Addicted To Love...

Addicted To Love
Ever wondered what fuels that flame when you fall in love? As this ScienCentral News reports, brain scientists have found that it’s all in your head.

Love is a Drug
When Cupid's arrow hits the heart, it starts a flood of brain chemicals that may keep us coming back for more.

Anthropologist Helen Fisher of Rutgers University says the rapture of romantic love clutches the brain much like an addiction. "I think that love is a drug. It's one of the most powerful drugs on Earth. It's turned the world. Wars have been fought for it; wars have been ended for it . . .our novels, our plays, our poems . . ." she says. "People live and die for love, so I wanted to know what happens in the brain."

The brain scans revealed that early-stage love is not so much an emotion as it is a motivational drive to win the love of someone. "The parts of the brain that lit up were not emotion centers," explains Fisher. "The most important part seems to be the reward system—the part of the brain the lets you focus your attention, gives you elation and gives you the ability to get what you want, in this case, a beloved."

A region called the ventral tegmental area, or VTA, secretes the chemical dopamine, which regulates this feel-good mechanism—also associated with drug addiction. Dopamine signals the caudate nucleus, a C-shaped region associated with the desire to win a reward. Awash with dopamine, the caudate nucleus focuses the mind’s attention on the object of affection.

Addicted to love

for those who understand...