The chemistry of love
Photo by sis
February 14th is the day we in the U.S. celebrate love.
On this Valentine’s Day, we went searching for a scientific explanation for love. We asked psychiatrists and neurobiologists. They told us scientists have known for centuries that love happens in the brain.
But they reminded us that human love is tough to study with the tools of science. For one thing, our definition of “love” is complex. You might love your child, your cocker spaniel, milk chocolate and the first snow of the season – each in a different way.
Also, scientists can’t cut into or inject things into human brains to look for the chemical changes love brings. It’s true that, over the past decade, research on rodents called prairie voles has shown changes in the voles’ brain chemistry when they form pair bonds. Their brains release high levels of hormones – oxytocin and vasopressin.
Human brains make these same chemicals – but, for now, even the most expert brain scientists say that solid evidence for the brain chemistry of human love is simply not there. So how the brain makes that emotion – its chemical recipe for love – is still a mystery.
Our thanks to the following individuals and institutions who assisted in the preparation of this script:
Sue Carter, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Psychiatry
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL 60612
Jaak Panksepp
Bowling Green State University
Ohio
Stephen W. Porges, Ph.D.
Director, Brain-Body Center
Department of Psychiatry
University of Illinois at Chicago
The Psychiatric Institute
Joseph L. Price
Professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology
Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology
Washington University School of Medicine
David C. Van Essen
Professor of Neurobiology
Chair, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy Washington University
St. Louis, Missouri
The following books, articles and web sites were used in preparing this script:
Angier, Natalie, “Illuminating How Bodies Are Built for Sociability”, New York Times, April 30, 1996.
Young LJ, Lim MM, Gingrich B and Insel TR. “Cellular Mechanisms of Social Attachment”, Hormones and Behavior 40, 133-138 2001 (available online at www.idealibrary.com).
Author’s Notes:
Scientists think the regions of the brain that control and regulate our emotions is along the midline between the two hemispheres [sides] of our brain.
Researchers used prairie voles for their studies because these small rodents are noted for their long term pair formation and monogamous mating.
