Posted on 06/11/2005 6:26:48 AM PDT by pissant
Love appears to be a more evolved behavior than lust, according to new research that found both love and lust originate in our brains, but that the two feelings occupy different regions and pathways that only slightly overlap.
The authors of the study believe that lust is quite different from love. They also say humans have evolved three distinct brain systems for mating and reproduction: the sex drive, romantic love and attachment to a long-term partner.
"(Love) requires more sophisticated behaviors, reward and memory systems than other mammals, and it is present to some degree in other primates that are close to us in brain development," said Lucy Brown, lead author of the study.
Brown, a neurologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, and her colleagues took magnetic resonance images, or pictures of brain activity, of 17 young men and women who described themselves as being "newly and madly in love."
The researchers compared the MRI data with earlier studies on male penile girth responses to photographs of women, other studies on how the brains of men and women activate when individuals view people whom they find to be attractive or unattractive, and data on both human and animal couples that have been together for a long time.
The findings will be published in the July issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology.
The researchers discovered that early stage romantic love feelings are located mainly on the right side at the base of the brain — the ventral midbrain — and in the middle of the brain, called the caudate nucleus. Long-term attachment, on the other hand, appears to be centered in the front and base of the brain, or the ventral putamen and the pallidum.
Feelings related to lust and sexual arousal occupy different areas, mostly located on the left-hand side of the brain. The area of overlap seems to mostly involve visual information, but for romantic love to set in, it takes more than just a lustful pang and a pretty face.
Lust obviously can lead to procreation, which ensures the survival of a species, but the scientists believe love is better for humans in the long-term.
"Simple lust may be necessary in extremely difficult survival circumstances when there is no time for romance," Brown told Discovery News. "It is known that people in very dangerous and threatening situations can suddenly find themselves lusty for each other, even though they are strangers. However, under safe circumstances within a stable society, romantic love and attachment may be the best and more efficient way to continue species survival."
Brown and her team believe that "love at first sight" is a real phenomenon, but they said other non-visual aspects of a person, such as mannerisms, voice, personality and social status, usually must come into play if lust is to evolve into love.
The researchers suggest "love at first sight" and the obsessive goal-driven aspects of early love are both evolved behaviors that speed up mating and provide a better chance for successful reproduction.
"Rather than get up the energy to go to a different bar every night and maybe be successful in finding a different person every night, sticking to the same person, being able to have sex without spending time on the search may increase chances for pregnancy," Brown explained.
Donatella Marazziti, a University of Pisa scientist who has also studied the brain and biochemical activity of people in love, agreed with the findings.
Marazziti said she was not surprised by the neural basis for "love at first sight," since, according to her theory, "love is a basic emotion, which would use the system of the basic emotions and, as such, it is sudden and unpredictable."
Marazziti also told Discovery News that romantic lovers are a bit "crazy," since they can experience chemical imbalances within the brain. Mental health experts have linked somewhat similar imbalances to depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders.
It's a researcher's welfare program, apparently!
Indeed. There is a country tune for all occasions! ;o)
LOL. Nothing like the voice of experience, Caroline! ;o)
No worries. It died early.
"No. Harems are for husbands only!"
You mean that never -- ever -- in the course of your marriage you have purchased a present for your wife that you *really* meant for yourself?
If so, I salute you. You are a man among men.
I think it was privately funded. By Hugh Hefner.
That's a darn good angle to use: "here honey, I bought you a bevy of twenty-something maids". Good thinking!
hahahha it probably was funded by Huge ;)
So that's why men often need three different women to cover each of these areas. ;)
I wasn't aware that love was a mammal. Learn something new every day, I guess...
Is Hugh huge......tell us more about what you know. ;o)
We are on the same page, Jeeves!
Yes, I try to educate with my threads...
Well, it is worth noting that mammals are unique among animals in that they possess mammary glands...hence the name.
And mammary glands certainly have something to do with love, wouldn't you agree?
Sorry sweetie,
but most (not all) but most of the 'harem' myth is just that, a myth ;) that was the soft porn of the Victorian era.
I mean, if ya don't mine your mama, granny, sisters, cousin Susie, all the hired help and kids under 10 watching. Been there, ain't as 'romantic' as ya would think (and most of the time, the women REALLY resent any guys showing up). ;)
As for love versus lust....
I've only been 'in love' twice in my life...
It's hard sometimes to seperate the two, but love is best described as when you simply want that other person to be happy, even if it isn't with you.
Or more likely lust, though I've never experienced it....
I'll take the harem as long as I can pick 'em out. I'll buy the other relatives a tent over on the next oasis. ;o)
FOr guys it's different, just so you know. ;o)
Oh, of course not. Me neither. [sniff]
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