New Study Unveils the Science Behind Why Love Can Overwhelm Us: The Brain’s Role

February 13, 2024 TruthUSA

Love leaves a chemical imprint on the brain that is fueled by dopamine—even the thought of the one we love ignites the ‘feel good’ hormone.

We are all familiar with the wonderful feeling of being in love, and findings from a recent study may be able to explain why.

According to neuroscientists from CU Boulder, the brain produces more dopamine—the hormone responsible for our feelings of desire and pleasure—when we crave or spend time with the one we love.

The study also suggests that just thinking about being with our partner causes dopamine to flood the brain’s reward center, which motivates us to seek them out to maintain that strong connection. In contrast, only a small amount of dopamine is released when thinking about an acquaintance or coworker, the study reveals.

Furthermore, the research suggests that our romantic partners create a “chemical imprint” in our brains, and that when those romantic relationships come to an end, the imprint begins to fade.

The study, which was published in the journal Current Biology, conducted experiments using prairie voles, a species that forms monogamous lifelong bonds, similar to humans.

These small creatures, resembling fluffy brown mice, exhibit behaviors such as prolonged relationships, shared responsibilities in raising offspring, cohabitation, and experiencing loss when their spouse dies.

The Science of Love and Attachment

For many decades, scientists have studied human relationships, love, and attachment. Research has revealed specific regions of the brain and neural circuitry associated with feelings of love, attachment, and desire, as shown in this video on the science of love and attachment.

Helen Fisher is an author and expert on human relationships with a doctorate in physical and biological anthropology. She says that certain brain chemicals are associated with feelings of love.

“The oxytocin and vasopressin system are now linked with feelings of calm and attachment,” she stated in an interview about the science of attachment in relationships for Big Think.

Oxytocin serves as both a neurotransmitter and a hormone, playing a crucial role in childbirth, breastfeeding, and bonding. It is often referred to as “the love hormone” because it is instrumental in creating intimate bonds, from a mother bonding with her newborn baby to how we bond with romantic partners and friends.

Vasopressin, also known as “antidiuretic hormone,” has a variety of bodily functions and influences social behavior, particularly bonding between couples.

Ms. Fisher and her colleagues have performed brain scans on individuals in various relationship stages, from being in love to post-breakup. They found that, for those who were newly in love, the dopamine system in the brain was highly active. However, for those in love for a longer time, there was new activity in brain regions associated with attachment.

“When you fall madly in love with somebody… that brain system can be triggered instantly. But the feelings of attachment grow—they grow as you learn about the person,” said Ms. Fisher.

The Dopamine Drive to Reunite

The researchers studying voles wanted to understand what happens in the brain when the moles are separated from their partners and attempting to reunite with them.

Using neuroimaging technology, the researchers were able to observe real-time activity in the brain’s nucleus accumbens, which is responsible for seeking pleasurable things in humans. Previous neuroimaging studies in humans have shown that this area of the brain is activated when we hold hands with our partner.

In an experiment, a vole had to push a lever to open the door to reach her partner; in another, she had to climb over a barrier to be reunited. As the voles worked to overcome these obstacles to reach their mates, sensors detected a surge of dopamine, lighting up the equipment like a Christmas tree.

Conversely, the lights dimmed when a random or unknown vole was on the other side of the barrier.

“This suggests that not only is dopamine really important for motivating us to seek out our partner, but there’s actually more dopamine coursing through our reward center when we are with our partner than when we are with a stranger.” says first-author Anne Pierce, a graduate student who worked on the study in Ms. Donaldson’s lab.

Hope for Grieving Hearts

Although the study authors emphasize the need for further research to determine how their findings on voles translate to humans, they suggest that their work could eventually be used to assist people who have trouble making connections with others or struggle with sadness, such as prolonged grief disorder, according to the American Psychiatric Association.

“The hope is that by understanding what healthy bonds look like within the brain, we can begin to identify new therapies to help the many people with mental illnesses that affect their social world,” Ms. Donaldson said.

Source link