Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

Sarah Powers's picture

An Input for Love

After reading this article, I understand that when you fall in love your brain changes, those sexy ventral tegmental areas are activated.  The study found that love is rooted in your brain like the hunt for food and water.  It is a physical need.  Well that expalins a lot about some human behavior.....Anyway.  My question is, what is the input for love?  Yes, we can percieve a love object through sight, smell, touch, but what is the right formula of these perceptions for you to fall in love with that person.  Do you need to know that someday they might return your feelings?  As this study showed, rejection from a love one is physically painful, so you would think human nature would make us want to avoid that at all costs. I think there must be some sort of individual standard for whom to fall in love with.  Otherwise, we'd all be falling in love with the same few people, and that could get really complicated really quickly.  Going along with the Emily Dickinson Model, this formula must exist in the brain somewhere, but it can't be static.  We can fall in/out of love with different people at different times, so that standard must change as we change.  The brain is in a constant flux taking in new information, comparing it with old information, sometimes it creates its own information.  This flow must contribute somehow to why we fall in love with those we do. 

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
3 + 2 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.