Why love feels like an addiction: A deep dive into the neuroscience
A breakup or loss of someone most cherished can cause profound emotional distress and intense physical pain in a person. The extent of the distress and changes experienced depends on the depth of affection and emotional closeness the person feels toward the other.
Recent research suggests that love, in all its forms, stimulates the reward and addiction to the various brain systems. and those same parts of the brain that are involved in behaviours like drug use and video game addiction. These research reports further state the clear reason behind the emotional anguish and intense physical pain caused by the breakup and losses.
The study, published in the Cerebral Cortex journal by Oxford University Press, explains how different types of love—romantic love, familial affection, friendship, love for pets, or even love for nature—affect the brain.
Researchers from Aalto University in Finland conducted the study. Along with clarifying how brain functions are influenced by different forms of love, the study also found that these activities activate various brain regions associated with social cognition. It concluded that all types of love stimulate the brain’s reward system, creating a general connection among them. Furthermore, the study highlights that love-driven behaviours often stem from this reward system.
The researchers conducted the study in selected individuals using a brain scanning technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The research found that people tend to form deeper personal bonds with their children, partners, and friends, which, in turn, more strongly activate the brain's reward system.
The results of the study show that neural activity during a feeling of love depends on its object. Interpersonal love recruited social cognition brain areas in the temporoparietal junction and midline structures significantly more than love for pets or nature. In pet owners, love for pets activated these same regions significantly more than in participants without pets. Love in closer, affiliative bonds was associated with significantly stronger and more widespread activation in the brain’s reward system than love for strangers, pets, or nature. They suggest that the experience of love is shaped by both biological and cultural factors, originating from fundamental neurobiological mechanisms of attachment.
This research provides new insight into the powerful influence love has on the brain and how it may impact both emotional states as well as physical ones.
(Compiled by Sandhwana P K)