Parts of brain responsible for love identified
Scientists from University College London believe they have identified the parts of the brain
responsible for true love. Using a
functional magnetic resonance
scanner, Andreas Bartels and
Semir Zeki monitored the brain
activity of 17 volunteers who
described themselves as "madly
and truly in love." The volunteers,
recruited from posters placed
around the university, were
shown pictures of the partners
with whom they claimed to be
"head over heels in love" while a
scan took place. They were then
shown pictures of a friend who
was the same sex as their partner
and were scanned again. Four
areas of the brain which were not
active when looking at pictures
of a friend became active when
the volunteer saw pictures of a
partner; pictures of a partner
also caused a marked decrease in
another area of the brain.
The regions showing activity are deep in the
cortex of the brain: the
medial insula (which is
associated with "gut feelings") and
in part of the anterior cinguate,
which is known to
respond to euphoriainducing drugs. Deeper
into the striatum, two other areas, which are active
when we find experiences
rewarding, were also stimulated
by viewing pictures of loved
ones. The right prefrontal
cortex, a region where activity
is heightened in depressed
patients, became inactive when
the pictures were viewed.
"Our interest was in studying
the effect of
visual input
on emotional states of
the brain,"
said Dr Bartels. "Love
has not been
studied in
terms of brain
activation before,
while many other
emotions have." He
continued: "All the differences in brain activity
were highly significant. The
activity that we report is common to all 17 subjects - individuals
will certainly have additional
areas activated due to specific
associations, which are different
for each person."
The researchers used lie
detectors to verify the feelings of
the 11 women and six men taking
part in the study before the scans
were performed. There appeared
to be no significant differences in
brain activity between the two
sexes, although more testing may
have to take place to validate this.
The study was presented to the
bi-yearly meeting of the Federation of European Neuroscience
Societies in Brighton at the end
of June.
Whether the study will result
in any commercial application
remains to be seen. "I'm convinced that we can use it as a test
for love - however, it's rather an
expensive one!" says Dr Bartels.
If love as an emotion is a specific
type of brain activity, however,
and a drug can be made to
induce that activity, love may go
from being blind to being eminently bankable.
Siān Knight, Nottingham
studentBMJ 2000;08:259-302 August ISSN 0966-6494
