Are you in love?
Do not worry. Nor can you do anything to prevent it. Love is a powerful biochemistry in the brain that is hard to escape. The heart is the most common symbol to represent romantic love. But, it is not in the heart that the chemistry of love takes place. Not much less! It is in the brain.
Up to 10 different areas of the brain are modified when we are in love. Love is a brain chemical cocktail that causes a pleasant and rewarding feeling when you are with or think about a certain person.
In fact, love activates the same areas of the brain as sexual arousal.
And yes, okay, this brain chemistry triggers reactions in our physiology, such as increasing blood pressure, breathing, or sweating.
The chemistry of love is complex. It involves substances such as oxytocin, dopamine, vasopressin, and a hormone called corticotropin.
From what we know so far, the chemical composition of certain people causes a series of reactions in our own chemistry. And what causes them is something complex and completely subjective, from one individual to another.
One of these reactions is a kind of switch in our brain that triggers oxytocin. Oxytocin and vasopressin interact with the dopaminergic reward system , which is what causes us to feel euphoric.
But these effects are time-limited. So in a relationship, these feelings of euphoria are strongest early on. But the brain’s dopamine pathways can also activate areas of addictive behavior.
There is a lot of scientific literature comparing love and drugs.
Yes, indeed. Being in love would be like having an addiction to a certain person, since both have many neurotransmitters in common.
Therefore, when we are in love we feel a strong need to be close to the person we love, and a terrible anguish when we move away from him, similar to a true withdrawal syndrome. And finally, we are going to talk about corticotropin. This last hormone seems to be involved in the stress that appears in the face of separation from the loved one.
And because of all this chemistry, love, as one of the most powerful feelings, has been the protagonist of much of human artistic production. And also a date: Valentine.
Nature conspires so that we reproduce; This is one of the reasons why the biochemistry of love is so pleasant and so powerful: its purpose is to ensure that we have children. But he also wants the couples to be together long enough for the new individual to thrive.
The love of the prairie voles
Is love exclusive to humans? Perhaps human love is the most complex, because let’s not forget that there are other psychological and social factors that come into play. But this chemistry of love is also observed in other mammals.
A typical example is prairie voles, which also form long-term pairs, and have extensive oxytocin receptors in the nucleus accumbens , just like we do.
A very similar species are the mountain voles, which do not have these receptors. As a result, their behavior in reproduction is also different: they do not establish long-term relationships, and the males disappear shortly after fertilizing the female.
So we have the romantic prairie voles, and their promiscuous mountain cousins.
And you, have you ever felt the effects of the powerful chemistry of love in your brain?
We leave you with a gallery of famous pairs of scientists.
