Male and Female Brain. Many

¶ … male and female brain.

Many researchers have developed and studied specific indicators in men and women with the intent to describe and quantify what romantic love emotionally feels like. Some of these are euphoria, obsessive thinking about the other person, intense desire to be close, and emotional dependency (Aron, et al. 2005). All cultures and genders tend to describe the same emotions that they experience in romantic love. Because of this, many researchers believe that the brain regions involving reward and motivation play a role (Aron, et al. 2005). This paper will briefly summarize, and greatly simplify, similarities between the male and female brain while both genders experience romantic love.

Several researchers have shown that multiple reward regions in the brain can be activated during feelings of romantic love (Aron, 2005). In the limbic brain region, which is greatly involved with emotion, there are "pleasure centers" (Doidge, 2007). In one study, electrodes were implanted into an area of the limbic system in humans (Heath, 1972). When these electrodes were switched on, intense euphoria was experienced (Heath, 1972). These pleasure centers are part of the "reward" pathway, also known as the mesolimbic dopamine system, which has dopaminergic cell bodies that originate in a subcortical brain region called the ventral tegmental area, or VTA (Nestler, et al. 2001). The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is also important in reward and is largely considered a part of this reward pathway, especially in mediating reward (Doidge, 2007). Simply put, both play an important role in many emotions including motivation, drug addiction, intense emotions relating to love, and some psychiatric disorders (Nestler, et al. 2001). Additionally, neurons located in the hypothalamus are thought to signal the motivational value of a reward in relation to internal drive states (Nestler, et al. 2001).

Falling in love lowers the threshold at which the pleasure centers are activated which results in feelings of euphoria and intense pleasure (Doidge, 2007). When a person is manic, as in bi-polar disorder, high on cocaine, or in love, profound enthusiasm, optimism, and intense happiness are experienced. This is because all three of these psychological mind states trigger the appetitive pleasure system, which is the dopamine-based system associated with the pleasure of anticipating something desirable (Doidge, 2007).

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies confirm that when lovers look at photos of their romantic partner, areas of the brain associated with reward and motivation are activated (Doidge, 2007). Specifically, scans of the right VTA and medial caudate nucleus show significant concentrations of dopamine, which is also what brain scans of people high on cocaine look like (Doidge, 2007). Brain scans of people in love and high on cocaine look almost identical (Doidge, 2007).