Brief outline of the neurochemistry of love
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Brief outline of the neurochemistry of love
The areas that are involved are, in the cortex, the medial in sula, anterior cingulate, and hippocampus and, in the subcor tex, parts of the striatum and probably also the nucleus accumbens, which together constitute core regions of the re ward system (see Fig. 1). The passion of love creates feelings of exhilaration and euphoria, of a happiness that is often unbearable and certainly indescribable. And the areas that are activated in response to romantic feelings are largely co extensive with those brain regions that contain high concentra tions of a neuro-modulator that is associated with reward, desire, addiction and euphoric states, namely dopamine. Like two other modulators that are linked to romantic love, oxyto cin and vasopressin (see below), dopamine is released by the hypothalamus, a structure located deep in the brain and func tioning as a link between the nervous and endocrine systems (Fig. 2). These same regions become active when exogenous opioid drugs such as cocaine, which themselves induce states of euphoria, are ingested. Release of dopamine puts one in a ‘‘feel good’’ state, and dopamine seems to be intimately linked not only to the formation of relationships but also to sex, which consequently comes to be regarded as a rewarding and
0014-5793/$32.00 2007 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.febslet.2007.03.094
2576 S. Zeki / FEBS Letters 581 (2007) 2575–2579
It is noteworthy that sexual arousal activates regions adja
cent to – and in the case of the hypothalamus overlapping
with – the areas activated by romantic love, in the anterior cin
gulate cortex, and in the other subcortical regions mentioned
above. Especially interesting in this regard is the activation
of the hypothalamus with both romantic feelings and sexual
Fig. 1. Activity (shown in yellow and red) elicited when subjects viewed pictures of their loved partner compared to that produced when they viewed pictures of their friends. The activity, restricted to only a few areas, is shown in sagittal (left), transverse (central), and coronal sections superimposed on slices taken through a template brain. ac, anterior cingulate; cer, cerebellum; I, insula; hi, posterior hippocampus and the coronal section activity in caudate nucleus (C) and putamen (P).
‘‘feel-good’’ exercise. An increase in dopamine is coupled to a decrease in another neuro-modulator, serotonin (5-HT or 5- hydroxytryptamine), which is linked to appetite and mood. Studies have shown a depletion of serotonin in early stages of romantic love to levels that are common in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorders. Love, after all, is a kind of obsession and in its early stages commonly immobilizes thought and channels it in the direction of a single individual. The early stages of romantic love seem to correlate as well with another substance, nerve growth factor, which has been found to be elevated in those who have recently fallen in love com pared to those who are not in love or who have stable, long lasting, relationships. Moreover, the concentration of nerve growth factor appears to correlate significantly with the inten sity of romantic feelings.
Oxytocin and another chemically linked neuro-modulator, vasopressin, seem to be particularly linked to attachment and bonding. Both are produced by the hypothalamus and re leased and stored in the pituitary gland, to be discharged into the blood, especially during orgasm in both sexes and during child-birth and breast-feeding in females. In males, vasopressin has also been linked to social behaviour, in particular to aggression towards other males. The concentration of both neuro-modulators increases during the phase of intense romantic attachment and pairing. The receptors for both are distributed in many parts of the brain stem which are activated during both romantic and maternal love.
arousal, but not with maternal love. Its activation may thus constitute the erotic component present in romantic, but not in maternal attachment. Moreover, sexual arousal (and orgasms) de-activate a region in the frontal cortex that over laps the de-activated region observed in romantic love. This is perhaps not surprising, given that humans often take ‘‘leave of their senses’’ during sexual arousal, perhaps even inducing them to conduct which they might later, in more sober mood, regret. In fact, this intimacy in terms of geographic location between brain areas engaged during romantic love on the one hand and sexual arousal on the other is of more than pass ing interest. Judged by the world literature of love, romantic love has at its basis a concept – that of unity, a state in which, at the height of passion, the desire of lovers is to be united to one another and to dissolve all distance between them. Sexual union is as close as humans can get to achieving that unity. It is perhaps not surprising to find, therefore, that the areas en gaged during these two separate but highly linked states are juxtaposed. Indeed the desire for unity through sexual union may be a consequence of it.