The Science of Love: Unraveling the Chemistry of Romantic Passion

Love is an intense feeling of deep affection one has for another person. Once someone falls in love, the way their brain works is often altered as well how their brain reacts to certain situations. The chapter “Chemistry of Love: Scanning the Brain in Love” by Helen Fisher goes in depth about which specific chemicals in a human’s brain are triggered when an individual has fallen in romantic love. In 1996 Fisher started a project, which was used to gather data to connect patterns between what is going on in the brain when someone is falling in love. Fisher centered her tests on three chemicals: dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin. While Fisher found many compelling discoveries in her experiment, It was fascinating the effect that simply looking at a picture of the person you love has on a person. Fisher wanted to test if viewing the picture evoked a great response from the subjects in relation to other things that reminds them of the person they love. The objects were diverse and included a picture of someone they love, a love letter from their significant other, a scent to remind them of a loved one, a memorable song related with their loved one, a future event with that person, as well as asking the subject to think about a memorable moment with the person they love. (Chemistry of Love, Fisher, page 59).

Fisher’s theory was that love was connected to an increased amount of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a chemical in the brain where a large amount of it can produce a huge level of attention towards someone (Fisher, Page 52). The idea to compare the reactions between viewing a picture, reading a love letter and thinking about good memories was a very good attempt in gauging if using a picture of the loved one was the right way to eventually conduct the brain scanning experiment. Most were curious to know if viewing a picture was more effective then smelling, thinking or listening about something that reminded a person about their loved one. How could a simple picture evoke such an emotional response such as romantic passion? Using the “Love-o-meter”, the subjects were able to measure how much romantic passion they felt by rotating a spinning dial from zero to thirty. (Fisher, Page 59). The results of this test showed that the pictures were just as effective as the songs and memories of memories in regards to evoking romantic feelings in the brain. “Feelings of intense romantic love were triggered almost equally by photographs, songs, and memories of the beloved.” (Fisher, page 60). Viewing the photographs of their loved one were effective enough for people to develop a romantic passion in their brain, similar to listening to a reminiscent song or a memorable memory. This part was essential for Fisher’s experiment because it proved that photographs evoked a strong enough response to test more individuals and scan their brains for what chemicals are triggered.

Fisher was not surprised with her results, as she knew humans having the ability to see someone else visually is a part of everyday life. She uses the fact that most humans keep a picture of a loved one, on their desk at work as an example. (Page 60) As an anthropologist, her scientific reasoning as to how humans increasingly needed vision to survive made a lot of sense. As humans evolved, they relied more on eyesight than usual to jump from branch to branch in order to capture fruits that were being hung on trees. Those with bad eye sight would miss-time their jumps and risk breaking bones in their body. (Fisher, page 60). She concluded that humans have a large portion in their brain dedicated to visual appearances, thus making photographs a very important part in remembering an individual. (Fisher, page 60) This theory makes sense and can apply in a lot of situations. Viewing a photograph can trigger a lot of memories within one’s brain, and if it is a photograph of the person that you love then good feelings are immediately thought about.

Eventually, Helen Fisher was able to perform her experiment to see if dopamine was present in the brain while an individual was going through romantic feelings. Fisher, along with her companions scanned the brain of twenty men and women while they viewed a picture of their loved one and again of a neutral picture for thirty seconds. (Fisher Page 63). The experiment wound up proving that Fisher’s hypothesis was correct, the feelings of romantic love had a correlation with increased levels of dopamine. (Fisher Page 71) In conclusion, Fisher’s quest to see if high levels of dopamine are found in a human’s brain when they are in love has proven to be true, even from just viewing a picture of a loved one for thirty seconds. While learning about dopamine being triggered in a person’s brain was fascinating, It was more intriguing how powerful, photographs are in evoking emotions in our brain.

References

1. Aron, A, Fisher, H, Mashek, D, Strong, G, Li, H & Brown, L 2005, 'Reward, Motivation, and Emotion Systems Associated With Early-Stage Intense Romantic Love', Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 94, no. 1, pp. 327-337.
2. Fisher, H 1998, Anatomy of love, Diane Pub Co, [Place of publication not identified].
3. Fisher, H, Aron, A & Brown, L 2005, 'Romantic love: An fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice', The Journal of Comparative Neurology, vol. 493, no. 1, pp. 58-62.