The theory of a biological basis of love has been explored by such biological sciences as evolutionary psychology, evolutionary biology, anthropology and neuroscience. Specific chemical substances such as xoytocin are studied in the context of their roles in producing human experiences and behaviors that are associated with love.
Evolutionary psychology has proposed several explanations for love. Human infants and children are for a very long time dependent on parental help. Love has therefore been seen as mechanism to promote mutual parental support of children for an extended time period. Another is that sexually transmitted diseases may cause, among other effects, permanently reduced fertility, injury to the fetus, and increase risks during childbirth. This would favor exclusive long-term relationships thereby reducing the risk of contracting a STD. From the perspective of evolutionary psychology the experiences and behaviors associated with love can be investigated in terms of
how they have been shaped by human evolution. For example, it has been suggested that human language has been selected during evolution as a type of "mating signal" that allows potential mates to judge reproductive fitness. Miller described evolutionary psychology as a starting place for further research: "Cognitive neuroscience could try to localize courtship adaptations in
the brain. Most importantly, we need much better observations concerning real-life human courtship, including the measurable aspects of courtship that influence mate choice, the reproductive (or at least sexual) consequences of individual variation in those aspects and the social-cognitive and emotional mechanisms of falling in love.
Since Darwins time there have been similar speculations about the evolution of human interest in music also as a potential signaling system for attracting and judging the fitness of potential mates. It has been suggested that the human capacity to experience love has been evolved as a signal to potential mates that the partner will be a good parent and be likely to help pass genes to future generations.
Studies in neuroscience have involved chemicals that are present in the brain and might be involved when people experience love.
These chemicals include: nerve growth factor, testosterone, estrogen, dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, oxytocin and vasopressin. Adequate brain levels of testosterone seem important for both human male and female sexual behavior.
Dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin are more commonly found during the attraction phase of a relationship. Oxytocin
and vasopressin seemed to be more closely linked to long term bonding and relationships characterized by strong attachments.
The conventional view in biology is that there are two major drives in love — sexual attraction and attachment. Attachment between adults is presumed to work on the same principles that lead an infant to become attached to his or her mother or father– or both. The chemicals triggered that are responsible for passionate love and long-term attachment love seem to be more particular to the activities in which both persons participate rather than to the nature of the specific people involved.
The Anthropologist, Helen Fisher, also adds lust to the experience of love. Lust exposes people to others and is the initial passionate sexual desire that promotes mating and involves the increased release of chemicals such as testosterone and estrogen. These effects rarely last more than a few weeks or months.
Chemically, the serotonin effects of being infatuated have a similar chemical appearance to obsessive compulsive disorder, which could explain why people experiencing infatuation cannot think of anyone else. For this reason some might assert that taking
antidepressants would impede one's ability to fall in love. In one particular case anthropologist Helen Fisher noted:
" I know of one couple on the edge of divorce. The wife was on an antidepressant. Then she went off it, started having orgasms once more, felt the renewal of sexual attraction for her husband, and they're now in love all over again."
In 2005, Italian scientists at Pavia University found that a protein molecule known as the nerve growth factor (NGF) has high levels when people first fall in love, but these return to previous levels after one year. Specifically, four neurotrophin levels of 58 subjects who had recently fallen in love were compared with levels in two control groups who were either single or already engaged in a
long-term relationship. The results showed that NGF levels were significantly higher in the subjects in love than as compared to either of the control groups.
In A General Theory of Love, three professors of psychiatry from UCSF provide an overview of the scientific theories and findings relating to the role of the limbic system in love, attachment and social bonding. They advance the hypothesis that our nervous systems are not self-contained, but rather demonstrably attuned to those around us and those with whom we are most close. This empathy, which they call limbic resonance, is a capacity which we share, along with the anatomical characteristics of the limbic areas of the brain, with all other mammals. Their work builds on previous studies of the importance of physical contact and
affection in social and cognitive development, such as the experiments conducted by Harry Harlow on rhesus monkeys, which first established the biological consequences of isolation.
Brain scanning techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging have been used to investigate brain regions that seem to be involved in producing the human experience of love. In 2000, a study led by Semir Zeki and Andreas Bartels of University College London concluded that at least two areas of the brain become more active when in love. These were foci in the media insula, which the brain associates with insitnct and part of the anterior cingulate cortex, which is associated with feelings of euphoria.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_(scientific_views)
Image by RichardTaddei
Evolutionary psychology has proposed several explanations for love. Human infants and children are for a very long time dependent on parental help. Love has therefore been seen as mechanism to promote mutual parental support of children for an extended time period. Another is that sexually transmitted diseases may cause, among other effects, permanently reduced fertility, injury to the fetus, and increase risks during childbirth. This would favor exclusive long-term relationships thereby reducing the risk of contracting a STD. From the perspective of evolutionary psychology the experiences and behaviors associated with love can be investigated in terms of
how they have been shaped by human evolution. For example, it has been suggested that human language has been selected during evolution as a type of "mating signal" that allows potential mates to judge reproductive fitness. Miller described evolutionary psychology as a starting place for further research: "Cognitive neuroscience could try to localize courtship adaptations in
the brain. Most importantly, we need much better observations concerning real-life human courtship, including the measurable aspects of courtship that influence mate choice, the reproductive (or at least sexual) consequences of individual variation in those aspects and the social-cognitive and emotional mechanisms of falling in love.
Since Darwins time there have been similar speculations about the evolution of human interest in music also as a potential signaling system for attracting and judging the fitness of potential mates. It has been suggested that the human capacity to experience love has been evolved as a signal to potential mates that the partner will be a good parent and be likely to help pass genes to future generations.
Studies in neuroscience have involved chemicals that are present in the brain and might be involved when people experience love.
These chemicals include: nerve growth factor, testosterone, estrogen, dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, oxytocin and vasopressin. Adequate brain levels of testosterone seem important for both human male and female sexual behavior.
Dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin are more commonly found during the attraction phase of a relationship. Oxytocin
and vasopressin seemed to be more closely linked to long term bonding and relationships characterized by strong attachments.
The conventional view in biology is that there are two major drives in love — sexual attraction and attachment. Attachment between adults is presumed to work on the same principles that lead an infant to become attached to his or her mother or father– or both. The chemicals triggered that are responsible for passionate love and long-term attachment love seem to be more particular to the activities in which both persons participate rather than to the nature of the specific people involved.
The Anthropologist, Helen Fisher, also adds lust to the experience of love. Lust exposes people to others and is the initial passionate sexual desire that promotes mating and involves the increased release of chemicals such as testosterone and estrogen. These effects rarely last more than a few weeks or months.
Chemically, the serotonin effects of being infatuated have a similar chemical appearance to obsessive compulsive disorder, which could explain why people experiencing infatuation cannot think of anyone else. For this reason some might assert that taking
antidepressants would impede one's ability to fall in love. In one particular case anthropologist Helen Fisher noted:
" I know of one couple on the edge of divorce. The wife was on an antidepressant. Then she went off it, started having orgasms once more, felt the renewal of sexual attraction for her husband, and they're now in love all over again."
In 2005, Italian scientists at Pavia University found that a protein molecule known as the nerve growth factor (NGF) has high levels when people first fall in love, but these return to previous levels after one year. Specifically, four neurotrophin levels of 58 subjects who had recently fallen in love were compared with levels in two control groups who were either single or already engaged in a
long-term relationship. The results showed that NGF levels were significantly higher in the subjects in love than as compared to either of the control groups.
In A General Theory of Love, three professors of psychiatry from UCSF provide an overview of the scientific theories and findings relating to the role of the limbic system in love, attachment and social bonding. They advance the hypothesis that our nervous systems are not self-contained, but rather demonstrably attuned to those around us and those with whom we are most close. This empathy, which they call limbic resonance, is a capacity which we share, along with the anatomical characteristics of the limbic areas of the brain, with all other mammals. Their work builds on previous studies of the importance of physical contact and
affection in social and cognitive development, such as the experiments conducted by Harry Harlow on rhesus monkeys, which first established the biological consequences of isolation.
Brain scanning techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging have been used to investigate brain regions that seem to be involved in producing the human experience of love. In 2000, a study led by Semir Zeki and Andreas Bartels of University College London concluded that at least two areas of the brain become more active when in love. These were foci in the media insula, which the brain associates with insitnct and part of the anterior cingulate cortex, which is associated with feelings of euphoria.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_(scientific_views)
Image by RichardTaddei
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