the brain in love and lust
August 9, 2007 by Cash
My recent fascination with all things neurotransmitter (serotonin and dopamine specifically) led me to an interesting article about love (and lust’s) influence on the brain. Some of the quotes in article are quite telling indeed.
On love’s beginnings:
Romantic love, Dr Fisher explained in a lecture at the 2004 American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, is not an emotion. Rather, it’s “a motivation system, it’s a drive, it’s part of the reward system of the brain.” It’s a need that compels the lover to seek a specific mating partner. Then the brain links this drive to all kinds of specific emotions depending on how the relationship is going.
On the three categories of love:
1) Lust (the craving for sexual gratification), driven by androgens and estrogens;
2) Attraction (or romantic or passionate love, characterized by euphoria when things are going well, terrible mood swings when they’re not, focused attention, obsessive thinking, and intense craving for the individual), driven by high dopamine and norepinephrine levels and low serotonin;
3) Attachment (the sense of calm, peace, and stability one feels with a long-term partner) driven by the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin.
On chemical influences:
Serotonin-enhancing antidepressants, she said, blunt the emotions, including the elation of romance, and suppress obsessive thinking, a critical component of romance. “When you inhibit this brain system,” she warned, “you can inhibit your patient’s well-being and possibly their genetic future.”
And finally a warning for all you one night stand fans out there:
These systems are also connected. “Don’t copulate with people you don’t want to fall in love with,” she half-jokingly tells her students, “because indeed you may do just that.” Testosterone can kickstart the two love neurotransmitters while an orgasm can elevate the attachment hormones.
Read the whole article here
Technorati Tags: relationships, the difference between love and lust, am i in love, am i in lust
I know someone with a Kitchen Aide Mixer… It’s real nice.
Tatooy up there makes me think about copulation…
mmmmm. masuimi
Holy shit Rick.. good eye.
Who doesn’t know Masuimi…. her back tat is fabulous.
I found this quite interesting. It makes a lot of things make sense, in that cold, soulless way that psychology is good at.
Adam; omg; classic comment. As for Masuimi; damn, our ever cool Urban Monarch readers just make me prouder each day