Love and loneliness originate in the brain, not the heart

By Dick Pelletier

      

    Movies like Casablanca, Affair to Remember, and Sleepless in Seattle trigger our romantic feelings. When we fantasize about love, we experience these warm fuzzy feelings as if they were real. Now, in a new field that delves into the biology of emotions, neuroscientists are learning how these feelings develop in our minds through brain images, hormones, and genetics.

    In a recent issue of Nature, Emory University researcher Larry Young argued that love can be explained by a series of neurochemical events in the brain. His team studied the brains of prairie voles, mouselike creatures that share an uncanny similarity of human desire for monogamy, to understand what goes on in the minds of people as they express love feelings.

    When a female prairie vole's brain is infused with oxytocin, a hormone that produces the same rewards as nicotine and cocaine, she quickly attaches herself to the nearest male. And when a related hormone, vasopressin, was injected into male voles, they immediately felt an urge to bond and nest with the nearest female.

    In his Nature essay, Young speculates that human love follows patterns almost identical to prairie voles, and he also found that many of our human love traits evolved from mother-child bonding stimulated by oxytocin released during labor, delivery and nursing.

    In related research, University of Chicago professor John Cacioppo, one of the nation’s leading scholars on loneliness, found that feeling lonely undermines health and can be as detrimental as smoking. About one in five Americans experience loneliness, he said.

    This state-of-the-art research project used fMRI scans to observe the interaction of brain cells while subjects were undergoing feelings of loneliness. Cacioppo believes his research will provide insight into ways the brain affects consciousness, perception, and our struggles in everyday life.
Today, pharmacologists are designing new drugs that will increase and/or restrict production of oxytocin and vasopressin, and others to prevent our brain from creating loneliness feelings.

    As scientists gain a better understanding of these powerful human emotions, we will no longer need to rely on oysters or chocolates to create a loving mood. Instead, aphrodisiacs will be available to help couples fall madly in love with each other – and for those involved in a bad relationship; an antidote pill could completely erase every last love feeling felt by both parties.

    People who have suffered unbearable broken relationships in the past, or who simply want to devote their present time to careers and seek romance later, may choose to inoculate themselves from the risk of romance with an "anti-love" pill. Those considering separation from troubled marriages could take pills to rekindle the fire, which would lower divorce rates.

    But some worry that emotion drugs could lead to misuse. People wanting out of a relationship might give a pill to their mate making them fall out of love; or if someone you admire is in love with someone else; simply slip them an anti-love pill and they quickly become available.

    Clearly, the road to creating emotion drugs winds around unknown turns, but forward-thinkers believe the advantages of enhancing love feelings will drive this technology forward. Get ready to enjoy this most amazing "magical future."

This article appeared in various print publications and on-line blogs. Comments always welcome.