5 Amazing Scientific Facts About Love
More and more scientific facts about love are known, and many of them are surprising. Research in this regard has shown that this feeling that poets and singers declare has much more to do with the brain and hormones than with dreams and illusions.
The scientific facts about love remind us that passion is physical, chemical and biological. Of course, it does not come down to this, because it also acquires meaning within the mind and shapes perceptions about life and relationships with others.
Romantic love is and will be a source of motivation and dreams. It enriches life, makes us more creative and happier. Furthermore, the scientific facts about love explain that this feeling provokes interesting physiological reactions, and that almost no one escapes its spell.
scientific facts about love
1. Love is like drunkenness
When people say they are “drunk with love,” perhaps this idea should be taken literally. A study published in the journal Neuroscience and Biobehavorial Reviews in 2015 noted that loving feelings are felt “in a similar way to drunkenness.”
Research carried out by scientists at the University of Birmingham indicated that, during passion, there is a high release of oxytocin, also known as “the hormone of love”. The effect this substance has on the body is very similar to that of excessive alcohol intake.
2. Can modify the brain
A team of scientists from the Hanui University of Science and Technology has published an interesting study in the journal Frontiers of Human Neuroscience . In it, an experiment carried out with 100 volunteers was disclosed, among which there were people in love, people who had recently ended a relationship and lonely people.
The brains of these people were examined using MRIs and it was found that lovers had greater brain activity in areas related to motivation, reward and social skills. Their brains were distinctly similar to the brains of addicted people.
3. It has nothing to do with chocolate
There is a belief that the sorrows of love are easier to forget when eating chocolate. Apparently, this food would have some components that balance the chemical effect that the absence of the loved one causes on the brain. Therefore, those who experience a disappointment do not stop eating chocolate in all its forms.
One of the scientific facts about love indicates that this belief is absolutely false. It’s true that chocolate contains phenylethylamine, a substance that also appears during passion. However, the point is that love causes it to be produced naturally; when ingested through the digestive tract, it loses its full effect.
4. Makes butterflies feel in your stomach
If one person loves another, perhaps he can say that he loves them “with all his heart”. The truth is that the stomach must also be added to this description, as some scientific facts about love reveal. The famous fluttering of the wings of butterflies in the stomach exists and is felt in the presence of the loved one.
It’s a kind of tingle, felt as if it were a “happy fear”. Science has revealed that this is because there is an association between the brain and the digestive system. If you like a person, seeing them can trigger many physiological reactions. Among them are the light and rapid heartbeats in the stomach.
5. Monogamy in animals
This scientific fact is not about love, in the strict sense, but about fidelity. As is known, there are some species of animals that choose a partner and stay with him/her until death. But why do they do it? In fact, his motives aren’t especially romantic.
In some cases, this is because there are few specimens. Other times it has to do with puppies being very vulnerable to a hostile environment. In this sense, living together increases the chances of survival for the offspring. Available information indicates that only 5% of species are monogamous and that, in all cases, this monogamy is due to a practical reason.
In any case, love is and will remain a fabulous state. A state that makes us feel every sensation intensely. It also makes us more dynamic and responsive. Whether for chemical, physical, biological or semantic reasons, love is always worth it.
