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Safeguarding Your Love Life – Part 6<\/strong><\/em><\/span> The Brain On Love<\/strong><\/span> Of the thirty-seven subjects the researchers examined, seventeen were happily in love.\u00a0 Fifteen had just been dumped, and the remaining reported that they were still happily in love after 10-25 years of marriage. Upon examining the brains of those happily in love, the researchers noticed increased activity in a small factory near the base of the brain known as the ventral tegmental area (or, VTA.) Specifically, the researchers noticed activity in the A-10 cells \u2013 the cells that make dopamine and spray it to many brain regions. This dopamine spraying mechanism is part of the brain\u2019s reward system. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter– a natural stimulant The rush of romantic love, however, is far more complex than a cocaine high, Fisher explains. A cocaine high wears off. One comes down from it. But romantic love is not so easily predicted or measured. It takes hold of a person. One loses their sense of self. You can\u2019t stop thinking about the person you love. You become obsessed. You are, for all intents and purposes, possessed.\u00a0 And paradoxically, perhaps even cruelly, the obsession actually intensifies when you need it to stop the most \u2013 when you have been rejected.<\/p>\n The second area of the brain the researchers found activity in among those who had been dumped was in the region associated with calculating gains and losses– an area in the core of the nucleus accumbens. This is the area of the brain that becomes active when you are prepared to take enormous risks for huge gains.\u00a0 The third area the researchers observed activity in was in the region associated with deep attachment to another individual.\u00a0 Given all this, Fisher notes empathically in her TED video address1<\/sup>, \u201cNo wonder people suffer around the world, and we have so many crimes of passion.\u00a0 When you\u2019ve been rejected in love, not only are you engulfed with feelings of romantic love, but you are feeling deep attachment to this individual. Moreover, this brain circuit for reward is working, and you\u2019re feeling intense energy, focus, motivation, and the willingness to risk it all to win life\u2019s greatest prize.\u201d<\/p>\n ____________________________________ Safeguarding Your Love Life – Part 6 The Brain On Love To better understand what happens in the brain when we are in love, anthropologist Helen Fisher and fellow researchers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":13614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[616],"tags":[158],"class_list":["post-3183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dating-advice-how-to","tag-online-dating"],"yoast_head":"\n
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\nTo better understand what happens in the brain when we are in love, anthropologist Helen Fisher and fellow researchers gathered thirty-seven people who were madly in love and scanned their brains with a functional MRI brain scanner.\u00a0 The researchers were curious to find out what, if anything, the brain might divulge. Would they detect any unique activity connected with romantic love? Might the brain reveal the secrets to romance?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-content\/uploads\/image\/FotoFlexer_Photo9889.jpg?resize=205%2C219&ssl=1\")
associated with feelings of pleasure and reinforcement. It can motivate a person proactively to perform certain activities and is released by naturally rewarding experiences such as food and sex, as well as with the use of certain drugs and other neutral stimuli that become associated with them. The spraying mechanism the researchers observed is situated deep in the brain. It is below the cognitive thinking area, below even the emotions. It is located in a primal area otherwise known as the \u201creptilian core of the brain\u201d \u2013 an area associated with wanting and motivation, and with focus and craving.\u00a0 Interestingly (and perhaps not so surprising) it is also the area of the brain that becomes active when one feels the rush of cocaine.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-content\/uploads\/image\/FotoFlexer_Photo444.jpg?resize=226%2C234&ssl=1\")
Remarkably, the MRI\u2019s of the persons who had been dumped showed activity in three areas of the brain:\u00a0 First, as if by some cruel trick of nature, in the exact same region observed with romantic love. Hence, just when you would prefer to forget the person you so love, as luck would have it, you only “love them harder,” Fisher notes. The reward system of the brain \u2013 the part connected with wanting, with motivation, with craving and with focus, ironically becomes more active when you cannot get what you want \u2013 in this case, the object of your affections.\u00a0 As the Roman poet \u2018Terence\u2019 so aptly wrote, Fisher quotes \u2013 \u201cThe less my hope, the hotter my love.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-content\/uploads\/image\/FotoFlexer_Photo76%285%29.jpg?resize=224%2C218&ssl=1\")
So what did the researchers ultimately learn from the study?\u00a0 The next chapter in the series reveals all.\u00a0 In the meantime, Spokeo<\/a> reminds you \u2013 before you succumb to the powerful influence of dopamine et al. and fall head over heels, be sure to learn whatever you can about the person you are considering going out with first. Always practice safe dating. One easy step you can take is to conduct a quick online search about your date with a people-search<\/a> engine like Spokeo<\/a>. Discover what social networks he or she is on, what company he or she might be keeping, and possibly a whole lot more. TO BE CONTINUED\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n
\n1<\/sup>https:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/lang\/eng\/helen_fisher_studies_the_brain_in_love.html<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"