The role of Dopamine in love Is especially relevant: when we are in love with someone, we experience pleasant and satisfying emotions. These emotions immediately produce a release of dopamine in the brain, so the same emotion gives us feelings of pleasure.
One of the most common arguments among people who do not"believe"in love or the possibility of being in love with someone, is to say that love is nothing more than a chemical reaction of the brain.
This argument that many people interpret as flatly false is partly true, since love is itself an emotional reaction of people and emotions are controlled by chemical processes of the brain.
However, if we properly examine the"quit"of the question, the human body in its entirety functions through chemical processes.
In this way, not only love responds to chemical reactions, but any experience can be defined through the exchange of cells and mechanisms based on brain chemistry.
As far as emotions are concerned, the chemical processes involved are mostly found in brain And play a very relevant role in their experimentation.
What is love?
Love is a universal concept concerning the affinity between human beings.
This concept can be defined through different points of view, both artistic and scientific, philosophical or religious.
Usually, it is usually interpreted as a feeling related to affection and attachment.
In addition, these feelings are what originate a series of attitudes such as kindness, compassion or care, and a series of behaviors that have the purpose of expressing and externalizing the Emotions of love That are experienced.
So when we talk about love we are referring to a series of emotions and feelings.
These feelings are experienced in the brain regions, provoke a series of thoughts and originate a great number of organic and behavioral modifications.
However, the aspect that allows us to understand why brain chemistry plays an important role in the development of love is that it deals with a specific state of mind characterized by experiencing a series of emotions and feelings.
What role does chemistry play in love?
All the feelings and all the emotions that human beings have are modulated by the functioning of the brain.
In fact, all thoughts, ideas, beliefs, attitudes, behaviors or behaviors that we perform also attend to the functioning of the brain.
If we were exquisite we could even affirm the ability to walk, being hungry, being able to see or smell, or so many other actions, are also controlled by the activity of the mind.
However, in order not to complicate ourselves more, we will focus on the functioning of emotions and feelings, since, love is precisely that, a series of emotions and feelings that are usually experienced with remarkable intensity.
Taking into account the emotions, it must be borne in mind that the fact that A depression , a anxiety disorder Or a Bipolar disorder Can be treated with drugs means that these pathologies are regulated by chemical processes.
The same goes for explaining the feelings of love, as this emotion is experienced when a series of brain chemical processes are activated.
In the brain there are thousands of chemicals, and each of them allows us to do or experience something.
In this way, while certain substances can enable us to see, walk or reason, others allow us to experience emotions, feelings and feelings.
In this idea falls the relationship between chemistry and love, since this emotion, as with all others, is experienced through a series of brain mechanisms.
What substances participate in love?
The feelings of love release several chemical compounds and hormones that are responsible for producing the experimentation of a series of determined emotions.
In this way, love liberates mainly Dopamine , Serotonin And oxytocin.
This chemical process explains that the feelings of falling in love are more intense at the beginning and later they are going down.
Decreased excitement or intense emotions should not be interpreted as"falling out"or as decreasing feelings of love, but as a normal process of the brain.
In this way, the brain activity that produces the love at the beginning is very novel and exciting. However, as time goes by the brain becomes accustomed to such chemical modifications and the sensations may be less intense.
The main chemical structures that are responsible for producing these feelings of love are:
1- Oxytocin
It is a substance secreted by the body that is responsible for releasing transmitters such as dopamine, Noradrenaline Or serotonin.
Humans produce this substance constantly but there are certain situations that cause an increase or decrease of Oxytocin . Love produces an increase in oxytocin.
So when we are in love we release more of this substance so the neurotransmitters that modulate oxytocin also increase in our brain regions.
2- Serotonin
Serotonin is known as the neurotransmitter of happiness because, among many other actions, this chemical performs the function of acting on the emotions and the state of mind .
It is responsible for well-being, generates feelings of optimism, good humor and sociability, so the higher amounts of serotonin we release, the greater feelings of happiness we experience.
In fact, most Antidepressants Act by increasing the release of this substance with the aim of increasing mood.
Positive experiences and pleasant situations produce a release of serotonin in the brain, so when we experience emotions of love, serotonin levels increase.
3-Dopamine
Dopamine is a substance that is primarily related to pleasure and plays an important role in pleasurable actions like eating, having sex, consuming certain drugs.
In this way, pleasurable experiences translate into the brain in a greater release of dopamine so that the emotions of love increase the levels of these substances in the brain.
What exactly is dopamine?
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, that is, a substance in the brain that connects neurons to each other.
These substances are distributed across multiple brain regions and, in each zone, they perform a different activity.
Above all, it emphasizes the dopamine located in the system of pleasure and reward, a region of the brain that takes care of precisely this, to provide sensations of pleasure.
These regions are activated before any stimulus perceived as pleasant. For example, if we eat when we are really hungry or drink when we are very thirsty, our brain immediately produces greater dopamine release in these regions.
The release of dopamine automatically translates into a sensation of pleasure, so our brain reinforces the behavior as it interprets it as pleasant thanks to the released substance.
This brain mechanism is the one that explains the addictions, either to substances or to any type of action.
Thus, when we smoke for example, the nicotine Of cigarettes produces a release of dopamine in the regions of pleasure and reward.
If you smoke frequently, this release of dopamine will also occur repeatedly, so the brain will become accustomed to releasing this substance on a regular basis and we will create a tobacco addiction.
Leaving drugs aside, dopamine is released whenever we do something that is enjoyable. Therefore, those things that make us pleasurable, we will interpret them as such and we will try to do them whenever we can to feel good.
Dopamine and love
The same mechanism that we have discussed of dopamine regarding drug use may be applicable to love.
When We are in love with someone , We experience pleasant and satisfying emotions.
These emotions immediately produce a release of dopamine in the brain, so the same emotion gives us feelings of pleasure.
This brain mechanism could explain the maintenance of this type of emotions and feelings.
That is, if our brain did not release dopamine in the aspects related to love, we probably would not reinforce this emotion and perhaps we would not want to maintain it.
Put another way, when we kiss our partner and perform a behavior that allows us to express the emotions of love, dopamine is triggered in our brain.
The increase of this substance in the brain regions is the main factor that motivates the appearance of feelings of pleasure in those moments, so it acts as a mental mechanism that does not indicate that what we are doing we like.
Addiction to love
Love relationships are built on many things other than a simple chemical reaction of the brain.
However, the release of dopamine plays a very important role at the individual level, that is, when a person experiences emotions of love.
Thus, the feelings of pleasure we discussed earlier might explain part of the need for a person in love to see the person they love or be with.
The individual's brain knows that when he is with his partner he will release greater amounts of dopamine, so he will look for such situations to experience pleasure.
In this way, by saving the distances (which are many), love can motivate the search for this emotion and the desire to be with the loved one in the same way that the drug can propel the addict to consume.
In both cases, what is produced is an increase of pleasure sensations based on an external stimulus, modulated by the release of dopamine.
This comparison may be a bit extreme since obviously the changes produced by drugs in the functioning of dopamine in the brain are very different from those that produce the feelings of love.
However, they serve to exemplify how this type of feelings are experienced thanks to the production of chemical modifications in the brain. Therefore, dopamine can largely explain the emotions of love in humans.
Dopamine and lack of love
Finally, the functioning of this substance in the experimentation of emotions and feelings of love raises one last question: the role of dopamine when love or relationship ends.
At the end of an affective relationship, a generally depressed mood and certain symptoms usually appear.
The person can feel sad, discouraged, nervous, not wanting to do anything, without motivation or without enthusiasm for things.
Analyzing love as an object and concept, one can conclude that these feelings are caused by the loss of a loved one, the experimentation of a loss situation or the desires to have something that is no longer possessed.
However, without having to objectify what was exposed in the previous paragraph, these moments can also be analyzed from the cerebral point of view.
When love ends, dopamine decreases
As we have said, every sensation, emotion and feeling is produced by the functioning of a series of chemical compounds of the brain.
Thus, when feelings of sadness are experienced After a break , These also respond to certain brain substances.
Being with someone, we accustomed our brain to release certain levels of dopamine.
Thus, when the relationship ends, these dopamine levels disappear, since the external stimulus that motivates them is no longer present.
In these moments, the sensations appear opposite to those that produce the elevated levels of dopamine, reason why they experience unpleasant sensations and of sadness.
Therefore, by re-bridging distances, this brain reaction may be similar to what a substance-addicted person experiences when he stops consuming.
The addict experiences discomfort and Typical dependency Known as monkey when you stop ingesting the drug to which you are addicted mainly because you need to restore your dopamine levels.
In love, the effects are less clear, but the obsession or the highly unpleasant sensations that appear after a breakup may partly respond to these changes in the functioning of brain chemicals.
References
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