8. You love from the depths of your ventral tegmental area, your hypothalamus, your nucleus accumbens, and other vital areas of the brain. So, if you celebrate Valentine’s Day remember that your feelings of love are really a complicated chemical reaction happening in your brain -- which if you like science -- … Science has yet discovered the exact bodily reactions behind the complexity of love. Sustaining A Relationship Over Time. The brain, in its turn, passes them to other parts of the body, but "in the head" it all gets started. No wonder we … Without them, we might never venture into the "real love" arena. Love into posterity: As human beings settle into long-term love, the kind that lasts for years, or even a lifetime, there are also brain chemicals involved. Romantic love is not just an emotion--but rather, a whole motivational system with a reward drive to get you to stick with that person. Yes it is. The researchers suggest that these brain regions might provide clues as to how some couples stay deeply in love for decades. And thanks to some recent brain-imaging research, we now know why: Put simply, the effects of love on the brain are strikingly similar to the effects of drugs on it. According to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, the hormone oxytocin has been shown to be "associated with the ability to maintain healthy interpersonal relationships and healthy psychological boundaries with other people." There are quite a few! Love relationships are built on many other things than a simple chemical reaction of the brain. Love can get in your brain and stay there for life. Dopamine, a chemical associated with feelings of pleasure and euphoria, plays a huge role in the beginning of a relationship. Knowing this, you can intellectually overcome this association and decide whether a relationship is truly beneficial to you. Fisher’s theory is that each person’s personality type is in part determined by his or her dominant brain chemical: a product of the two sex hormones (estrogen and testosterone) and two neurotransmitters (dopamine and serotonin). First, the brain on love deactivates the amygdala, which controls the perception of fear, anger and sadness. As a result, here are the 11 chemicals in the brain that can affect your body and emotions: 1. Once we’ve discussed all this, we can then start talking about how “love pheromones” (or pheromones that can foster, maintain, and maybe even spark “love… Love, of course, is not literally a chemical addiction. There are a lot of chemicals racing around your brain and body when you're in love. Is love really just a chemical reaction? Dopamine is part of the reward system of the brain, a complicated system that includes structures such as the nucleus accumbens and cadaute nucleus. Of course, estrogen and testosterone play a role in the sex drive area (see How Sex Works). Interestingly, both genders experience a rush of both types of hormones. Love addiction. When You Fall In Love, Your Brain Produces 4 Key Love Chemicals And Hormones That Cause You To Feel Attraction, Attachment And Love. What are the love chemicals in the brain? Helen Fisher: The Brain in Love. 2 of 2. Save 52% when you subscribe to BBC Science Focus Magazine Blame it on your hormones all you like, although they play a part in taking you to lovey-dovey town, there are also non-chemical factors involved in whether we fall in love. Emotions affect the decisions we make daily and help to shape the person that we are. The Types of Chemical in Brain. Love starts with chemicals jumping between neurons in your brain -- so why do we think it's in our hearts? There are a myriad of chemical combinations that are happening in the brain to make you feel a certain way about someone. So, if you celebrate Valentine's Day remember that your feelings of love are really a complicated chemical reaction happening in your brain -- which if you like science -- is actually kind of sexy. Chemicals responsible for our behavior in love and relationships belong to the class of "neurochemicals", compounds forming largely in the brain and participating in neural activity. All of our emotions, thoughts, opinions and feelings are a bundle of chemical reactions designed to enhance our existence and better insure the survival of our species. The brain chemistry of attraction comes from the release of dopamine, norepinephrine and phenythylamine. Helen Fisher: The Brain in Love. It’s the influx of chemical levels and the paralysis of certain parts of the brain that cause us to feel the euphoria and the impaired judgement that come with falling in love. Dopamine is said to be the principle chemical involved in giving us strong urges like sexual attraction over time. A significant number of chemical reactions are involved in instigating lust, attraction, attachment, and love between couples. However, if your partner isn't so scientifically-minded, maybe keep the science to yourself and instead give them a gift of flowers or chocolate this Valentine's Day. Acetylcholine. Dopamine and norepinephrine can undergo a reaction and produce elation, intense energy, sleeplessness, craving, loss of appetite, and focused attention. Their work showed that romantic love causes a surge of activity in brain areas that are rich in dopamine, the brain’s feelgood chemical. A 2011 study found similar activity in certain brain regions among longtime, happily married couples and among couples who had recently fallen in love. Chemical, nervous reactions are the cause of it. Pass it on: Brain, not the heart, plays a major role in falling in love. It's often said that mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety, are caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. When you begin to form a connection and deep attraction with someone, your brain is triggered to release specific chemicals and hormones that drastically affect the body, producing a rollercoaster effect that flips your stomach and dizzies your mind. The study of the neuro system and what happens in the brain actually can help people of boosting their positive emotions and handling their bad ones. In the last two decades, scientists have joined the throngs of poets, philosophers, artists, and others striving to comprehend the ways of love. Researchers are gradually learning more and more about the roles they play both when we are falling in love and when we're in long-term relationships. Then having sex with someone can release oxytocin. There really is a thin line between love and hate - at least in the brain, scientists have shown. The chemical with the highest activity in your brain is the most influential in determining not only your personality, but who you are likely to fall in love with. This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. It is quite true about the saying “love is blind” because you never know when your brain will encounter love. Oxytocin is a hormone that acts as a neurotransmitter and plays an important role in reproduction. However, the release of dopamine plays a very important role at the individual level, that is, when a person experiences emotions of love. The brain may associate a reward between pain and pleasure. Specific chemical substances such as oxytocin are studied in the context of their roles in producing human experiences and ... 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. Drenched in chemicals that bestow focus, stamina and vigor, and driven by the motivating engine of the brain, lovers succumb to a Herculean courting urge.” The Brain on Love. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. It’s a drive perhaps, or a feeling or an emotion, but not a chemical addiction or even a chemical state. Induce of these chemicals in the brain you can gain by taking shots, consumes pills or even eating chocolate that can make you feel better. Acetylcholine is the transmitter substance that is synthesized on the end of presynapse from coenzyme acetic acid and choline using enzyme called choline acetyltransferase. In romantic love, when two people have sex, oxytocin is released, which helps bond the relationship. 1 of 2. Lust, our powerful sexual feelings, need a heady mix of testosterone and estrogen. The Brain on Love. A new study reveals that the brain's 'love' and 'hate' circuits share identical structures. Yup, that's all chemicals too. 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