2013_02_13_UNAV_cerebro-enamorado

How does a brain in love work? A new video in the series "The secrets of your brain" from the University of Navarra analyzes the brain processes involved in falling in love. Natalia López-Moratalla, professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, describes it as follows: "In falling in love, after the initial emotional impulse, the brain circuits of trust are activated to consolidate the love bond, and the areas that create distances, those that are activated in depressive or sad states, are specifically silenced".

"Dialogues and silences between neurons bind the lovers in a double way: attracting them by activating the emotional reward pathway, and overcoming personal distances by deactivating mistrust," explains the expert.

According to him, in this process, sight -in addition to the voice or the intellect- plays an important role:"Seeing the face of the person in love is important to awaken and maintain the infatuation, since it provokes a series of positive emotions that lead him (the person in love) to empathize, to know the feelings and intentions and to adjust the responses. Looking into each other's eyes makes you share a world in which both merge". And he adds:"Love is blind, says popular wisdom, because this emotion hides the defects of the other, brings one closer to the other and makes distances disappear, creating trust".

The 'liking' and 'wanting' are processed separately.
However, this stage of obnubilation must give way to the clarity of love, and not all cultures experience it in the same way. The video explains how a research with oriental volunteers in love confirmed that "liking" and "wanting" are processed separately in the brain. Orientals, no matter how much in love they are, weigh the relationship more carefully, and take negative aspects into account more easily than Westerners."The biological instructions of falling in love are universal, but traditions, such as marriages arranged by the family, influence the brain's assessment of the reward," says the professor at the University of Navarra.

There are also differences between the sexes. As the professor affirms "the programs of study carried out indicate that women use more oxytocin, the hormone of confidence, which also increases its level with the physical contact and the look. Emotional empathy dominates in her". On the contrary," she adds, " men use more vasopressin, which boosts testosterone and facilitates a more rationalized empathy, and increases the detection of erotic stimuli".

Similarly, the way of dealing with jealousy is different according to gender. Lopez-Moratalla summarizes it as follows:"The female brain in the face of a status of danger in the relationship sample panic and insecurity of being emotionally displaced. Their oxytocin levels facilitate a certain spontaneous tolerance for sexual betrayal. In males, on the other hand, the areas related to aggressive and sexual behaviors are activated". And he concludes: "Vasopressin has the opposite effect to oxytocin: it connects the areas of judgment and negative emotion, breaking trust and encouraging the desire for physical confrontation. The behavior appears violent especially if aroused by a partner's sexual infidelity." The video was produced at position by Carlos Bernar, professor at School of Communication at the University of Navarra.