February 14, 2011 | By: Naseem S.

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Love in 0.2 seconds

Humans of many fields, including those of the humanities and sciences, have long been wanting to know what love [at first sight] is-most notably the 1980s band Foreigner. Couples like Romeo & Juliet or Homer & Marge have long been endorsing this universal phenomenon, but are their claims true or just lovesick paranoia? Can you really determine if someone's your perfect match in a matter of a fifth of a second? Scientists are now working together to become the cartographers or mapmakers of the human brain's "love map."

Usually when a swain lover is asked to express how they're feeling, you hear metaphoric terms like,"I feel butterflies in my stomach" or "my heart is going to burst out of my chest because it's beating so hard" and "I feel like a horse." Okay so maybe the second phrase isn't as literally common. An assistant psychology/neurology professor named Stephanie Ortigue from Syracuse University, along with many other researchers, performed a meta-analysis study called "The Neurology of Love" in the quest for an explanation of love [at first sight] and whether it occurs in the heart or the brain. The stomach is obviously ruled out. Researchers in this meta-analysis study, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, combined the statistical results of many studies and plumbed them for evidence.

When people say love is complicated, they don't realize how right they are. Most scientists refer to love as a basic emotion, but in Ortigue's study, she and her colleagues found that 12 areas of the brain work together to release many chemicals and hormones that induce the feeling of love as early as 0.2 seconds of visual contact. Among these chemicals are dopamine, oxytocin, adrenaline, and vasopressin---all chemicals previously associated with love and other highly complicated processes in the brain and mixed together are thought as a love potion. In addition, newly found love also sparks in areas of the brain associated with euphoria-inducing drugs-suggesting love as a feeling akin to using cocaine.

The research was conducted mainly through the use of functional magnetic imaging, or fMRI. This tool is used to spot brain activity by looking at blood flow levels in the brain. This cutting-edge technology is used in hospitals to help diagnose brain diseases, but is also used to assist scientists study thoughts and feelings like love in a person. The harder a certain brain area works, the more oxygen it needs; fMRI detects this by observing increased blood flow carrying oxygen to the brain area.

You may be unaware that a behavior called assortative mating also occurs in love at first sight. After a study was performed by the Rowett Research Institute and University of Aberdeen, it was revealed that among characteristics, humans tend to select a mate off of physical appearance-in this case, body fatness. It is already known that most couples are also of the same social, financial, and educational background and choose each other based off of similar qualities. In addition, ‘scientific' beauty, as we all know, is based off of symmetry. I will cover that in another post. But, facial and physical appearance, as well as pheromones play a large role in attraction. Pheromones are the scent markers that appear in human sweat and dictate sexual behavior. Gross. Sometimes lovers choose their mate because of a distinct quality that reminds them of their own parents...

The question that still puzzles scientists is the origin of these associations. My question is, if assortative mating is true, what sparks love of polar opposites and those of different races, classes, educational levels? My own parents are of different ethnicity and grew up in different countries. If love was based off of societal characteristics, would it be considered real?

By looking at love's activity in the brain helps doctors, psychologists, and therapists treat couples in couple therapy and improve sexual medicine treatment for patients suffering from love addiction, love deprivation, or rejection.

Approximately 58% of Americans believe in love at first sight; 50% say they've experienced it. I'm still unconvinced...do you believe love at first sight is real? Data also links love at first sight to genetics...find out how and write your suggestions/thoughts/comments below:

Photo Credit: rgallant (via Flickr)

References:

Obringer, Lee A. "How Love Works."
Syracuse University, "Falling in Love Only Takes About a Fifth of a Second, Research Reveals." October 25, 2010.
Rowette Research Institure, "Love At First Sight Of Your Body Fat." August 13, 2007.
"Neuroimaging Love: Romance is More Scientific Than You Think." October 24, 2010.

10 Comments

March 08, 2011 | 01:12 AM

Posted By: Ali Syed

That was really interesting stuff there Naseem! Love at first sight isn't really believable to me because it depends on the phenotype, personality, and background of the significant other. Yeah like you mentioned our parents grew up in different countries and had different lifestyles so it's weird to me that love at first sight is based on superficial things. King Henry VIII fell in lust with all of his wives and ended up executing two, divorcing two, losing one and abandoning one---so I understand that love doesn't last forever and there are plenty of other fish in the sea. But my question is, why do people stay with each other if they encounter many problems such as arguments that turn into fights? Why do battered and abused girlfriends or wives stay with their significant other even through all the pain? On average, three women are abused a day... It makes no sense to me.

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February 28, 2011 | 03:21 AM

Posted By: Aurora Tormey

This is a really great post Naseem! I'm not so sure if I believe in love at first site. I also did additional research and read about an interesting study done by scientists of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin. They worked with lemurs who pick life-long mates, but frequently cheat on their partners. One of the main reasons behind this are each animals' major histocompatibility complex (MHC markers.) This not only contributed to the strength of one's immune system, but also their unique body odor. This study came to the conclusion that females choose their mate with the most differentiated males with healthy genes. It is also stated that their habit of cheating is a result of finding a mate with even more of a genetic difference, to produce more of a variation in their offspring. This goes to show that opposites really do attract!

http://www.scienceoxfordonline.com/do-genes-determine-mate-choice

February 25, 2011 | 03:25 AM

Posted By: Daniel Turchiano

Associative mating occurs in humans based on pheromones and appearance. Usually from the parental figures seeming similar to the mate (conditioned into liking parental figures) or sex pheromones and scents release from the body in order to attract mates. Recent studies suggest that Major Histocompatability Complex (MHC markers) on a cell may have something to do with dissociative mating, or attraction with others that have dissimilar traits. Certain pheromones released from the human body allows for detection of variety of MHC markers. The other mate tends to be attracted to others with dissimilar MHC markers, so that their offspring will have strong and varied MHC markers. This all occurs subconsciously and may not have an enormous effect on mate selection. In terms of this in modern society, it may be swayed by more of one's personality or social views.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/1426717
drmillslmu.wikispaces.com/file/view/ch7Notes%5B1%5D.doc

February 24, 2011 | 02:22 AM

Posted By: Eva Bartels

Great Post Naseem! After reading Alice's comment about her parents and divorce, I wanted to do a little more research on why divorce rates are rapidly increasing. According to this article I found there are several reasons for increasing divorce rates. And to my surprise, not all of them had to do with the same scientific studying as falling in love required. For instance, many couples are now getting divorced because the whole process has been made a lot easier. Divorce theses day only require signing a few papers, which to many people seem like an easy way out of a bad situation. Also, with many couples , both the man and the woman now have two full time jobs to support themselves or ,in some, cases a family. This can cause a large amount of stress on both the people in the marriage and can often lead to unhappiness in a marriage.
http://www.divorceguide.com/usa/divorce-information/why-is-the-current-divorce-rate-increasing-in-america.html

February 23, 2011 | 12:46 AM

Posted By: Noa Lev-Ari

Nice post, Naseem! Love interests me so much, and I've always wondered how it works. I found a very interesting article about the "science of love". It says that what gives us the feeling of love are certain chemicals mixing in our brains giving us this enticing feeling. Psychologists have even said it takes only between 90 seconds and 4 minutes to decide whether you have feelings for someone. There are 3 basic stages of love: Lust, which is driven by hormones and testosterone; Attraction which has to do with adrenaline, dopamine, serotonin, which all give you the butterflies in your stomach. The final stage is attachment which is the bond that keeps 2 people that love each other, together. The factors in this is oxytocin which is known as the "cuddle hormone" thats what gives pleasure to men and women when with each other. The second is vasopressin which controls thirst, and makes the man and woman want each other more.
http://www.youramazingbrain.org/lovesex/sciencelove.htm

February 22, 2011 | 11:44 PM

Posted By: Alice Harrison

Great post, Naseem! After reading this post and learning that humans tend to choose mates based off of similar characteristics, I thought back to my parents, like Jessica and Gurk did. My parents come from the same country, are the same religion, went to the same college, and are even both the oldest of three siblings! They share very similar characteristics, which might be the cause of their connection to each other. However, if people of similar backgrounds and interests commonly fall in love, why is it that about half of all first marriages fail in the United States, as do two thirds of second marriages and three quarters of third marriages? If humans are naturally drawn to people similar to them, why is it that divorce rates are increasing at shocking rates? One would think that similar people would work the best together, but maybe this isn't the case. Is there any explanation of increasing divorce rates?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-science-can-help-love

February 21, 2011 | 04:47 PM

Posted By: Gurk Kang

That was an interesting post Naseem! Just like Jess I thought that love was based on good looks and great personality. My parents are from the same country and religion. Not only my parents but also my relatives are from the same religion and country. But what we learned in Biology class if people from the same area start to mate, their traits will barley change. A good example we learned in class was this, if there was an ice age and most of the population had been killed due to the cold people with diabetes’s would help us. Yes people with diabetes’s eventually produce more heat than others. But if the person mates with someone with from a different area the baby would end up having different traits and better traits. Reproducing with same area can cause disease’s to pass down. And can eventually cause human population to die. But if the person reproduces with someone else from a different area the baby might not have the disease and can pass down this trait.

February 16, 2011 | 10:40 PM

Posted By: Jessica Khrakovsky

Wow, Naseem, this post was truly intriguing! I used to think that love was based on personality, looks, and some other minor factors. However, I have never thought about the fact that usually mates have the same background. I know it doesn't apply to your parents, but ,after I thought about my own, I came to realize that my parents are of the same ethnicity, religion, and political views. They also grew up in the same place, went to the same college, and even have the same job! I started to wonder if that was pure coincidence since not everyone has the same story. After asking multiple people, I've noticed that most people DO mate within their country of origin. However, transnational mating is not unheard of, nor is it rare. Assortative mating is more common because people want to increase homozygosity in their children and want their offspring to have phenotypes more similar to each parent.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/39494/assortative-mating

February 16, 2011 | 06:31 PM

Posted By: andrea devito

This is such an interesting topic! I’ve always wondered whether or not love at first sight really existed. And it turns out that genetics actually does have something to do with love at first sight. Females have a better sense at telling whether or not a male is a good mate for them. My research proves the statement, “opposites attract” correct. Females tend to be more attracted to males who are not as genetically compatible with. This experiment was done with fruit flies and humans. In the fruit flies experiment, the females were able to tell which males they were genetically compatible with. The results were the same for the human experiment. The females were more attracted to the males who were less genetically compatible with them.
http://www.livescience.com/3468-love-sight-genetic.html

February 15, 2011 | 10:30 PM

Posted By: Sara El-Hennawy

Interesting post Naseem! I always thought that love at first site was just a myth passed on but after reading your post I think it is slightly possible. However, I do think the possiblity that it starts out as lust and turns into love is bigger. I believe that if 50% of Americans say they've experienced "love at first sight", then it isn't really true love or love at first sight. I don't have much experience in this topic I could be wrong but I think it should be "lust at first sight" which then potentially develops into love. To answer Naseems question, there actually is a saying that says opposites attract but who knows that could be a myth too. I like to think that in some cases love is like a light bulb, it shines really bright at first, then the light decreases gradually until one day it just stops shining.

Love in 0.2 seconds

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