Where does our brain go when we fall in love

In 2010, the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) conducted a survey and learned the main values of Russians. The first place was taken by the family, it was mentioned by 97% of the respondents. This was followed by friendship, love and the political situation in the country. Sex, on the other hand, was in the penultimate place, second only to religion.

Does this indicate our high moral principles or that the respondents cheated and decided to show themselves in a good light? Because the hormones that are responsible for our feelings and attraction, in theory, should influence us more than the situation in the country and political games. Or not?

In 2004, two American researchers, Lim and Young, conducted an unusual experiment that would change our attitude towards love if we were not so inclined to romanticize it. The test subjects were meadow voles (rodents), or rather their separate species Microtus Ocrogaste. This type of vole is distinguished by the fact that after the first mating, sexual partners form a pair for life.

Lim and Young injected voles into their brains with the hormones vasopressin and oxytocin and monitored their responses. Oxytocin had no effect on male voles, and female voles immediately tried to form a bond with a mate of the opposite sex. But vasopressin worked in a completely different way. The female voles, on the contrary, did not react to him in any way, and the male sex immediately fell in love.

This experience showed two things at once: how little we know about love and that love, like other emotions, is controlled by chemistry.

What is love from the point of view of science

Love is directly related to hormones. These include oxytocin and vasopressin, already familiar from the vole experiment, as well as dopamine, serotonin, testosterone, estrogen and adrenaline. Moreover, each of them is responsible for a separate reaction of our body, which we are used to associating with falling in love:

Epinephrine is responsible for blood pressure, and excessive release of it increases stress and tension, causing the heart to beat faster.
Dopamine, in turn, is responsible for the sensations that we like so much: pleasure, dizziness, excitement, and imaginary wings behind our back.
Serotonin, or rather its lack, is responsible for those cases when we cannot get the object of adoration out of our heads. A lack of serotonin is the main symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder, when a person cannot get rid of obsessive or frightening thoughts.
Testosterone is responsible for attractiveness, and contrary to popular belief, in both sexes. The more testosterone a man has, the more attractive he is to women and the more attractive women seem to him.
Estrogen affects a man's attraction to a woman. A study by the American Psychological Association found that testosterone levels in men who smelled a woman during ovulation increased.

Should you be ashamed of your feelings and blush at every mention of the genitals in a conversation? Unlikely. All this is just a set of chemical reactions that take place in our body.

What it takes to fall in love

Less than you think. In 1997, psychologist Arthur Aron made a couple of strangers fall in love with each other. He gave them a questionnaire with which they had to answer each other within 45 minutes. The level of intimacy increased with each question. And if the first were in the spirit of “Would you like to be famous?”, Then towards the end they became like: “When was the last time you cried in front of someone? And in private?"

This is not all. After answering the questions, the couple had to look each other in the eyes in complete silence for 4 minutes. Strangers who entered the study room through different doors and saw each other for the first time left there in love. And six months later they got married.

It is hard to believe one and such a unique case. Therefore, the columnist for The New York Times decided with her friend. Read what came of this for yourself - it will be more interesting.

Why do we become idiots when we fall in love

We figured out that we don't know a damn thing about love. And now it's time to find out why we turn into idiots when the chemistry in our brains tells us to fall in love. And, to be honest, I would not take my word for it, so I will support all my thoughts with research.

Remember the last time you were talking to a beautiful girl? I'm not sure if the girls have the same problem, but I think it works both ways. A tangled tongue, "cool" phrases about the weather and the realization that you are talking nonsense.

You are not alone.

In 2009, Seine Knotts and her colleagues at Radboud University conducted a study in which they asked men to interact with beautiful girls. Before and after the interview, they tested the mental abilities of the subjects.

After talking to the girls, the results of the mental tests were worse. Surprisingly, this did not work for females: their results did not change.

Knot's second study humiliated the strong half of humanity even more. She asked two test groups, one of which was male and the other female, to take the Stroop test, which you probably know.

The essence of the test is to name the color of each word shown in the picture. But there is one problem: the color of the word does not match its meaning. For example, the word “yellow” is written in red, “blue” in yellow, and so on. The test demonstrates how quickly your brain can process this information.

Each group took the test twice: the first time in the usual way, and during the second test, participants in the experiment believed that they were being watched by participants in the other group. The results were again degrading.

The male group passed the second test with the worst results. The time spent on the test by the female group was the same in both cases.

This and many other tests once again prove the fact that we cannot go against nature and try to block emotions. Science confirms that love, sex, affection, attraction - it all depends on biology and chemistry. But despite this, love does not become less beautiful. Do you look like an idiot? So what? In the end, it's worth it.