14 DAY TRIAL // Syracuse University professor Stephanie Ortigue, found out that falling in love is “more scientific than you think”, because it can give the same euphoric feeling as using cocaine and it also affects intellectual areas of the brain.
Stephanie Ortigue is an assistant professor of psychology and an adjunct assistant professor of neurology in The College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University, and in her meta-analysis study called “The Neuroimaging of Love”, she says that falling in love only takes about a fifth of a second.
The assistant professor's team tried to find out which one falls in love, the heart or the brain, and they actually discovered that both were involved in the process.
This is always a trick question said Ortigue, because “I would say the brain, but the heart is also related because the complex concept of love is formed by both bottom-up and top-down processes from the brain to the heart and vice-versa.
“For instance, activation in some parts of the brain can generate stimulations to the heart, butterflies in the stomach.
“Some symptoms we sometimes feel as a manifestation of the heart may sometimes be coming from the brain.”
When someone falls in love, there are 12 areas of the brain that work together to release euphoria-inducing chemicals, like dopamine, adrenaline, oxytocin and vasopression.
Love also influences complex cognitive functions like metaphors, mental representation and body image.
Other researchers found that when in love, the blood levels of nerve growth factor also increased, and this is the molecule behind the social chemistry in humans, the one responsible for 'love at first sight', so Ortigue says that “these results confirm love has a scientific basis.”
Knowing this is very important for neuroscience and mental health research because love does not always work and when this happens, it causes emotional stress and depression, that need to be assessed.
“It's another probe into the brain and into the mind of a patient,” Ortigue said.
“By understanding why they fall in love and why they are so heartbroken, they can use new therapies,” and by knowing which parts of the brain are affected by love, the pain of love-sick patients can be better understood.
Another interesting thing that scientists discovered was that love affected different parts of the brain, depending on the type of sentiments: the love between mother and child – unconditional love, manifests itself within the common and different brain areas, the middle of the brain included.
Passionate love activates the reward part of the brain, and complex associative cognitive brain areas like those responsible for body image.
Ortigue and her team worked with a team from West Virginia University and a university hospital in Switzerland, and the results of the study are published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.