Is it love or lust? A new study co-authored by Concordia University professor Jim Pfaus shows that in the human brain you can't have one without the other. "No one has ever put these two together to see the patterns of activation," said Pfaus, whose study showed an overlap in the areas of the brain that are stimulated by love and by sexual desire. The psychology professor explained that the brain can't divorce love from reward and desire. "It really grows out of it. And you need desire there to keep the love alive." Along with researchers in the U.S. and Switzerland, Pfaus looked at the results from 20 different studies that examined brain activity as subjects looked at exotic pictures and photos of their partners. Researchers found that in each case the photos activated areas of the striatum, which is located inside the forebrain. According to the study, the area of the striatum that's triggered by sexual desire is usually activated by things that are naturally pleasurable, such as food or sex, while the area triggered by love is conditioned by moments linked to rewards or pleasures. "When we have love at first sight, is there ever a time that we don't want to consummate that love by having sex? I don't think so," Pfaus told CTVNews.ca However, he noted that love and desire affect the brain in very different ways. "It's not like love is lust taken to the tenth degree," said Pfaus. He explained that feelings of love involve the bonding mechanism of oxytocin, known as the love hormone, and dopamine, which controls the brain's reward and pleasure centres. Pfaus said researchers were surprised to find that the area of the brain associated with love is also associated with addiction. "When your lover says I'm not going to see you anymore, you don't say, ‘I'll just find another.' You start acting like a drug addict. You search for that, you beg for it and you want it. It's as if your heart has been ripped out." Pfaus explained that love is actually a habit that is formed from sexual desire as that desire is rewarded. "It works the same way in the brain as when people become addicted to drugs," he said. He pointed to studies that show a deactivation in certain parts of the brain when someone falls out of love. Pfaus said the study sheds a new light on addiction and its impact on the human brain.Source: Article, Image
