Page 188 - The Truth Landscape Format 2020 with next section introductions-compressed

2. Falling in love seems to reduce your ability to be judgmental

Other brain-imaging work by Samir Zeki, a neurobiologist at University College
London, might explain a related aspect of falling in love: the way new lovers only
see the positives in each other.

When Zeki has put people who have fallen in love inside of fMRI machines and
shown them photos of their lovers, he's detected reduced activity in the amygdala —
a pair of brain regions that are involved in decision-making. Amygdala activity is
typically heightened during fearful or stressful situations, and research suggests that
we use it when making social judgements and trying to determine if other people are
lying.

Reduced amygdala activity in lovers, Zeki believes, may make them less prone to
making negative judgements and distrusting each other, facilitating a sense of
intimacy.

3. There are similarities between falling in love and OCD

In experiments at the University of Pisa, Marazziti and colleagues have studied levels (Samir Zeki)
of serotonin — a neurotransmitter associated with feelings of contentment — in the
brains of people who said they fell in love in the previous six months.

Low serotonin levels may lead to the obsessive, jealous aspects of love
Given that we think of love as a positive emotion, it's a bit surprising that she found reduced levels of serotonin in these people, compared to controls. Even
more surprising, though, is that they were as low as other study participants who had obsessive compulsive order — so low, she says, that "my biologists
came back to me and assumed that the readings were from people who suffered from OCD."

It's well-established that people who suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder have reduced serotonin levels, likely contributing to extreme feelings of
anxiety. When it comes to love, Marazziti writes, a lack of serotonin may lead to the obsessive, irrationally jealous behaviour we see in some people.

4. Getting rejected is a bit like going through withdrawal

Fisher has also scanned the brains of people who said they were in love with people who'd rejected them. Given that love shares some characteristics with Page188
addiction, it might not be a surprise that when they looked at photos of their beloveds, their brains looked like addicts going through withdrawal.