[Creative Cultivation Program] Uncovering the secrets of "love brain": love or not, MRI has the final say

Author: Niu Mingmin

Reviewer: Fan Chunlei

What is love in the world that makes people stay together for life and death? Throughout the ages, many people have tried to uncover the mystery of love. Writers say that love is an ideal in the world, philosophers say that love is long-lasting patience, and religious doctrines say that love is the most painful obsession. You and I who are in love look for evidence of love and being loved in every clue, and repeatedly try to figure out "how much the other person loves me" in the relationship. Now, all this may be left to science. What is love? When love comes, is it a physical reaction or a mental reaction? fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) will tell us the answer.

"Love Brain" under Imaging

Different from the "love" in the eyes of humanities, modern brain science believes that love is just a byproduct of our brain's evolution in order to adapt to nature. With the help of fMRI technology, brain science researchers have concluded that love is the product of activity in specific areas of the brain, and it is inconsistent with the brain areas stimulated by other types of love such as maternal love.

British scientists once recruited young men and women to do an experiment. In the experiment, lovers were asked to observe photos of their partners while recording their brain activity. Then the photos were replaced with those of ordinary friends. The results of the experiment found that when the subjects saw their lovers' faces, several areas in their brains were activated, including areas that process emotional stimulation and areas that integrate feelings and movements. At the same time, the activity of the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for judgment and reasoning in the brain, decreased, so there is a scientific basis for the saying that "love makes people stupider."

The United States has conducted similar experiments based on this, but the difference is that they chose couples in the early stages of love. The experimental results found that the "ventral tegmental area" in the subjects' brains was more strongly activated. This area is the brain's response center to strong feelings of happiness, the source of dopamine, and a key area for drugs to activate the brain. It is not unreasonable to say that "love is addictive."

There is a similar study in my country. The researchers recruited 18 college students in love and conducted a questionnaire survey and head scan. They found that the more passionate the love is, the stronger the activation of the caudate nucleus and ventral tegmental area. In addition, Chinese lovers also showed activation in the middle area of ​​the orbitofrontal cortex, indicating that they will weigh the relationship more carefully and are more likely to consider negative aspects when they are in love. So can a head scan directly determine whether you love or not?

Love is a product of hormones

From the perspective of imaging, specific areas of the brain change when falling in love, but how do we feel love? Neuroscience tells us that the wonderful feeling of love comes from chemicals such as dopamine, phenylethylamine, endorphins, and oxytocin.

In the initial stage of love, the development of affection will promote the secretion of dopamine (a neurotransmitter used to regulate neural activity) by brain cells. The secretion of dopamine makes us feel novel and interesting, and produces focused concentration, such as high energy and happy feelings, which is addictive.

When we are truly in love, we secrete phenylethylamine (a love stimulant), which can cause a "feeling of being attracted" such as accelerated breathing and heartbeat, sweaty palms, etc. This neurostimulant can make people feel more energetic and confident, and can produce a "halo effect", infinitely magnifying the advantages of the other person. However, although it is fast-acting, it is difficult to last, with an average of less than 30 months, so the passion in love will not last forever.

When love enters a new stage, physical contact will prompt the brain to produce more oxytocin to maintain love. Oxytocin is also called the anesthetic of love. It does not directly promote love, but stimulates the brain to repeatedly secrete dopamine so that we can enjoy it for a long time. Oxytocin not only occurs between opposite sexes, but also when a mother feeds her baby or strangers shake hands, they will secrete oxytocin.

As an intimate relationship continues to develop, people will desire a more lasting state of long-term companionship and attachment, and endorphins are produced in the process. Compared with the intoxication and madness brought by happy hormones such as phenylethylamine and dopamine, endorphins act as sedatives, making us feel warm, comfortable and attached, and helping to shape a lasting intimate relationship.

Phenylethylamine makes people fall in love, dopamine transmits excitement and joyful confidence, oxytocin produces more dopamine, and endorphins make people happy for a long time, and the feeling of love comes from this.

Breaking up hurts your heart and hurts your brain

According to FMRI research, a breakup can damage the vitality of the entire brain in different ways, greatly reducing the activity of brain cells in the emotional, motivational and practical parts of the brain. In addition, the pain of a breakup is consistent with the happiness of being in love, and the areas that control pain and physical pain are also activated after a breakup. Therefore, the pain of a breakup is real pain, not just "whining without illness". A breakup not only hurts the heart, but also hurts the brain.

From other FMRI studies, the reason why romantic relationships break up more violently than other relationships in society is that the reward area in the brain is connected to more primitive impulses, and the brain processes this problem at the same level as the feeling of hunger. The brain area stimulated when people are addicted to love is the same as the brain area stimulated by taking drugs, so the "withdrawal symptoms" that occur in the brain when a person breaks up are similar to those when they quit drugs. After breaking up, the brain still wants to get the reward of dopamine, and when reality does not allow it, people will suffer like quitting drugs, but the brain will eventually control the chaotic nervous system.

Love is like passion, it inspires passionate attachment, stirs up emotional upheavals, and stirs people's hearts. But in the final analysis, it is the product of certain hormones being activated in certain areas of the brain. Understanding the biological principles of love may help us deal with the joys and sorrows of love. Love is a game for the brave, and it is also a survival weapon left in our bodies by billions of years of evolution.

References

[1] David J. Linden. The Evolved Brain: Giving Me Love, Memory, and Sweet Dreams. Shanghai: Shanghai Science and Technology Press, 2005, 145-147.

[2] Zhu Wansen. Chemical Elements in Life[M]. Shanghai: Fudan University Press, 2014: 204.

This article is produced by the Science Popularization China-Creation Cultivation Program. Please indicate the source when reprinting