There Are Many Types of Love, But One Fires Up Your Brain a Lot More than Others

The heart may get all of the attention when it comes to love, but it’s the brain that deserves all of the credit.

Which parts of the brain?  That’s what scientists in a new study are trying to figure out.

They had 55 parents in loving relationships listen to simple love scenarios while undergoing functional MRI scans. The stories they heard included romantic love, sexual love, parental love, and love for friends, pets, nature, God, and themselves.

Love for one’s children generated the most intense brain activity, closely followed by romantic or sexual love.

One author says, “In parental love, there was activation deep in the brain's reward system in the striatum area while imagining love, and this was not seen for any other kind of love.”

Not surprisingly, the brain responded more strongly to love involving human beings versus other species or nature.

The researchers found brain regions associated with love between people were very similar, except for their intensity. Human love activated areas related to social cognition, in contrast to love for pets or nature — with one exception.

Those same areas became fired up in people who closely shared their lives with a furry friend.

The authors say these findings suggest love should not be looked at as a single, discrete emotion or feeling of state.

Source: Philosophical Psychology

Author Affiliations: Aalto University