How does our brain put our loved one on a pedestal? Researchers found that romantic love significantly changed brain activity, via the brain’s behavioral activation system.
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Love is a complex subject to characterize and involves different regions of the brain. In biology, “romantic love” tends to refer to the period of intense feelings that often accompanies the early stages of romantic relationships, according to the authors of a new study published in Behavioral Sciences. In their research, the scientists found that this type of love significantly changed brain activity, with an intense focus on the loved one. The latter becomes the main center of interest of the brain of the person who is in love with it.
Love activates specific brain pathways
“ We know the role oxytocin plays in romantic love because waveswaves of this hormonehormone circulate through our nervous system and bloodstream when we interact with loved onessaid Professor Phil Kavanagh of the University of Canberra (Australia). However, if loved ones take on particular importance, it is because oxytocin combines with dopaminedopamine, a chemical that our brains release during romantic love. In fact, love activates brain pathways associated with positive feelings. » More specifically, love triggers the brain’s behavioral activation system.
The researchers believe they have developed a new way to assess a biopsychological system (here, the sensitivity of the behavioral activation system towards a loved one) that can contribute to the expression of romantic love. The study looked at more than 1,500 young adults who self-identified as “in love” and focused on their behaviors and emotional reactions toward their partner, as well as how much attention they paid carried to the loved one.
