For centuries, love has been probed -- and of course celebrated -- mostly by poets, artists and balladeers. But now its mysteries are yielding to the tools of science, including modern brain-scanning machines.
At State University of New York at Stony Brook, a handful of young people who had just fallen madly in love volunteered to have their brains scanned to see what areas were active when they looked at pictures of their sweethearts. The brain areas that lighted up were precisely those known to be rich in a powerful "feel-good" chemical, dopamine, which brain cells release in response to cocaine and nicotine. Dopamine is the key chemical in the brain's reward system, a network of cells that is associated with pleasure -- and addiction.
In the same lab, older volunteers who said they were still intensely in love after two decades of marriage participated in the experiment as well. The same brain areas lighted up, showing that, at least in some lucky couples, the honeymoon feeling can last. But in these folks, other areas lighted up too -- those rich in oxytocin, the "cuddling" chemical that helps new mothers make milk and bond with their babies, that is secreted by both sexes during orgasm and that, in animals, has been linked to monogamy and long-term attachment.
It's way too soon (and, we can hope, always will be) to say that brain scientists have translated all those warm and fuzzy feelings we call romantic love into a bunch of chemicals and electrical signals in the brain.
But they do have a plausible hypothesis -- that dopamine plays a big role in the excitement of love and that oxytocin is key for the calmer experience of attachment. Granted, the data are preliminary. But the findings so far are provocative. And it's conceivable that, as Emory University neurobiologist Larry J. Young pointed out in the journal Nature this year, once scientists understand the chemistry of love, drugs to manipulate the process "may not be far away."
Better interactions
A new study published this year in Biological Psychiatry supports that idea, showing that oxytocin may help human couples get along better. Swiss researchers gave 47 couples a nasal spray containing either oxytocin or a placebo. The couples then participated in a videotaped "conflict" discussion. Those that got oxytocin exhibited more positive and less negative behavior than those given the placebo. Oxytocin was also linked to lower secretion of cortisol, a stress hormone.
