Let’s take a short break from adoption this Valentines Day afternoon, and look at what makes us fall in love. Here’s a hint: it isn’t the heart. According to a Yahoo! News article, recent studies show that the brain plays the largest role in falling in love.
The article said that while it’s true, when you fall in love your heart will race, your stomach will be tied up in knots and you may run the gamut of emotions, all of these intense feelings come from the brain. In fact Arthur Aron, who co-wrote the study, said in the article that “Intense passionate love uses the same system in the brain that gets activated when a person is addicted to drugs.”
According to the study, unlike other mammals, the human brain is wired to choose a mate, and once that mate is chosen our goal is to impress him/her, sometimes going to extreme measures.
“You can feel happy when you’re in love, but you can also feel anxious,” study co-author Lucy Brown said in the article. “The other person becomes a goal in life.”
The article went on to say that once two people are in love, the passionate love may subside a bit, however that is replaced with increased bonding.
“As long as love remains, we get used to the relationship, and we’re not afraid our partner will leave us, so we’re not as focused on the craving,” Aron said.
So the next time someone tells you to follow your heart in matters of love, tell them that they actually want you to follow your brain!