SOME say love is blind. Others say it defies explanation. But two cognitive neurologists in Britain say that love is just a specific type of brain activity.
Andreas Bartels and Semir Zeki at University College London used a functional magnetic resonance imager to scan the brains of 17 volunteers who described themselves as 鈥渢ruly and madly鈥� in love. During the scans, each was shown pictures of their loved one, or a friend of the same sex as their partner.
Seeing a lover prompted activity in four brain regions that were not active when looking at pictures of a friend, and caused a significant reduction in the activity of one other area. 鈥淲e were really struck by how clear-cut the activity was,鈥� says Bartels.
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Two active areas lay deep in the cortex: the medial insula, which may be responsible for 鈥済ut鈥� feelings, and a part of the anterior cingulate, which is known to respond to euphoria-inducing drugs. Two lie in a deeper region known as the striatum, which is active when we find experiences rewarding. The inactive region was in the right prefrontal cortex-the region that is overactive in depressed patients.
