The Brain Science Of Love
Most of the people who are in love usually close their eyes and harbor romantic thoughts about their partners. They usually envision their romantic parts like his romantic eyes, her sexy legs and other body parts but no one thinks about ventral segmental areas or the caudate in the brain. Little is known about these brain parts and yet scientists have proved that they are used to explain the physiological reasons as to why people feel the way they do when they are in love. The brain science of love can be learned by performing brain scans on people who were said to be deeply in love. The science explains why the feeling is so powerful and so painful when a heart is broken.
Various experiments have been carried out by a professor in the department of neurology and neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of medicine in New York and her colleagues. Their specimens were college students who enjoyed the throes of new love. During the experiment, the students were being made to look at the photos of their loved ones. The love scientists found the area responsible for most cravings in the body becoming excessively active. The ventral tegmental area in the brain was also observed to become instantly active. This is the area that is responsible for producing a powerful neurotransmitter known as dopamine. It is usually known to influence body motivation including pleasure. The brain science of love is explained in that, when one falls in love, the caudate becomes very active and stimulates the ventral tegmental to release more dopamine.
Dr. Brown and her colleagues said that the effect of falling in love is the same as that one of taking in cocaine. There is usually intense stimulation and elation when one is in love. The scientists went ahead to study whether a brain in love looks like one which is sexually stimulated. It is easy to confuse love and lust because in most instances they are related. Love and sex is a subject which usually arises when people are in love. During the brain experiments to explain the brain science of love, the researchers presented pictures of the beloved to people and found some sought of activity in the Amygdala and hypothalamus parts of the human brain. Amygdala controls arousal and other body desires. In the brains of the people who were observed to be in love, no activity was found in the Amygdala or the hypothalamus. This shows that love and sex are different to people who are in love.
Dr. Fisher and her colleagues collected the physiological data that revealed the fact that the brain systems for sex and love are different but sometimes they are linked at some point. This is because of the presence of dopamine which is usually produced in excess when one is in love. Dopamine triggers production of testosterone in both men and women hence increasing sex drive in both men and women. This is the reason as to why people in love are usually all over each other and they feel so sexy all over a sudden. The information about the brain science of love throws more understanding into the folklore saying that the brain is the greatest sex organ.
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