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The Love Hypothesis


What is love to you? Is it engaging? Is it the compassion you give and get? Is love all-encompassing? Or is love just a series of brain activity that releases chemically induced emotions? Love encompasses a range of positive emotional and mental states.


From the most sublime virtue to the deepest interpersonal affection to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of implications is that the love of a mother differs from the love of a spouse, which differs from the love of food. To put it simply– love refers to a feeling of a strong attraction and emotional attachment to someone or something.


Love is such a wondrous thing, don't you think? Ever since the dawn of time, people have been reading and writing all about love– from passionate nights to secret affairs, and forbidden love. That love is something unexplainable and unpredictable, something that happens. Love hits you like a freight train heading toward heaven, and the next thing you know- you’ll wake up in a warm bed on a cozy day hugging the one you love, not being able to imagine a life without them.


But what happens when science and love meet? Is it all a series of fancy chemical terms of what happens in your brain? Richard Schwartz, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, says that “It’s fairly complex, and we know only a little about it. There are different phases and moods of love. The early phase of love is quite different”


Like the phases of a moon– a trigger of its own legendary form of madness– Love also has its phases. During the first love year, serotonin levels gradually return to normal, and the “stupid” and “obsessive” aspects of the condition gradually moderate. That period is followed by increases in the hormone oxytocin, a neurotransmitter associated with a calmer, more mature form of love. The oxytocin helps cement bonds, raise immune function, and begin to confer the health benefits found in married couples, who tend to live longer, have fewer strokes and heart attacks, be less depressed, and have higher survival rates from major surgery and cancer.


Love also turns on the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is known to stimulate the brain’s pleasure centers, paired with a drop in levels of serotonin– which adds a dash of obsession– and you have the feral, pleasing, stupefied, urgent love of infatuation.


“I think we know much more scientifically about love and the brain than we did a couple of decades ago, but I don’t think it tells us very much that we didn’t already know about love,” Schwartz said. “It’s kind of interesting, it’s kind of fun to study. But do we think that makes us better at love or helping people with love? Probably not much.”


Numerous brain regions, particularly those associated with reward and motivation, are activated by the thought or presence of a romantic partner. These include the hippocampus, hypothalamus, and anterior cingulate cortex. Activating these areas may inhibit defensive behavior, reduce anxiety and increase trust in the romantic partner. In addition, areas such as the amygdala and frontal cortex are deactivated in response to romantic love; a process which may function to reduce the likelihood of negative emotions or judgment of the partner.


Oxytocin and vasopressin are the hormones most closely associated with romantic love. They are produced by the hypothalamus and released by the pituitary gland; and while males and females are both influenced by oxytocin and vasopressin, females are more sensitive to oxytocin while males are more sensitive to vasopressin.


There are a number of parallels between the physiological responses to romantic and maternal love. For example, the brain regions activated by maternal love overlap with those activated by romantic love. Specifically, the reward areas of the brain which contain high concentrations of oxytocin and vasopressin are activated, while the regions deactivated during romantic love – including those related to judgment and negative emotions – are deactivated during maternal love.


There are many ways to show love, words of affirmation, acts of service, physical touch, and gift-giving are some examples. There are many ways to love: trusting each other, the compassion between two lovers, and the overwhelming and all-encompassing feeling of being loved and loving. But one thing is true and certain: to love, is to feel, and to feel is to live.


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