Scientists have found a way to map the brain’s activity when one is in love: the love map.  Researchers from New York and China have worked on this research together to note brain activities of when a person is in love, and most of these activities are connected with motivation and reward. The study, “Love-related Changes In The Brain: A Resting State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study”, has obtained the “first empirical evidence of love-related alterations in brain functional architecture,” notes the researchers.

Led by Professor Xiaochu Zhang, a team from the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, worked with colleagues at the Southwest University in Chongqing and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

The goal of the study is to find out if romantic love affects the functional architecture of the brain. Being romantically in love changes a person: behavioral and psychological changes, together with cognitive changes happen that allows the scientists to map out the alterations in the functions of the brain.

To find this out, the researchers did an MRI scanning of individuals who think they are in love, were in love, and of those who stated that they have never been in love.  The study composed of 100 students at Southwest University, Chongqing, China.

The results of the study showed that romantic love may change the function of the reward, motivation and emotion regulation brain network. Social cognition network activities in the brain showed an increase as well in those who are romantically in-love.  This may answer to the risky behavior observed in people who are romantically in-love.

For those who have been in-love, the longer they stay out of a romantic relationship, the lower the amount of activities detected in these areas of the brain dedicated to emotions and social cognition.

Romantic love has enamored writers, poets, and artists for centuries.  From Romeo and Juliet of Shakespeare to the movie A Fault In Our Stars, there has been a curiosity on how romance changes the brain’s functionalities.  This research has brought evidence that romantic loves does change how one thinks.

The study was published in the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience last February 13, 2015, a day before Valentine’s Day.

Photo: Ohmega1982

Source:http://www.healthaim.com/love-map-found-brain/17362