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love

·July 14, 2025·6 min read

Hormones Shape Love and Lust Differently in Male & Female Brains

New research uncovers how a hormonally tuned brain circuit in mice governs sex-specific mating behaviors. Scientists identified a subset of neurons in the prefrontal cortex that integrate oxytocin, ovarian hormones, and social cues to modulate sexual receptivity in females and suppress mating interest in males.

This shows the outline of a woman surrounded by hearts and a man in the distance.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·April 13, 2025·5 min read

When Obsession Masquerades as Love: Understanding Limerence

Limerence is an intense, involuntary obsession with another person, often marked by intrusive thoughts, emotional dependency, and a fixation on perceived signs of interest or rejection. Coined by psychologist Dorothy Tennov in 1979, limerence differs from love due to its compulsive and often one-sided nature.

This shows the change in the anger body map.

Featured Neuroscience

·December 4, 2024·5 min read

Angry Feet: How the Emotional Body Map Changed Over Time

Researchers analyzing 1 million Akkadian words from ancient Mesopotamian texts revealed unique insights into how emotions were experienced in the body. While many emotions align with modern perceptions, the ancients notably linked happiness to the liver and anger to the feet, contrasting with modern experiences in the chest and hands.

Featured Neuroscience

·August 26, 2024·4 min read

How Different Types of Love Activate the Brain

A new study explores how the brain responds to various forms of love, from parental to romantic, using advanced imaging techniques. Researchers found that love for one’s children generates the most intense brain activity, especially in the reward system.

Featured Neuroscience

·February 22, 2024·5 min read

Mapping Love and Sex in the Brain

Researchers developed the first comprehensive brain map showing activity in prairie voles during mating and bonding, uncovering 68 brain regions involved in forming enduring monogamous relationships. This study challenges previous assumptions that male and female brains operate differently during these processes, revealing nearly identical patterns of brain activity in both sexes.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·February 4, 2024·5 min read

Debunking Love Myths: A New Look at Romance and Science

A new study challenges popular romance myths, debunking the Five Love Languages with evidence-based research. The work, proposes a 'balanced diet' metaphor for expressing love, emphasizing the need for diverse and evolving expressions of affection in relationships.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·January 12, 2024·4 min read

Love’s Chemistry: How Dopamine Shapes Bonds and Breakups

Researchers uncover how dopamine, a key neurotransmitter, varies in response to social interactions, distinguishing between intimate and casual relationships. Their research, conducted on prairie voles, sheds light on the neurochemical dynamics of pair bonding and grief.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·January 9, 2024·4 min read

How Your Brain Puts Your Loved One on a Pedestal

In a novel study, the link between romantic love and the brain's behavioral activation system (BAS) has been explored for the first time. The study surveyed 1,556 young adults who identified themselves as being "in love," focusing on their emotional responses to their partners, their behaviors around them, and their level of focus on their loved ones.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·September 19, 2023·5 min read

Mapping Love: Study Charts How Love Feels in Our Bodies

Researchers unveiled a groundbreaking "map" of how different types of love are physically and mentally experienced throughout the body. Through a survey involving 27 distinct love forms, results showed a continuum from weaker to stronger love sensations.

Featured Neuroscience

·January 27, 2023·6 min read

Fresh Questions About Oxytocin as the ‘Love Hormone’ Behind Pair Bonding

The "love hormone" oxytocin may not play as critical a role in bonding as previously believed. Removing the oxytocin receptor in animal models still resulted in monogamous mating, attachment, and parental bonding behaviors, although females without the receptor produced milk in smaller quantities. Findings reveal parenting and bonding aren't purely dictated by oxytocin receptors.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·July 17, 2022·6 min read

Why Does Love Feel Magical? It’s an Evolutionary Advantage

Magical thinking and believing in destined love may have evolved as a way to keep couples together and promote childbirth and rearing, researchers say.

This shows a heart with prison bars and a brain behind it

Featured Neuroscience

·December 27, 2020·6 min read

Love and Hate in the Brain

Activity in the medial preoptic area tilts the mouse brain toward love and affection, while activity in the ventromedial hypothalamus is associated with more aggressive or hateful acts.