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Dr Helen Fisher: the brain in love

Falling in love is a truly strange experience. You become
utterly, inexplicably obsessed with one person. You feel
a spike of pleasure whenever you get a text or email
from them and spend as much time with them as
humanly possible. You see the good in them, but not
the bad.

To neuroscientists examining brain architecture, love
looks surprisingly like addiction.

Not everyone goes through the experience of being in love, but many do, and it's one of the
most distinctive parts of being a human. Helen Fisher, a Rutgers University researcher who's used
MRI and other brain imaging techniques to examine both romantic love and long-term
attachment, says that "it's a new idea to accept that there are even brain systems associated
with love in the first place."

How many people have suffered in all the millions of years of human evolution? How many
people around the world are dancing with elation at this very minute? Romantic love is one of
the most powerful sensations on Earth.

So, several years ago, I decided to look into the brain and study this madness. We found activity
in a tiny, little factory near the base of the brain called the ventral tegmental area.