Love is a Matter of the Brain
Romance has complex biochemical nature
February 13, 2012
Thai-Swedish couple William Timhede, 23, left, and Napatsawan Timhede, 39, kiss as they hang on sling wireas part of an adventure-themed wedding ceremony in Thailand, on Monday, Feb. 13, 2012, on the eve of Valentine's Day.
Tuesday, Feb. 14 is Valentine's Day, an annual occasion which celebrates romantic love.
However, love is not only a matter of the heart. Brain researchers have discovered romance has a complex biochemical nature.
While our thoughts and emotions seem like invisible, intangible things, these internal states can be inferred by monitoring blood flow in different parts of our brain using advanced imaging techniques.
Neuroscientist Lucy Brown conducted an experiment with 17 college students, who described themselves as being in the throes of new love. They were subjected to brain scans and asked to look at a picture of their beloved.
Without exception, the picture stimulated heightened electrical activity in two key areas of the brain: the caudate nucleus and ventral tegmental area.
Brown – a professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine - says these two regions comprise the brain’s reward system. A primitive part of the organ also found in other mammals, it is more closely associated with the desire for food and water than with the sex drive.
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25