Love in the brain : ways love affect a brain

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind," as Shakespeare's Helena said in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" — and perhaps neuroscientists would agree.

Love might seem to move in mysterious ways, but scientists actually have a pretty good idea of what love does to the brain. Being in love floods the brain with chemicals and hormones that produce feelings of pleasure, obsession and attachment. Here's a look at five ways love affects the brain.

1.Hormones go haywire

scientists divide love into three phases: lust, attraction 

and attachment. During the lust phase, hormones flood the 

body with feelings of intense desire. Adrenaline and 

norepinephrine make the heart race and the palms sweat, 

while the brain chemical dopamine creates feelings of 

euphoria. The brain releases dopamine in response to other 

pleasurable stimuli too, including drugs, which explains the 

so-called lovers' high 

2.Works like a drug

Even before people fall in love, seeing an 

attractive face activates the same part of the 

brain as do painkillers such as morphine: the opioid 

system. This part of the brain is responsible for feelings 

of 

"liking." A recent study showed that men who were given

 small doses of morphine rated photographs of women's 

faces as more attractive than did men who didn't get any 

morphine, suggesting the opioid system can be 

"primed" to perceive attractiveness.

3.Makes the blood pump

Being in love increases blood flow to the brain's 

pleasure center, the nucleus accumbens. Magnetic 

resonance imaging (MRI) scans show this region lights 

up when people are in love. The surge in blood flow

 usually happens during the attraction phase, when

 partners become fixated on each other. 

4.Makes brain OCD

love lowers levels of the brain chemical serotonin,

 a common attribute of obsessive-compulsive disorders. 

The serotonin drop could explain why lovers display such 

single-minded concentration on the object of their 

affection. 

These feelings can also cause lovers to be blind to their 

partner's undesirable traits in the early stages 

of a relationship, choosing to focus only on their

 partner's good qualities. 

5.Harmones create attachment

After people have been in love for some time, the body

 develops a tolerance to the pleasurable chemicals. The 

attraction phase gives way to the attachment phase, when 

the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin permeate the brain

 and create feelings of well-being and security.