| blelcy i WORLD | Sales the BBC international magazine and programme guide for radio and tv | £2 | €3.10| US$3.70 | july 2004WHAT.IS LOVE? ‘Love expert, author and presenter of BBC World Service Love series Dr Helen Fisher has studied the nature of love extensively. In her recent research, she has focused) on the drive for romantic love and presents ‘some conclusions here ~ hat 's to love?” Shakespeare asked. The great bard was not the fist to wonder. suspect our ancestors pondered this question @ milion years ago as they lay and watched the stars ‘There are many kinds of love. But | have come'té believe that during ou long evolutionary past, humanibeings evolved thee basic brain networks for loving as they courted, mated Teproduced and reared thet young: lst, romantic ataction ‘and attachment, And as days tumed into centuries and ri weeded out those who failed to reprodute, natural selection hardwired these thre distinct systems into the human brain Each brain syste i associated with a difefent set of primary neurochemicals and brain, networks Lust ~ the! craving for sexUal grlfication — is aBsbciated primerly with testosterone in both men and women, Romantic traction = the elation, heightened energy, obsessive thinking, focused tention and yearning of new fésh love — is associted ith ‘elevated brain activities of dopamine and norepinephrine, natural stimulants, and low activity of 2 related brain chemical serotonin. And. attachment — thescalm and ‘motional union one often feels wth along term partner — {S associated with oxytocin and vasopressin, Moreover, each ofthese bran networks evohted to ect 2 diferent aspect of human reproduction. Lust dvs US tO copulate with almost any remotely appropriate partner Romantic atrton (romantic lve, cbsessive ove or being in love) evolved to motivate us to prefer and pursue specfic ‘mating partners, thereby conserving precious courtship time and energy. And feelings of attachment evolved to enable Tew parents to remain together at least long enough to rear a child though infancy. "When nature makes|ajgood design she uses it over and ‘over, And it le that almost all types of human love — from love of ove to brotherly lve to al the ther subtle varieties of human love — are variations of these = = three basic brain systems, mixing in myriad ways with one. another and with other brain networks. ‘The bran system | am studying is romantic lve. | began ~ by calling from the scientific ltereture those mental and Physical ris that people regularly express when they are madly injjove: Nex, | established that people everynhere, from ae eingasane ‘and Chinese to contemporary Tenzanians, Eskimos and” Arabspexpress, these tats. From. these preliminary investigations, | concluded that romantic sen * love is a universal experience ~ deeply embedded in the human brain. ; | developed my hypotheses about the brain chemistry ofthis passion. Last, with collaborators Br Lucy L Brown, DreAthur Aron and several others, | used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (WRI) to scan the brains of more than'40 men and women who were aly in love. Half were loved in return; the rest had recently been tejected by someone they adored ‘The results were remarkable. When lovers gaze at ajphoto of a beloved, they experience increased actvty in tiny ‘factory near the base of the brain that produces and dstibutes dopamine to many brain regions. Dopamine is associated with excessive energy, elation focussed attention and the motivation to win rewards — basic Wis of rernantic love. We aso found acti in several other brain region rch in dopamine receptors and basic to the brain's reward system. These results changed my thinking about romantic lve: this pasion s a funderiillnan mating dive. Ubithe ‘craving fr food, romantic love is @ powerul physidogicel need, an urge, a motivation! an instinct that < ‘Romantic love is a \ universal experience — deeply embedded in the } human brain’ specially 10 enable men and women to court and win a prefered mating parte Indeed, the dive to love i tonger | the sex dive. Few people kil themselves when denies them sex; many have commited suicide after being rejected by a beloved. ‘Our scanning team’also found gender differences. Male subjecs showedimore acy in a brain region associated With the integration of visual stimu. This makes evolutionary sense: For millons of years ancestral males needed to visually appraise a female's ability to bear healthy young. Women showed more activity in brain regions essocated with memory recall. This, too, has evolutionary logic Ancestral females needed to choose mates who could provide and protec. So females needed to remember what 2 lover ieaos Wveltt} SERVICE at he did (and didn't do) last ve affair promised yesterday and wi week Women stil remember more details of a thar Th piimitive fo have mating prefer express intense energy and pa fer ways. All are characteristics of romantic love. And this sve that animals fee! data also led me to hyp f romantic love. All mammals (and birds) 2s. And as they cour, they focus their individuals, follow them obsessively, ick, stoke and caress in ‘animal attraction’ has been associated with dopamine in the brain — just lke human romantic love. Attraction lasts ony seconds in rats, about three days among elephants, and ‘months in dogs; but animals do love. I fac, they often express this attraction instantaneously ~ the forerunner of love-atfrstsight. | suspect that a5 our hominid forebears. descended Aca some five milion from the fast-disappearng trees o years ago and began to pat up to rear their helpless babies, urtship intensified. Then at some pointn human evolution, pro system for animal bly some two milion years ago, the primitive brain tion evahed into human romantic love Love has its soraws, of course. Being the most painful experiences a human being can endure. As the poet Emily Dickinson wrote, “Parting ected is among know of hell? Our scanning team has not yet fini analysing the brain scans of our rejected subjects. But | suspect many of the same brain regions will be involed Alas, one doesn't stop loving when one is spumed. But rejected lovers most likely struggle with 3 host of other brain responses, to0 has two general phases: ‘protest’ and t phase, deserted nation/despai, During the prot lovers obsessively ty to win the beloved back Incessantly they phone or email or make dramatic ent And as the adversity intensifies, so does their passion. This phe common that | coined the term us Disappointed lovers can also hate, Known as ‘abandonment rage, this fury has a biological explanation. The rage network in the brain is dosely inked to behind your brow that icipate rewards. And when t an trigger a brain region that generates rage. This commo response to unfulfiled expectations is known as ‘frustrato the diseppointed lover gives up; many confided bea life. All my interests in ite he ‘alo slip into despaiz. A forsaken Chinese wor ‘an anthropologist disappeared” An Aztec indian man left these words in the 1éth century, “Now | know why my father would go out and rin the rain” And in New Guinea rejected men compose tragic love songs about mariages that might have been. Stalking spouse abuse, homicide, suicide and clinical depression; many worldwide social moladies stem from thwarted love Why do we suffer so? Because Jong ago romantic love ‘des which rete the behaviour of man and women in public The helplessness ofa protective instinct Ina mather4 Young and old, the dese for companionship and ive remaine € Marriage ca symbolise ‘more than loving commitment, ten conferring legal and secial privileges radio ‘evolved 10 motivate out forebears to win life's most important prize ~ 2 special mating parner And rejected lovers have (Gemporary, in most cases) filed at this crud mating ‘game, How is romantic love changing in our modem world? How are working women affecting ancient patterns of sex, romance and family Ife? Some demographers theorise that middle-age now extends to age 85; how are older people ‘expressing their romantic passion and feelings of attachment? Whet do homesenuals say about romantic love? Why do young children fall madly in love long before they reach reproducive age? How do people living in polgy societies handle the possessiveness of infatuation? Do mi and women in eranged mariages fain love? Why does romantic atracton tigger sexual desire? How is it that casual A the bra keeping tomance alve in long-term partnerships? sexrarely remains casual? And This BBC World Senice series explores these and many other aspects ofthis primal force ~ the human dive to love.