The
Neurological Basis of Love
What is the neurological basis of
love? What neurological mechanism of action is involved with romantic
affections?
The
standard treatment of emotion in most physiological psychology text books
begins with a treatment of the negative emotions of fear and aggression. Carlson’s
classic text similarly does not disappoint. Even in a staggering 35 page
chapter on the physiological basis of emotion, there is very little if any
treatment of any other human emotions.
Yet
love is one of the most ubiquitous subjects in our culture, art, music,
literature and philosophy. Historically,
however, love was not always considered an emotional event (state?). Take for
example the often (quite heated) debates among the theologians and philosophers
of the Middle Ages concerning whether love is a volitional or intellectual
faculty (clearly Thomas Aquinas was right, because Thomas Aquinas is always
right, but I digressJ ).This all began to change moving from the Romantic
period and into Modernity.
So how far have we come in our “scientific”
(more on this use-mention distinction as applied to the science of psychology
in a later entry) of the understanding of love? This entry will look at only
the briefest sampling to answer that question.
A
Bartels and S. Zeki’s 2000 study, “The neural basis of romantic love” is a good
starting point for our discussion. Their study included 17 participants, 75% of
which were female with a mean age of 24.5 years. Participants were asked to view images of their
significant other as well as images of others who were similar to their
significant other in terms of race, build, hair color, etc. The rationale
assumed here is that participants would have greater activation at the sight of
their partner, even when faced with images of a similarly appearing individual
due to emotional attachment. Participants were also asked to complete a PLS
(Passionate Love Scale; 1-9 likert scale) after viewing the images. GSR
(Galvanic Skin Response) and an fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) were
used to measure participant’s responses to stimuli (images of partner or
stranger).
Interestingly,
there was no activation (or deactivation) in the occipital lobe or the fusiform
gyrus when viewing images of either their partner or a stranger! The
researchers did however find activity in the middle insula as well as the
anterior cingulate cortex bilaterally. Further activations were seen (as would
be expected) in the head of the caudate nucleus and the putamen (both more
salient on the left).
The
article continued with a large chunk describing the inter-relatedness of the
activations described above. Space doesn’t allow for a complete duplication of
their finding here, but one example follows. Researchers found that the insula was
activated upon viewing their partner. Indeed, prior research has shown that
insula activity is related to a wide variety of emotional functions. In the
final analysis, the researchers conclude that a neurological analysis of love
or affection is extremely complex insofar as romantic love itself is a complex
endeavor and this is further complicated by the extreme inter-connectedness of
the human brain.
The
present research seems to correlate with other studies indicating that love is
not emotive, but rather motivational, and evolutionarily driven. While we have
certainly come a long way from the static constructs of the faculty psychology of Thomas
Aquinas, we still have difficulty pin pointing the precise mechanisms of
romantic affection. One thing is clear: emotions play a part in romantic
affection (love), but they are only a piece of the puzzle.
As always references
and recommended readings follow. The Langeslag article is particularly worthwhile
for the German inclined.
References and Recommended Reading
Acevedo, B.
P. (2008). The neural basis of long-term romantic love. Dissertation Abstracts
International: Section B. Sciences and Engineering, 69(12), 7846.
Bartels,
A., & Zeki, S. (2000). The neural basis of romantic love. Neuroreport:
For
Rapid Communication Of Neuroscience Research, 11(17),
3829-3834. doi:10.1097/00001756-200011270-00046.
Carlson,
Neil R. (2012). Physiology of Behavior.
New York, NY: Allyn & Bacon.
Fisher, H., Aron A., and Brown L.L.
(2005). Romantic
love: an fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice. The Journal of Comparative Neurology. 493(1), 58-62.
Langeslag,
S. E. (2006). Liefde is een motivatie, geen emotie: Een neurobiologische
benadering. Psycholoog, 41(5), 260-265.
Prepared by Phillip J. Kuna for John G. Kuna, PsyD and
Associates Counseling
(570)961-3361
