gracie7

You make my Dopamine,
Serotonin, Endorphin and
Oxytocin levels go silly.

THE SCIENCE IN LOVE

Getting struck by Cupid's arrow may very well take your breath away and make your heart go pitter-patter. Psychologists have shown it takes between 90 seconds and 4 minutes to decide if you like someone. Falling in love causes our body to release a flood of feel-good chemicals that trigger specific physical reactions. This internal elixir of love is responsible for making our cheeks flush, our palms sweat and our hearts race.

Levels of these substances, which include dopamine, adrenaline and norepinephrine, increase when two people fall in love. Dopamine creates feelings of euphoria while adrenaline and norepinephrine are responsible for the pitter-patter of the heart, restlessness and overall preoccupation that go along with experiencing love.

When do you know if you like someone? What does love do to your brain chemicals, and is falling in love just nature's way to keep our species alive? We call it love. It feels like love. But the most exhilarating of all human emotions is probably nature's beautiful way of keeping the human species alive and reproducing.

With an irresistible cocktail of chemicals, our brain entices us to fall in love. We believe we're choosing a partner. But we may merely be the happy victims of nature's lovely plan.

Every time you think about this person, you feel giddy—you feel really good. What's happening? The neurons in your brain are releasing dopamine, a feel-good hormone and neurotransmitter associated with euphoria (as well as gambling and drug addiction). And because your brain wants you to keep pursuing this feeling, like a little love-carrot, it fires off more dopamine every time you think about your crush.

Notice how whenever you really like someone you get nervous? Your palms sweat, your heart races, and you can practically feel the adrenaline surging through your body? Well, that's because it is. In the early throes of a romantic relationship, your brain sends a signal to the adrenal gland (located on top of the kidneys) to pump out the chemicals adrenaline, epinephrine, and norepinephrine, giving you a rush of excitement.

Norepinephrine is especially the key. Like dopamine, it makes us feel good—but it also makes us feel infatuated and obsessed. It's our brain's way of saying: keep going.

Now you're hooked. Suddenly you want to be around this person every minute of every day. Why? Studies have shown that the same part of your brain that activates when you’re addicted to cocaine activates when you’re in love. It’s called the limbic reward system. Basically, your brain has decided that love is essential and wants more.

During this phase, the limbic system continues to release dopamine, which acts as a feel-good electrical current and keeps you craving the person you love. When the object of your desire is not around, you may feel like you’re in withdrawal, motivating you to see him or her again. As with any drug, however, the high has diminishing returns—which is why, after a few months, the rush can weaken and people fall out of love. Unless, of course, they've become attached.

What flaws? While falling in love, we often ignore red flags. That’s because—while other parts of the limbic reward system are lighting up like a Christmas tree—the amygdala decides to shut down, according to brain scans, taking our good judgment with it.

The amygdala, a set of neurons located in the temporal lobe, plays a big role in how we react to stimuli. It's key to making judgment calls, recognizing fearful situations, and can even decipher when someone is lying to us. When people are in love, however, the amygdala takes a little nap—which clouds judgment and causes the enamored to see his or her beloved through rose-colored glasses.

You've bonded. As we spend time with the object of our affection, our brains start to release oxytocin, nicknamed "the love hormone." This neuropeptide is produced in the hypothalamus and released into our brains during times of intimacy. Studies have shown that oxytocin is key to fostering trust and commitment. Unlike the quick high of dopamine, oxytocin is subtler and sticks around longer, leading to a deeper attachment.

Over time love can, of course, develop into deep companionship. When two people have been committed to each other for years, their brains show increased activity in the ventral pallidum.

This region of the brain is rich with oxytocin and vasopressin receptors—two chemicals associated with monogamy and deep attachment—which explains why it lights up when people experience long-term attachment. It’s the same region of the brain that activates in monogamous prairie voles, who mate for life.

Brain scans show that the limbic reward system remains active during deep attachment as well—meaning couples in this stage experience the rush of early courtship along with deep attachment. Love is great.

THE BRAIN IN LOVE

You may have heard people say that the most important organ for love is the brain, not the heart.

When love is a many-splendored thing. Ever fallen madly in love? What's going on in the brains of those who are in the heady, butterflies-in-the-stomach throes of passionate romantic love. MRI scans indicate that love lights up the pleasure center of the brain. When we fall in love, blood flow increases in this area. A whole host of brain parts start lighting up. One of the two most important regions was initially a little surprising, the caudate nucleus—part of the primitive reptilian brain—is highly active in these amorous individuals. As expected, the brain areas associated with dopamine and norepinephrine production light up. Both are brain chemicals associated with pleasurable activities and excitement.

No wonder lovers talk all night or walk till dawn, write extravagant poetry and self-revealing e-mails, cross continents or oceans to hug for just a weekend, change jobs or lifestyles, even die for one another. Drenched in chemicals that bestow focus, stamina and vigor, and driven by the motivating engine of the brain, lovers succumb to a Herculean courting urge.

Other parts of the reward system, like the one that activates when you're eating chocolate, plays a role during this phase of love. This supports the hypothesis that like chocolate, being head over heels in love is addictive. Of course, dopamine is what gets released when you take a hit of cocaine, too—so it's not surprising that other research suggests that for the brain, a bad break up is like kicking a drug habit.

“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”