High levels of intimacy correlate negatively with depression and positively with immune function and cardiovascular health. Most of our knowledge on the neuroendocrinology of intimacy is based on the work on the prairie vole Microtus ochrogaster a humble but socially monogamous model from the grasslands of the central United States.
In this harsh grassland with scarce resources, the prairie vole evolved into a monogamous animal with breeding pairs living together until one partner dies; the surviving partner does not find another mate. The male prairie vole is highly paternal, helps with nest building guards the nest from conspecific strangers. In general, an animal with low levels of aggression, the male displays enhanced levels of aggression toward strange males.
It displays high levels of paternal behavior to litters; this extends to juveniles even after a second litter is born. Arginine vasopressin AVP OT and dopamine DA have been reported to be important in regulating social behavior including sexual behavior, aggression, and maternal care. While there are no differences in AVP and OT neurons or their distribution between the monogamous prairie voles and their polygamous cousins, remarkable differences are seen in the receptor distribution the V1aR and OT receptor [OTR] and their densities.
Interestingly, these densities are stable across the lifespan of the vole. It is possible that epigenetic modifications of the OTR are also involved. In the male prairie vole, cohabitation with mating appears to increase AVP synthesis in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and AVP release in the limbic system. Activation of the OT and vasopressin receptors in these centers might result in the development of a conditioned partner preference in prairie voles.
Antagonism of the OTR impairs the formation of pair bonds. This effect appears to be larger in the female. Knockdown of VP production in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus in the zebra finch increases aggressiveness in the male decreases it the female and reduces gregariousness in both.
Knockdown of OT reduces gregariousness, pair bonding, nest cup ownership and side by side perching in females and induces hyperphagia in males. AVP activity in the ventral palladium affects partner preference. V1aR activation in this region is necessary for pair bond formation. Functional MRI studies of human partners in long-term relationships show activation the ventral palladium putamen the anterior cingulate cortex and the mid-insular cortex.
The areas appear, and connections appear to be distinct but related to those for maternal love. Maternal love activated specific different areas including the lateral orbit frontal cortex but also some same areas as romantic love including medial insula, the anterior cingulate gyrus, and caudate nucleus. From the very beginning of our efforts, in understanding the biologic basis of love it has been clear that it involves reward centers in the brains. In this love and addictions such as by drugs are somewhat interconnected the one key difference is that naturally rewarding activities such as love are controlled by feedback mechanisms that activate aversive centers that limit the destructive qualities of addiction seen with drugs.
The effects include a reduction in emotional judgment and reduced fear and also reduced depression and enhanced mood. It also leads to a reduced need to assess the social validity of that person. Studies which have examined the OT and AVP receptors strongly suggest that the activation of these receptors in the reward circuitry is important for the development of pair bonding.
As a critical part of the reward process, DA appears to be central to the maintenance of love. Differences in DA and its receptor distribution densities have been reported in vole studies vide above. Dopaminergic pathways appear to be more specific for partner preference that attachment.
While several DA systems exist in the brain, the mesolimbic DA system appears to be the most important in this respect. Both D1 and D2 receptors though partially functional antagonists are both significantly expressed in the NA. Other DA receptors D are also linked to the limbic system and are substantially present in the amygdala and the hippocampus.
Their functions include reward and motivation and appear to share common morphologic evolutionary and molecular roots. Endogenous opioids may also be involved in this process. Early studies that involved functional MRI, which used the partner's photograph as a visual stimuli confirm the involvement of the right ventral segmental area VTA which is a central region of the brain's reward system [ 29 ] associated with pleasure, general arousal, focused attention, and motivation to pursue and acquire rewards.
These appear to be true of both early intense 7. Clearly, sexual activity is an important component of the reinforcement of the reward system, and this appears to reinforce attachment. Increasing levels of testosterone and oestrogen promote DA release. The relationship between elevated central DA sex steroids, sexual arousal, and performance appears to be conserved in humans 7. The sympathetic nervous system also appears to contribute.
Behavioral data support the complementary but distinct pathways for love and sex drive: a While sexual drive is often expressed toward a range of individuals while love is focused on one particular individual b the sex drive can be quelled when satiated; love does not decrease with coitus and persists unabated for months or years. Sex drive enables individuals to initiate courtship and mating with a range of partners; love focuses mating energy to specific individuals conserving time and metabolic energy 6.
Pleasure and reward activate behavioral patterns that get memorized for the goal of repetition and faster and better recognition later. There is clear evidence to support a connection between attachment behaviors and pleasure pathways that involve hippocampal mechanisms. The VP is a major target of the NA. It is hypothesized that in monogamous species such as the prairie vole sex triggers the activity of AVP in the ventral pallidum and OT in the NA and facilitates DA release in these reward regions which in turn motivates the male and female to prefer a current mating partner and initiates attachment or pair bonding.
In promiscuous species, the male feels the attraction but does not associate the pleasurable feeling with a specific partner and so does not initiate long-term attachment The relationship with the DA reward systems also appears weaker in these species. Their interdependence also distinguishes romantic love from more platonic attachments including friendship and maternal love vide above.
It is interesting to extrapolate this to humans. Humans engage in sexual activity throughout the cycle which may serve to strengthen the pair bond. Interestingly and in contrast to other species human females have enlarged mammary tissue independent of lactation. Breast and nipple stimulation are integral to human sexual activity. Furthermore, prairie voles become promiscuous when the release of oxytocin and vasopressin is blocked. Together, these findings highlight the manner in which hormone activity may facilitate or hinder the formation of a close relationship.
Romantic love may serve an important evolutionary function, for example by increasing the level of parental support available to subsequent children. While distressing, most people are able to cope and move on from this loss. For a minority of people experiencing loss through bereavement, complicated grief develops, characterised by recurrent painful emotions and preoccupation with the deceased partner.
All bereaved partners experience pain in response to loss-related stimuli such as a card or photograph. It is argued that for those experiencing complicated grief, the stimuli also activates reward centres in the brain, producing a form of craving or addiction which reduces their ability to recover from the loss. 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 with judgement and negative emotions — are deactivated during maternal love.
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In reality, and court cases, while the chemical imballance standpoint could be argued, that would either be too out there to be valid, or it would be the same as arguing they were not mentally aware of their actions. If you think love is just some sort of thought, it could be argued that it is still controlled by the brain.
So essentially, everything you believe in, feel, hate, is all controlled by the brain. Truly, a bunch of nonsense. Man and women who are in love with sin and go to any extreme to try and convince others that their sin is okay. These last few years demonstrate the truth of all the words of the bible. Adam, you are right! We were all given a free will at Creation when God made us in His image. That is what differentiates us from animals. That is also why animals do not go to court lol.
Spent the day in a semi meltdown which led me to wonder if this was indeed the culprit. Explains it beautifully. Thank you. Loved your article……… Hormones are synthesized in small amounts but leaves a great impact on individuals and society ………. I and my lover had been apart for 7 months until my sister told me about a spell caster who had helped her, She said the man was very powerful and that he could help me too.
The name of this powerful man is Robinson buckler, after I contacted Robinson buckler in the next 48 hours my ex lover came back to me on his knees begging for my forgiveness and for me to accept him back. It was unbelievable as I was very surprised and happy I finally have him back after several attempts trying to get him back. Robinsonbuckler hotmail. Does anyone know her contact information preferably email? I am doing a research paper on the science behind the feelings of love and I would love to interview her.
Great article! May i see your research paper? I am also writing a research paper, would you mind sharing any of your sources with me? Maybe we can proof read each others work?
Hello my fellow intellectuals! I am currently indulging in some adverse learning for an anatomy class as well. Would you be so kind as to share some sources to see if mine are credible enough? Just something to think about free will…. Brilliantly done. Attraction is not merely based on ones physical prefers. As such, although I may be physically attracted to someone that changes quickly at first site of an unattractive quality such as greed, bad temper, lack of intelligence, as well as intolerance.
Free will is there. The biggest proof of that are those who abstain, such as myself. Its not that I am not attracted to anyone it is just that I willing ignore or redirect those desires.
Free will is a major player in a healthy relationship of any type. To simply deny free will existence is to claim every one of us is the same and we all know that is biologically impossible i. And my free will can make me abstain if i have to such as if it would be an inappropriate relationship as i may already be in one or because I am not on birth control and dont want to risk pregnancy for instance. I loved the article, I gotta say I found it arousing, must have been the serotonin and oxytocin in my brain?
Ok, sorry, I just had to say it. I really like that article. And your article allowed me to see everything clearer. I loved the article but I would love if an explanation was given on how the brain is involved to regulate the three parts of love , attraction, lust, and attachment, I mean what is the controlling chemical for the free will? The article was very informative and interesting.
I would like to express the our creator did a beautiful job of intelligently designing humans. There are some good medications and therapies to help when things malfunction but sometimes I think we can mess things up by lack of understanding and interfering with the design of the human and nature. Intelligent design huh? Maybe our creator gets laughed at by other creators because after We are smart enough to destroy their planet, smart enough to realize we are destroying our planet, but just to stupid greedy to care.
While that is a perfectly stated shared opinion you might just find that the processes of this world are evidently exceptional in comparison to our own imaginations; some might not appreciate it but it would be interesting if they did. People do things for specific reasons-no one is outright evil.
More or less anyway. This assisted me in my understanding of the human body and psychological processes, I greatly appreciate this being created because it provides many of the answers I have been looking for. Good job. I am sure at times the chemical levels will fluctuate due to certain actions, which would only mean that if someone were to love two people equally it would only be for a very small amount of time because chemical reactions can only last for so long.
She said that it is possible to love people equally and that it is not fair that my love would not be equal in the family.
I just do not see how it is scientifically possible to love several people the same amount. I still think that affection and emotional intimacy are a consequence of sexual attraction and sexual intimacy for animals who are capable of affection.
In general I think a lot of the pop science you find online is biased, intellectually dishonest riddled with half truths presented out of context or logically flawed interpretation of data etc.
Really at last i knew about love, its so crazy that love is also an chemicals, but thanks a lot for giving me knowledge about love. You may not want to or choose to, but, it is possible. However, there are deeper bonds that have finer elements that are missing in the article. There is a spiritual element to love that draws us to each other that has to do with a fundamental energy in our bodies that may be difficult to measure directly. This spiritual component is one that usually develops over time and can becomes a bond that is so strong that it defies metrics and yet we feel it almost as tangible as a tie that binds.
We can not truly understand love without the spiritual components. Good work. I wonder what of unrequited love. A constant flow of unrewarded loved up chemicals with no real check to their balance. No intimate relationship problems , hurdles to numb the flow. There are also infinite other issues affecting your love choices aside from hormones such as how much your parents showed affection, whether your family had a father figure, on and on.
This is basic neurobiology. The comments on here are absolutely unreal. I told a friend of mine that I had an intuition to her loss of appetite and this is it. I hope she reads this comment. God created everything, and His creation was perfect and wonderful. But then man sinned, and continues to sin, and blaspheme and rebel. But they seem to be all over the Internet. Hey Ambar, Even what you call science and all of its disciplines, were created by God and understood by scientists for most of history.
It was Columbus who read in the bible that God created the spherical earth in both Isaiah and the book of Job, that caused him to ask of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. His scientific journey and discovery was motivated by what he read in his bible. Isaiah It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nought, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.
Prophet Isaiah written approximately B.
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