Beauty is in fact in the brain of the beholder

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, love and romantic pursuits are common topics of conversation amongst students, with fanciful daydreams clouding concentration in lectures. Will this be the year to receive a Valentine’s Day card from an admirer other than your parents? Will the love of your life/conquest of your Facebook-stalking buy you a Vodbull at Smack? Will you be the girl to strut around campus carrying a larger than life teddy bear and bouquet of roses?

However much we refuse to admit it, these types of questions are on many peoples’ minds at this time of year. This is unsurprising. Without attraction, dating and love there would be little motivation to reproduce, leading some romantics to claim that love is crucial to the survival of humanity. So how, biologically, do our brains process such a complex and overwhelming emotion?

According to scientists, the experience of love involves twelve areas of the brain, which work together coordinating their activity to flood our brains and bodies with exhilaration, lust, and later in the course of love, contentment. In fact, many of these brain areas are also active when people are under the influence of euphoria-inducing drugs such as cocaine, suggesting that falling in love gives us a ‘natural high’. The first brain activity specific to these feelings of love begins within a fifth of a second of being besotted, suggesting that maybe there is some truth in ‘love at first sight’.

Scientists working on ‘the Neuroimaging of Love’ study, headed by Dr Stephanie Ortigue at Syracuse University, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to detect locations of brain activity, after viewing romantic stimuli. The technique works by measuring the amount of blood flow to supply certain areas of the brain with oxygen. If there is a high amount of blood flow to a particular area, it indicates a high level of activity in that area.

In one experiment, 17 participants who described themselves as being ‘passionately in love’ had their brains scanned whilst looking at a picture of their loved one. The fMRI scans showed increase activity in the caudate nucleus and putamen, which are areas associated with the neurotransmitter dopamine. Dopamine secretion causes euphoric feelings, motivation, motor activity, desire and addiction, and is experienced by cocaine users.

Heightened activity was also seen in the posterior hippocampus, which is involved in memory and mental associations, suggesting that memories and recollections connected to the partner are prominent when experiencing love. There was also reduced activity in the amygdala, an area of the brain associated with anxiety and fear, indicating that thoughts of a partner reduce worries and induce a feeling of well-being.

Activity in these areas results in increased secretion of chemicals in the brain: oxytocin, the ‘cuddle chemical’ is released, initiating feelings of trust and empathy, and allowing us to form social bonds and romantic attachments to others. Adrenaline causes physiological arousal and an elevated heart rate resulting in people experiencing a ‘fluttery heart’. Vasopressin, a hormone nicknamed the ‘monogamy molecule’ is secreted, causing mate and offspring guarding and reducing the likelihood of infidelity.

A further study by Dr Ortigue investigated how quickly the brain reacts to stimuli relating to a loved one. She used an electroencephalogram (EEG) to measure the volume of electrical activity among brain cells, and found that when people were shown names of their partners, electrical activity in the angular gyrus (an area of the brain involved in processing images and language) spiked. Within 200 milliseconds, at a pre-conscious level, people had reacted very strongly to their loved one’s name.

These results demonstrate that people react to stimuli concerning their romantic interest in less time than it takes to blink. Perhaps, therefore, rather than worrying about receiving a gigantic bear or bouquet of roses, a greater sentiment on Valentine’s Day is knowing that at the sheer thought of you, someone’s brain goes haywire in twelve different areas.