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Loveis that famous four-letter word that has inspired countless songs and sonnets.
Being in love often feels like a natural high, and there’s a reason why.
Love really is chemical.
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“For example, maternal love is often protective.
It can feel like your brain has switched to vacation mode without telling the rest of you.
Those feelings are all part of the neuroscience of love.
The chemicals that flood your brain can make you feel like you’re on top of the world.
For starters, it isn’t a singular emotion.
According to researchers, each element involves a different system in the brain.
Brain Regions Involved in Lust and Passion
Feelings of lust stem from the brain’s hypothalamus.
It also controls automatic internal processes such as body temperature, blood pressure, and sleep cycle.
And it’s one part of your brain that helps regulate your sex drive.
It triggers the release of hormones that increase sexual desire.
This system floods the body withdopamine, a neurotransmitter that produces feelings of euphoria and pleasure.
That’s why the early stages of love can feel so thrilling and, at times,even addictive.
Thats because this area of the brain secretes chemicals that play a role infostering trustand emotional bonds.
The prefrontal cortex is the region of your brain associated with logic anddecision-making.
When you fall in love, the emotion triggers the release of chemicals such asoxytocin, vasopressin, anddopamine.
Certain chemicals are associated with different stages of falling in love.
Lust involves a desire for sexual pleasure and gratification.
The hypothalamus stimulates the testes and ovaries to release the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen.
Both play a role in fueling feelings of passion and lust.
However, this neurochemical can also fuel feelings of anxiety.
You’re probably familiar with serotonin’s role in moodbut it is also connected to intrusive and anxious thoughts.
Low levels of serotonin chemical have been linked to increased anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
This is influenced by a shift in the chemicals that are released in your brain.
Dopamine and norepinephrine begin to drop, and two other hormones take center stage: oxytocin and vasopressin.
As relationships progress, these prosocial processes become increasingly important in our experience of love.
Experiencing love, particularly romantic love, can have powerful long-term effects on the brain.
However,healthy, long-term relationshipshave been shown to have a wide range of positive health effects.
Love can change your brain and, in many cases, profoundly affect your well-being for years to come.
Other chemicals play a part, too, including oxytocin, serotonin, estrogen, and testosterone.
For example, one study found that maternal and passionate love both increase activity in the ventral tegmental area.
When we fall for someone, key brain regions light up like a busy city skyline at night.
The ventral tegmental area floods the brain with dopamine.
The brain in love is passionate, euphoric, and sometimes a little irrational.
Love isnt static, however.
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