG of a woman in love. Looking at the above one is clearly aware of the relationship of what M Talbot describes in OBE of people experiencing the 'white light.' These people say the overwhelming sense of peace and contentment (see above) is only surpassed by their sense of guilt. What Guilt? Well, we are all guilty, even if jaywalking. That is against the law of course. You can be made to feel guilty over just about anything, and as such would make the perfect slave. Obedient in all, protective as a mother lion. Thanks, NASA.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisKnowing what we know about these neurotransmitters, what can be inferred with respect to a long distance relationship (I am in one)? I am curious how quickly these levels can rise and fall. There are clearly going to be different levels stimulation emotionally, physically, and mentally based upon if you are with the person or not. What adverse effects could these intense surges of emotion proceeded by no physical contact and limited communication have on the brain in love? My guess is that constantly rising and falling neurotransmitter chemical levels would have a unstabalizing effect and contribute much to Cortisol which is responsible for stress, or change management.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust to clarify for Adamsunny: As far as I know, there is no illegal or abused form of oxytocin. I think you may be confusing it with Oxycodone/Oxycontin, which are opioids and are certainly subject to control and abuse. As for why dopamine isn't a drug of abuse, the main reason is partly the fact that when you take it directly it doesn't cross the blood-brain barrier. L-dopa, a treatment for Parkinson's, DOES cross the barrier and is converted to dopamine, but only slowly. Also, dopamine activity in specific brain areas, such as the peri-aqueductal gray matter, is what is most associated with drug addiction/abuse. General overabundance of dopamine is more associated with hallucinations, delusions, etc. as are seen in schizophrenia. Thus, most anti-psychotics are dopamine blockers, and can cause Parkinsonian symptoms.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLove is sharing Nothingness.
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