"And this is the system that was active, to our amazement, in the people who were in love,” she says.
An MRI imaging machine similar to one researchers Lucy Brown and Helen Fisher used to test brain activity in 17 in-love college students.
Brown notes that this is the region of the brain that lights up during a cocaine high, and is responsible for the craving that drives cocaine addiction.
A similar mix of euphoria and longing is familiar to anyone who has ever been in love, which may help explain why romantic love is often a bittersweet experience.
“It’s not just euphoria," Brown says. "You can be anxious. You can actually get angry a little. But the key, the core that remains, is this motivation toward the other person. That other person is a goal because they produce so much reward.”
When the brain’s reward system is aroused, it releases a neurotransmitter chemical called dopamine. Rutgers University anthropologist Helen Fisher, who worked with Brown on the brain imaging and love studies, says dopamine then spreads to other parts of the brain, each of which has its own function.
The caudate nucleus portion of the brain, which is associated with passion, becomes aroused when someone is shown a picture of a person with whom he or she is in love.
“As you reach for a piece of chocolate and want it, as you want to get a raise at work, as you want your child to do well in school, this brain system is being activated," Fisher says. "But it is being activated with a different combination of other parts of the brain, making the experience of wanting the chocolate different than the experience of wanting a sweetheart.”
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25