It’s been long suspected that falling in love does something funny to your brain.
And it now seems there’s some truth in it, perhaps explaining why you go all mushy, think singing Lionel Richie songs is a good idea, and spend less time with your mates.
A study by scientists in China has established that around 12 areas of the brain are involved when you fall in love.
The work saw functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) – sophisticated brain scans to you and me – used on 100 students.
A third of them were in a romantic liaison, a third had recently broken up with someone, and the other poor souls had never been in love before.
There’s no arguing with the results – the flow of blood around the brain certainly changes as you become infatuated with someone.
It is hoped the work will fuel more research into the effect of romantic love.
Summing up the study, the team from Southwest University in Chongqing wrote: ‘This study provides the first empirical evidence of love-related alterations in the underlying functional architecture of the brain.’
And they continued: ‘These results shed light on the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms of romantic love by investigating intrinsic brain activity, and demonstrate the possibility of applying a resting state approach for investigating romantic love.’
