Hearts
equal love. At least that's what Valentine's Day and pop culture has instilled in us. However,
how the <3 became a symbol for love is an
interesting but rather long-winded story. And as romantic as a broken-heart
sounds, love actually originates in the brain. What makes this even more
confusing is being able to distinguish between love and desire. Both mental states are invoked by an intense
longing to be with another person, and are therefore often difficult to
disentangle from one another.

Image Credit: iheartguts.com
A recent international study published in
the Journal of Sexual Medicine has
been the first to draw an exact brain map of love and desire. Although the
scientists were skeptical, they found that love and desire activate specific, but related areas in the
brain.
Many
studies have been done to examine the brain while subjects engaged in tasks
such as viewing erotic pictures or looking at pictures of their significant
others. The group analyzed the results of 20 of these studies. They found that
the insula, located deep in the cerebral cortex, and the striatum, located in
the forebrain, are responsible for tracking the progression from sexual desire
to love. The two emotions activate different parts of the striatum. Sexual
desire activates an area of the striatum associated with things that are
inherently pleasurable, such as sex or food. Love activates an area associated
in the process of conditioning by which things are paired with reward or
pleasure, and are given inherent valve. This means that as sexual desire turns
to love, they are processed in different parts of the striatum.

The
striatum is the yellow/red part in the middle. Image Credit: FARS News Agency
What
I found interesting is that this area of the striatum is also the part of the
brain associated with drug addiction. This makes sense, since love is actually
a habit. It's formed when the desire part of 'sexual desire' is rewarded (and
subsequently can be hard to break the habit.)

And
while there are always extreme cases, love in general is not considered a bad
habit. Love works with different pathways in the brain that are involved in
monogamy and in pair bonding. It can actually decrease activity in certain
parts of the brain when it is not associated with desire. "While sexual desire has a specific goal,
love is more abstract and complex, so it's less dependent on the physical presence
of someone else," says Pfaus, a professor at Concordia University.
Resources
I want to know where love is
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