Neuroscience Explains What Happens to the Brain When One is in Love

Love makes someone feel euphoric, foolish, happy, distracted, exhausted, obsessed, passionate, and many more. In other words, love does so much that in the brain that it can control one's behavior.

There are a lot of changes in the brain of a person in love that affects the body, making the person feel both desirable and undesirable feelings at the same time.

As Valentine's Day comes close, take a moment to marvel and appreciate the incredible effect of your partner on your brain! Here are the things that happen within your brain when you are in love according to neuroscience.

The Image of Love in the Brain

According to Science Focus, scientists use functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) and Event-related potentials (ERPs), two brain scanning techniques, to understand what is happening inside the brain when a person is in love.

The fMRI creates an image of the brain that shows which parts of the brain are activated when in love and when a person is in different circumstances.

Meanwhile, the ERPs measure the changes in brain activity as it responds to different stimuli. It is very time-specific that gives signals on a millisecond timescale.

Behavioral neuroscientist Dr. Sandra Langeslag explains that the ERPs are mostly used to study attention. In an experiment to see how brains work when the person is in love, the researchers presented a photo of the participant's partner and recorded the brainwaves present.

They found two brainwaves with ERP components that indicate immediate and sustained attention and are usually larger in people who are in love.

"This is the example of 'if you know your beloved drives a red Ford, you'll see those everywhere because they remind you of them'. We're getting a picture of the brain to help us understand these experiences," Langeslag explains.

In another experiment, she measured the influence of love on one's attention on tasks and found out that attention tends to be diverted to the other person, slowing the performance of tasks.

Then a 2017 study also found "neural synchrony" was higher in romantic couples compared to those paired with strangers. The researchers found synchronized patterns between the brains of people in a romantic relationship.

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Falling I Love Causes Some Hormone Rush

According to HuffPost, falling in love causes a major hormone rush. That means that when people first fall in love, they experience a Bush of their hormones to the brain. These hormones are oxytocin, dopamine, and adrenaline.

Oxytocin is said to be the love hormone that mediates the reward and motivation systems in the brain. It is also associated to be the reason for forming longer bonds with other people.

While dopamine is called the pleasure hormone that that fire up relationships and maintain them. In the love language, this hormone responds to falling in love, staying in love, and breaking up.

Meanwhile, other hormones activated when in love are adrenaline that makes the heart beat faster, creating that fluttery excitement, attraction, and euphoria.