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A team of Australian scientists has done it. They find the link between the human brain’s behavioral activation system (BAS) and romantic love and decoded why “love is blind”.
It is widely acknowledged that romantic love induces changes in the brain by releasing oxytocin, often referred to as the “love hormone,” responsible for the euphoria experienced during the initial stages of falling in love.
Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU), University of Canberra, and University of South Australia collaborated on this study to quantify how a specific brain region contributes to placing a loved one on a pedestal during the initial throes of romance. Published in the journal Behavioral Sciences, the study surveyed 1,556 young adults who self-identified as being “in love.”
The survey focused on participants’ emotional responses to their partners, their behaviors around them, and the degree to which they prioritized their loved ones above all else. The findings revealed that when individuals are in love, their brains exhibit distinct reactions, making the object of their affections the central focus of our lives.
“We actually know very little about the evolution of romantic love,” said Adam Bode, lead researcher and PhD student at ANU.
“As a result, every finding that tells us about romantic love’s evolution is an important piece of the puzzle that’s just been started. Romantic love first emerged about five million years ago, after humans split from the great apes, Bode explained.
“We know the ancient Greeks philosophised about it a lot, recognising it both as an amazing as well as traumatic experience. The oldest poem ever to be recovered was in fact a love poem dated to around 2000 BC,” he added.
According to Dr Phil Kavanagh, from the University of Canberra, the study shows that romantic love is linked to changes in behaviour as well as emotion.
“We know the role that oxytocin plays in romantic love, because we get waves of it circulating throughout our nervous system and blood stream when we interact with loved ones,” said Dr Kavanagh, Adjunct Associate Professor at the varsity.
The next stage of the research involves investigating the differences between men and women in their approach to love, and a worldwide survey identifying four different types of romantic lovers.
