Rodolfo Llinus is a Colombian neuroscientist who has spent most of his life studying the brain, led NASA’s NEUROLAB program and is currently Director of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at New York University, some time ago he gave an interview in which he surprised by the map he drew with the concepts of fidelity , love and happiness.
Their claims prove, from a neurological point of view, what many people visualize from common sense, experience or behavioral observation. He claims that the brain is a closed system that is only “perforated” for feelings. This indicates that its functioning has some analogy with that of a computer, unlike the brain has plasticity and creativity: it changes, nourishes and changes.
“Loyalty is the effort of a noble soul to correspond with the greatest. “Goethe
From his long and deep research on the brain, he concluded that intellectual structure is based on the emotional, first the emotion and then the reason. We create the ideas of the world not so much from reasoning, but from how we feel. Love has a prominent place and fidelity belongs to the smartest, according to his words.
Rodolfo Llinus points out that the emotional area of the brain is one of the oldest, it was one of the first to develop. In his words, “it’s the cheating brain, that of reptiles, where there are only fixed patterns of action. That’s why they come or go if they want food; they attack if they want to defend themselves, and they have sex if they want to. “Play?.
Love has its origin in the same field, but it involves different physiological functions. Love, says Llinus, is like a pleasure. And those who are in love become greedy. He wants to have more and more love for the person he loves. He also adds that “no one dies of excessive love. “
Love, the scientist stresses, is not like doing gymnastics, but how to dance, from a physiological point of view. In the face of what is called?Eternal love ?, he declares: “He is an intelligent man, who structures and adjusts fixed patterns of action by referencing the other, as if it were the hand itself; taking care of her is my responsibility, and vice versa. Is it the norm to know there will be no cheating?
Loyalty helps you not unnecessarily waste emotional or intellectual energy. The smarter, more inclined human being to humanity’s great concerns leaves aside situations that destabilize his life or use energy for more complex actions. For all these reasons, Llinus concludes that eternal love is an infinite dance of neurons between two intelligent people.
Rodolfo Llinus is not the only one who talks about the relationship between intelligence and fidelity, an investigation by Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa, expert in evolutionary psychology, came to a similar conclusion, who in his research pointed out that men with a higher IQ (above 106) value couple fidelity more, this is different for women: they all value fidelity , without any correlation with your level of intelligence.
Research emphasizes that monogamy is a higher stage of human evolution. At first, humans are closely linked to the instinctive behavior of mammals, leading to polygamy. But in both human history and the individual of every man, monogamy seems to be linked to a higher level of evolution.
Infidelity is really a condition of having a lot of free time and a lot of emotional disposition to conflict. When we spend much of our time, it is more difficult to devote part to the intrigues and strategies that accompany infidelity. Nor is there as much emotional energy available to pay the price of acting underground, avoid getting caught and maintain a fake facade.
It is much smarter to build a relationship and improve it than to move from one relationship to another, monogamy brings great satisfaction, it is not a sacrifice, as any valid human situation implies effort. However, the gain is much greater, if individual life focuses on great goals, a companion or permanent companion of the trip is surely a great treasure; on the contrary, if life focuses on the banal, a stable relationship goes against this. futility and banality.
Images courtesy of Leonid Afremov.