What sometimes makes us love so much that it even seems to hurt us?Why famous characters like Leonard Cohen even say that “love has no cure, but it is the only cure for all evils”
The truth is that love can be easy to describe, but it can also be very complex when we wait for it, experience it, or move away from it. However, some authors and researchers have tried to find cognitive and even historical explanations. One is Helen Fisher, an anthropologist and biologist who has spent more than 30 years trying to find answers to love.
- Helen Fisher.
- As a researcher and biologist.
- Focused her studies on detecting brain processes that occur in love reactions.
- Romance.
- Etc.
- Logically we understand this case of romanticism as the set of feelings and emotions associated with passion.
- Nothing to do directly with the literary movement of the nineteenth century.
To find explanations, Fisher used several fully in love subjects, who were tested in specific areas to find out which areas of the brain were activated when a person thinks about who he likes.
Fisher’s test consisted of studying brain blood flow while the lover looked at his partner’s image, then saw a number, subtracted it seven by seven, and looked at a neutral photograph of an insignificant individual. several times to ensure consistency of results.
Although love reactions are very diverse and in different parts of the brain, a region was particularly active, it is called caudado nucleus, a primitive part that already existed in reptiles and evolved even before the proliferation of mammals, which are now millions of years.
Fisher also concluded that our brain’s reward system is vital, when looking at the photo of the loved one dopamine is released, the neurotransmitter that is secreted during the activation of the cauted nucleus, generating motivation and satisfaction, in addition, the reward system is also activated. other regions of the brain, such as the septum or ATC, the ventral tegmental zone, both linked to feelings of euphoria.
So it is obvious that we are romantic because we fall in love, it also seems logical to think that you fall in love because you feel good, something quite justified, since the reward and motivation system plays a fundamental role in these processes.
According to Fisher, falling in love would be more of an impulse, more than an emotion or a feeling of love, it takes a lot of work to control and it is very difficult to disappear, we can always be romantic, because we are exposed to infatuation. However, emotions can be more ephemeral.
Another conclusion of Fisher is that romantic love is totally focused on the gratification offered by the reward system, while emotions connect with other objects such as fear, for example.
The researcher also states that basic emotions are associated with several different facial expressions, while romantic love does not exist such an association, because expressions are very varied.
In short, we can conclude that the romantic love established in Helen Fisher’s cognitive theory is more of a necessity, we feel the need to love and be loved, because it makes us happy and we feel better, more realized and motivated.
For Helen Fisher, romantic love has evolved in the human brain, today her motivation depends on a specific person, and she also attributed to this brain process an intrinsic and close relationship with sexual impulse and attachment or the need to establish deep bonds. .
So, and still based on Fisher’s study, these phrases so used and trivialized that “Am I not the least romantic in the world?”, make no sense, because it is not a conscious choice, but part of our nature.
However, whether it is an impulse, feeling, emotion or a stranger, romance and love are fundamental parts of our life. Our brain knows it by nature and evolution. Therefore, it is convenient to give it importance and take advantage of the wonderful sweetness of passion.