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the BBC international magazine and programme guide for radio and tv | £2 | €3.10| US$3.70 | july 2004WHAT.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
ieaos
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 mather4 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.