Contents:
- Medical Video: The Science of Love
- Falling in love is a biological process that is strongly influenced by hormones
- Why can falling in love make you stupid?
- Falling in love is an instinct for survival
Medical Video: The Science of Love
When you fall in love, you can't stop thinking about your lover. Sometimes people also want to do anything for their love. Therefore, people say that love can make you stupid or crazy. The term is often associated with romance. What is the term? Here's the explanation.
Falling in love is a biological process that is strongly influenced by hormones
People who are in love may have difficulty doing common cognitive tasks such as multitasking and problem solving. This is because they have spent most of their energy thinking about someone they love.
When you fall in love, hormones in your body make you experience three things at once, euphoria (overflowing happiness), threatened, and fatigue. Research team from University of Pisa found that in the early stages of romance, the nerve-transmitting activity of adrenaline, dopamine, oxytocin, norepinephrine, and phenylethylamine (natural amphetamines) mixed and increased when two people were attracted to each other. As a result, the part of the brain that regulates emotions becomes overwhelmed.
Uniquely, during this euphoric phase, the relaxation effect you get from serotonin will decrease, replaced by an obsession with your partner and consistently. This PEA also has a role in making your heart pound and feel gasping, trembling, and a very strong desire to unite with your lover.
Why can falling in love make you stupid?
Research reveals the reasons why people fall in love can act irrationally (out of common sense) or seem stupid. This research was conducted by scanning (scanning) MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) Researchers then map out the chemical changes that occur and observe the part of the brain that actively stops working for days when someone is being drunk in romance. More than that, researchers also discovered why all that makes someone who falls in love always be restless.
The frontal cortex is a part of the brain whose job is to make decisions and judge something or someone. Unfortunately, when falling in love, frontal cortex activity is rested by the brain. According to research conducted at University College London, there are many parts of the brain that are active when you are romantic. However, this large area of the brain stops working, even though it is important in assessing certain things.
Researchers believe the cessation of the frontal cortex occurs because of biological purposes, such as facilitating reproductive affairs. That is why people who fall in love find it hard to see the fault or lack of a lover. Scan the brain also shows areas that regulate a variety of negative emotions also do not work. This makes people who fall in love always look happy.
Falling in love also makes the dopamine hormone increase sharply. Dopamine itself is the key to someone who enjoys pain and satisfaction at the same time. This hormone is associated with passion, addiction, euphoria, and abstinence when pursuing love. While increased dopamine affects the production of serotonin, a hormone that improves mood and appetite.
High serotonin levels are also often found in people who experience obsessive-compulsive disorder. That is why love makes you anxious and nervous. While the feeling of palpitations and cold sweat is caused by adrenal hormones. Other hormones that come out when falling in love are the same as when you are scared. This means that love can make you feel happy and scared.
Falling in love is an instinct for survival
From the explanation above, you might wonder why love can have such a big impact on the human body? The simple answer is that falling in love is a human biological instinct so that this species continues to survive through reproduction.
Try to imagine if love does not make someone so obsessed and willing to do everything. You could, no one would bother falling in love, building a family, then reproducing (giving birth to a child). If this happens, over time the human species can become extinct. Therefore, the human brain is biologically prepared to fall in love and maintain the existence of its species. Even though it means love can make a fool for a while.
However, love does not always lead to reproduction. In many cases, love is present only to fulfill one's emotional needs. In other cases, such as parents' love for children, love is very important to ensure the child is successful in surviving. That's why parents can love their children so much that they are willing to do anything for their sons and daughters, without expecting anything in return.
