Think of the last time you ran into someone you find attractive. You may have stammered, your palms may have sweated you might have tripped spectacularly while trying to saunter away , your heart was thudding in your chest. It’s no surprise that, for centuries, people thought love (and most other emotions, for that matter) arose from the heart. As it turns out, love is all about the brain – which, in turn, makes the rest of your body go mad .Scientists in fields of anthropology and neuroscience have been asking this same question (what is love ?) for decades.the science behind love is more complex than we might think and also fascinating. Realizing what makes love happen is a charming study in neuroscience and psychology .
The role of brain chemistry in love.
Love can be divided into three categories: lust, attraction, and attachment. each type is characterized by its own bunch of hormones. Testosterone and estrogen drive lust; dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin create attraction; and oxytocin and vasopressin mediate attachment. dopamine and oxytocin flood our brain in areas associated with pleasure producing a variety of physical responses like profuse sweat , feelings of passion and anxiety and desire to cuddle and hug the one we love .Dopamine activates the reward circuit helping to make love an enjoyable euphoric experience .
Dopamine creates feelings of euphoria while adrenaline and norepinephrine are responsible for the crackling of the heart , restlessness and overall preoccupation that go along with experiencing love .
How does lust happen ?
Lust is driven by the desire for sexual gratification .The hypothalamus of the brain plays a big role in this, stimulating the production of the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen from the testes and ovaries .both play a role in men and women. testosterone increases libido in just about everyone. The effects are less pronounced with estrogen, but some women report being more sexually motivated around the time they ovulate, when estrogen levels are highest.
attraction&brain
attraction seems to be a distinct phenomenon. While we can certainly lust for someone we are attracted to, and vice versa, one can happen without the other. Attraction involves the brain pathways that control “reward” behavior , which partly explains why the first few weeks or months of a relationship can be so exhilarating and even all-consuming.
Dopamine, produced by the hypothalamus, it’s released when we do things that feel good to us. In this case, these things include spending time with loved ones and having sex. High levels of dopamine and a related hormone, norepinephrine, are released during attraction. These chemicals make us giddy, energetic, and euphoric, even leading to decreased appetite and insomnia .
Finally, attraction seems to lead to a reduction in serotonin, a hormone that’s known to be involved in appetite and mood. Interestingly, people who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder also have low levels of serotonin, leading scientists to speculate that this is what underlies the overpowering infatuation that characterizes the beginning stages of love.
attachment is the predominant factor in long-term relationships.dopamine, oxytocin is produced by the hypothalamus and released in large quantities during sex, breastfeeding, and childbirth. not all of which are necessarily enjoyable – but the common factor here is that all of these events are precursors to bonding.
love hurts
This all paints quite the rosy picture of love: hormones are released, making us feel good, rewarded, and close to our romantic partners. But that can’t be the whole story: love is often accompanied by jealousy, erratic behavior, and irrationality, along with a host of bad moods. It seems that our friendly bunch of hormones is also responsible for the downsides of love.
love makes us stupid
And finally, what would love be without embarrassment? Sexual arousal appears to turn off regions in our brain that regulate critical thinking, self-awareness, and rational behavior, including parts of the prefrontal cortex .In short, love makes us dumb. Have you ever done something when you were in love that you later regretted?
Comments
Post a Comment