Which type of affection does the brain activate most intensely?
Love, as identified in a study, triggers different brain regions to respond - with the strongest activation observed in parental affection towards one's own children. This finding is identical in romantic love, as pointed out in an article published in the journal "Cerebral Cortex" based on a series of experiments.
People employ the term "love" in various contexts - spanning sexual attraction to parental love and affection for nature. A Finnish research team, led by Päärtly Rinne from Aalto University in Espoo, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to record brain activity during certain scenarios.
Scenes of love ignite the brain
The study involved 55 adults aged between 28 and 53 years, who were parents and reported being in a loving relationship. Twenty-seven participants also had pets.
Participants listened to short stories about six different types of love - for one's own children, partner, friends, strangers, pets, and nature. They then thought about each scenario for ten seconds. As a control, they were shown scenes devoid of love, such as looking out a bus window or brushing their teeth mechanically. Brain activity was recorded during both listening and thinking phases, with questionnaires used to collect participants' opinions on love categories.
Parental love holds a unique position
Scenes of love activating the reward system and visual areas of the brain were observed, but not social brain areas, in scenes about love for nature. Parental love, however, showed distinct features - notably more activation in reward-associated areas of the striatum. Empathetic love for strangers, on the other hand, had relatively low overall activation.
Researchers led by Rinne found similarities in activated brain areas across all forms of interpersonal love, with intensity of activation being the only difference. All were related to social perception.
Special connection between pet owners and their pets
Love for pets and nature exhibited this activation pattern, except for a pet scene, "You are relaxing on the couch at home, and your house cat rolls over next to you, purring sleepily. You love your pet."
Brain measurements revealed that the participant had a pet if the respective brain area was statistically more likely to be activated. The brain responded similarly to interpersonal affection in this situation.
Cultural variations could be prominent
The team acknowledges that the results cannot be generalized due to the small number of participants and encourages further research considering cultural and demographic factors. Feelings towards strangers, animals, and nature are heavily influenced by societal and subjective-psychological factors.
The neural mechanisms of love can spark philosophical debates about the essence of love and human bonding, suggest the researchers. Understanding these mechanisms could also yield practical advantages in the treatment of conditions like attachment disorders, depression, and relationship issues.
Given the text, here are two sentences that contain the word 'The brain' and follow naturally:
The study involved using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to record the brain activity of the participants during certain scenarios.The findings suggest that the neural mechanisms of love could have implications in the treatment of conditions like attachment disorders and depression.
