Valentine's Day would not be complete without mentioning neuroanthropologist Helen Fisher. She's an expert on the neurobiology and evolutionary psychology of love, author of four books on the subject and many studies [free PDFs]. Fisher's work examined neural correlates of romantic love (and its loss), finding similarities to drug addiction and OCD with activation in the caudate nucleus and ventral tegmental area (for a start). While dopamine, vasopressin and oxytocin are abundant, serotonin levels are low, perhaps explaining the lovesick state that makes lovers pine for each and obsess about other when separated but feel a rush of pleasure when reunited. She also warns that SSRI antidepressants (which boost serotonin) may interfere with the ability to love. [Not to mention the libido.]
Watch a terrific lecture video from the Swartz Foundation's Stony Brook Mind Brain Lecture Series. Channel N has featured a few other videos on the science of love as well. It's a topic sure to be all over the media today since it's now recurring annually as predictably as Valentine's Day stories on how chocolate is good for you.
Recently the Sixth Annual Conference On Neuroaesthetics was held at UC Berkeley on the theme The Neurobiology of Love. I attended, and enjoyed all the presentations but especially recommend reading Larry Young's research on the molecular neurobiology of pair bonding, and Gert Holstege's work on measuring brain activity during male and female orgasms (quite a study design!). Links to that and other speakers' work are here.
A special note below:
I went with The Neurocritic and though I didn't have a scan, I'm confident that my VTA and hypothalamus were quite active, with oodles [the technical term] of oxytocin and dopamine released that weekend, just as today. Happy Valentine's Day, T.N. I love you madly. <3
Comments
Ahem..Sputter...*Cough*I love you too*Cough*
Posted by: The Neurocritic | February 14, 2007 10:18 PM
muy buena info de la web.
Posted by: zemoog | February 27, 2008 8:22 AM