Everyone's familiar with the expression "love at first sight." But is that really the way love works? According to a recent scientific study, the answer is yes. But what about romance? What about value-for-value and the trader principle? Is love really so "irrational or inexplicable" that you can fall in love that quickly? We already know that sex is good for you and makes you smarter. Now we know love works the same way. Do something good for your body - fall in love.
FTA:
A recent study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to see how love affects the brain. Its calculations of love has attracted plenty of attention.
For example, the time taken to "fall in love" clocks in at about one-fifth of a second, not the six months of romantic dinners and sharing secrets some might expect.
Also, 12 areas of the brain work together during the love process, releasing euphoria-inducing chemicals like dopamine, oxytocin, adrenaline and vasopressin. Love's high is similar to cocaine's rush.
Love influences sophisticated intellectual processes of the brain too. When a person feels in love, their mental representation, metaphors and even body image are also affected...
Overall, they found, love is really good for you.
Couples who had just fallen in love had significantly higher levels of nerve growth factor, or NGF. NGF is crucial to the survival of sympathetic and sensory neurons. Some believe NGF can reduce neural degeneration. Not a bad side effect.
Just as love is diverse, the part of the brain affected is also different.
Unconditional love, the type often seen between a mother and child, lights up the common and different brain areas, including the middle of the brain.
Not surprisingly, passionate love fires the reward part of the brain, but it also affects the higher-order cognitive function seen in body image.
Brain Takes Less Than Second to Fall in Love
DISCUSS!
Original posting by Braincrave Second Life staff on Nov 1, 2010 at http://www.braincrave.com/viewblog.php?id=368
We all admire beauty, but the mind ultimately must be stimulated for maximum arousal. Longevity in relationships cannot occur without a meeting of the minds. And that is what Braincrave is: a dating venue where minds meet. Learn about the thoughts of your potential match on deeper topics... topics that spawn your own insights around what you think, the choices you make, and the actions you take.
We are a community of men and women who seek beauty and stimulation through our minds. We find ideas, education, and self-improvement sexy. We think intelligence is hot. But Braincrave is more than brains and I.Q. alone. We are curious. We have common sense. We value and offer wisdom. We experiment. We have great imaginations. We devour literacy. We are intellectually honest. We support and encourage each other to be better.
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Sep, 2017 update: Although Braincrave resulted in two confirmed marriages, the venture didn't meet financial targets. Rather than updating our outdated code base, we've removed all previous dating profiles and retained the articles that continue to generate interest. Moving to valME.io's platform supports dating profiles (which you are welcome to post) but won't allow typical date-matching functionality (e.g., location proximity, attribute similarity).
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