Where love lives in the brain

Some people are still living in old times. While answering some big  questions they still say science can't deal with spirituality, human emotions, morals, art and several things human. 

This is far from the truth. I wrote why long back.

being-scientific is being humane too,

science can explain or deal with emotions and morals,

Science and Spirituality

How Science explains love

Some Qs. people asked me on science and my replies to them - Part 78

http://ScienceofLove.

Neuroesthetics and my all time favourite art work

And others too dealt with it: https://www.nature.com/articles/425121a#%3A~%3Atext%3DEthics%20is%2...

And science can explain love more clearly than mere 'feelings'. Here is my evidence:

We use the word "love" in a bewildering range of contexts—from sexual adoration to parental love or the love of nature. Now, more comprehensive imaging of the brain may shed light on why we use the same word for such a diverse collection of human experiences.

You see your newborn child for the first time. The baby is soft, healthy and hearty—your life's greatest wonder. You feel love for the little one." The above statement was one of many simple scenarios presented to fifty-five parents, self-described as being in a loving relationship.

Researchers  utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity while subjects mulled brief stories related to six 'different types of love'.

This work  now provides a more comprehensive picture of the brain activity associated with different types of love than previous ones.

A statistical average of how different types of love light up different regions of the brain. Credit: Pärttyli Rinne et al 2024, Aalto University.

The activation pattern of love is generated in social situations in the basal ganglia, the midline of the forehead, the precuneus and the temporoparietal junction at the sides of the back of the head.

Now get surprised to hear this: Love for one's children generated the most intense brain activity, closely followed by romantic love.

In parental love, there was activation deep in the brain's reward system in the striatum area while imagining love, and this was not seen for any other kind of love!

 Love for romantic partners, friends, strangers, pets and nature were also part of the study, which was published this week in the Cerebral Cortex journal.

According to the research, brain activity is influenced not only by the closeness of the object of love, but also by whether it is a human being, another species or nature.

Unsurprisingly, compassionate love for strangers was less rewarding and caused less brain activation than love in close relationships. Meanwhile, love of nature activates the reward system and visual areas of the brain, but not the social brain areas.

The biggest surprise for the researchers was that the brain areas associated with love between people ended up being very similar, with differences lying primarily in the intensity of activation. All types of interpersonal love activated areas of the brain associated with social cognition, in contrast to love for pets or nature—with one exception.

When looking at love for pets and the brain activity associated with it, brain areas associated with sociality statistically reveal whether or not the person is a pet owner. When it comes to  pet owners, these areas are more activated than with non-pet owners.

This is not the first effort at finding love for these researchers. They have undertaken several studies seeking to deepen our scientific knowledge of human emotions. The group released research mapping subjects' bodily experiences of love a year ago, with the earlier study also linking the strongest physical experiences of love with close interpersonal relationships.

Not only can understanding the neural mechanisms of love help guide philosophical discussions about the nature of love, consciousness, and human connection, but also, the researchers hope that their work will enhance mental health interventions in conditions like attachment disorders, depression or relationship issues.

Now stop saying that science can't do this or that. It can and will!

 Pärttyli Rinne et al, Six types of loves differentially recruit reward and social cognition brain areas, Cerebral Cortex (2024). DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae331