Love is Sick...
Or dopey, depending on whether or not your love interest is requiting your love.
The chemistry of love has long been the realm of study for mystics and poets. But modern science has discovered that love is fueled by chemicals in our brain, and unrequited love can produce severe withdrawal-like effects not dissimilar to rehab patients trying to kick a cocaine or heroin habit.
A neuroscientist recruited seventeen students who claimed to be "truly and madly in love." Using MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging), he scanned their brain activity as they stared at a photograph of their partners. He found that he could actually see an explosion of chemicals gush forth in specific areas of the brain.
Recent studies have now confirmed there are three basic neurochemicals that make the earth move between you and another. First, when you meet someone you are attracted to, your brain creates phenylethylamine, a natural stimulant. Also involved are dopamine and norepinephrine, both chemical cousins of amphetamines. Dopamine makes you feel good and norepinephrine stimulates the production of adrenaline, the fight-or-flight chemical that makes your heart race. According to a well-known love researcher, this is the attraction or "lust" phase that is the engine behind the biological drive to focus on one person.
So, is what we call "infatuation" or "falling in love" really just the combination of these three chemicals at work in your brain? Perhaps that's why you call somebody "hot" when you're attracted to her—after all, your blood pressure is up, your palms are sweaty, and you can't sleep. A researcher who has conducted studies on female voles to determine what controls their social behavior says: "The studies so far suggest that love is simply a form of addiction that makes some animals form life-long pair bonds."
Dopamine also stimulates the production of oxytocin, known as "the cuddle chemical," because it stimulates a feeling of well-being in mothers who nurse their children. Oxytocin is also released during sexual orgasm, so it has been suggested that it is involved in adult bonding, the chemical that kicks in after the fever of lust has faded, encouraging us to stay monogamous and stick with and care for our family units.
So what happens when you're dumped, and you're as sullen, withdrawn, and angry as any other addict who needs his fix? Where's your brain chemistry then?
Love is just a lie
Made to make you blue
Love hurts
Love hurts
Love hurts
---------------------------------------
I love Biochemistry! Duh! Hahaha!
Or dopey, depending on whether or not your love interest is requiting your love.
The chemistry of love has long been the realm of study for mystics and poets. But modern science has discovered that love is fueled by chemicals in our brain, and unrequited love can produce severe withdrawal-like effects not dissimilar to rehab patients trying to kick a cocaine or heroin habit.
A neuroscientist recruited seventeen students who claimed to be "truly and madly in love." Using MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging), he scanned their brain activity as they stared at a photograph of their partners. He found that he could actually see an explosion of chemicals gush forth in specific areas of the brain.
Recent studies have now confirmed there are three basic neurochemicals that make the earth move between you and another. First, when you meet someone you are attracted to, your brain creates phenylethylamine, a natural stimulant. Also involved are dopamine and norepinephrine, both chemical cousins of amphetamines. Dopamine makes you feel good and norepinephrine stimulates the production of adrenaline, the fight-or-flight chemical that makes your heart race. According to a well-known love researcher, this is the attraction or "lust" phase that is the engine behind the biological drive to focus on one person.
So, is what we call "infatuation" or "falling in love" really just the combination of these three chemicals at work in your brain? Perhaps that's why you call somebody "hot" when you're attracted to her—after all, your blood pressure is up, your palms are sweaty, and you can't sleep. A researcher who has conducted studies on female voles to determine what controls their social behavior says: "The studies so far suggest that love is simply a form of addiction that makes some animals form life-long pair bonds."
Dopamine also stimulates the production of oxytocin, known as "the cuddle chemical," because it stimulates a feeling of well-being in mothers who nurse their children. Oxytocin is also released during sexual orgasm, so it has been suggested that it is involved in adult bonding, the chemical that kicks in after the fever of lust has faded, encouraging us to stay monogamous and stick with and care for our family units.
So what happens when you're dumped, and you're as sullen, withdrawn, and angry as any other addict who needs his fix? Where's your brain chemistry then?
Love is just a lie
Made to make you blue
Love hurts
Love hurts
Love hurts
---------------------------------------
I love Biochemistry! Duh! Hahaha!
No comments:
Post a Comment