Cerebral Cortex: The Brain Region Responsible for Love Discovered
Scientists at Aalto University in Finland have discovered a region of the brain responsible for love. The results of the study, published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, provide the most comprehensive picture to date of the brain activity associated with different types of love.
In the study, the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure the brain activity of 55 participants. They were asked to imagine different scenarios related to six types of love, including parental love, romantic love, love for friends, strangers, pets and nature.
Analysis of the data showed that the pattern of activation of love is generated in social situations in the basal ganglia, middle frontal sulcus, precuneus (a region of the parietal lobe), and temporoparietal junction on the sides of the back of the head. The greatest brain activity is caused by parental love for children, particularly in the striatum.
Brain activity depended not only on the proximity of the love object, but also on its type. For example, love of nature activated the reward system and visual areas of the brain, but not social areas, unlike interpersonal love. Compassionate love for strangers was also found to cause less brain activation compared to love for loved ones.
What was also surprising was that pet owners’ brain responses to their love for their pets were more intense in areas related to social cognition than those of non-pet owners, indicating a deep connection between people and their pets at a neural level.
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