Love has always been a mystery that can cause even the most rational people to behave neurotically, but a new study may help us understand exactly how “romantic love” is processed in the brain. A team of nueroscientists, psychologists, and anthropologists from New York and New Jersey conducted an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) study of 17 people “newly, madly in love.” Their findings, published in the July issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology, suggest that romantic love is associated more with basic human needs and drives than with emotions and sex.
“Brain areas activated when someone looks at a photo of their beloved only partially overlap with the brain regions associated with sexual arousal,” said Arthur Aron, one of the authors from the State University of New York-Stony Brook. “Sex and romantic love involve quite different brain systems.”
Specifically, the scientists found that “love” activated the right ventral tegmental area (VTA) and dorsal caudate body of the brain, which are regions associated with motivation to win a reward. According to another author, Lucy Brown of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, this may explain why romantic love can feel like such a driving factor. In addition, this association may help us understand why depression, murder, and suicide are so strongly related to rejected love.
Helen Fisher, a third author and anthropologist from Rutgers University, New Jersey, said, “Studies indicate that some 40% of people who are rejected in love slip into clinical depression. Our study may also suggest some of the underlying physiology of stalking behavior.”
Another breakthrough the researchers found was that brain patterns change with long-term relationships to areas associated with attachment. They also found that brain areas activated by a physical attraction were on the left, whereas areas activated by romantic love were on the right.
"It's a stark reminder that the mind truly is in the brain," noted Brown. "We humans are built to experience magical feelings like love, but our findings don't diminish the magic in any way. In fact, for some, it enhances the experience.”
