Love has many definitions and it is one of those concepts where the apothegm different strokes for different folks apply. But in the most common definitions, it is a strong perpetual attraction for a person and usually based on affection, tenderness and sexual relationships.
Hard as it sounds, the science behind the concept of love is quite a simple one. So simple that the famous detective Sherlock Holmes in the episode of the Scandal in belgravia said to Irene Adler :
...I imagine John Watson thinks love is a mystery to me, but the chemistry is incredibly simple and very destructive.
what could possibly have prompted the most famous detective to such a remark? It is because it is a simple truth, one that seems to have eluded many people even up till now.
Love is a combination of physical and biological process and can be understood under such terms. When we feel things, hormones are at work and how intense we feel is dependent on how much hormone is been released into our body and how much information our neurotransmitters are transmitting. Same thing happens when we feel love. Hormones are been released, and these hormones causes certain reactions that makes us flinch or our pulse rise or make our pupils dilate whenever we are in love.
The love chemicals refer to the hormones released during the stages of love, from its incipient stage to its mature stage. At the incipient stage, the lovers are just meeting each other and the brain's neurotransmitters are performing reactions and tasks that the brain is not usually accustomed to. Anything that tend to relate, remind or even make us imagine about the person we are falling in love with causes a flood of chemical release in the brain. The heart begins to race, our palms begins to sweat and our imaginations begins to run wild. This is because the brain is releasing chemicals that causes a feeling of elevation and tenderness, the love chemicals.
Dopamine is the a neurotransmitter in the brain that is released by neurons to send signals to other neurons and is largely associated with the reward-motivation behavior in humans. It is also associated with the reward-anticipation behavior as well. the brain releases a high amount of dopamine than is usual and we can get addicted to this. It is almost similar to the euphoria produced when cocaine is ingested, only that this hormone is produced in very large quantities at the early stages of love and can cause lovers to be addicted to each, literally!
Overview of reward structures in the human brain, CC BY-SA 3.0, link
Also known as the love hormone or the maternal hormone, this hormone is produced by the hypothalamus and secreted by the pituitary gland. Have you ever observed the close relationship between a mother and her newly born child? it is the high level of oxytocin that is responsible for that behavior. The high level of oxytocin released in the body during the incipient stages of love cause an intensified craving for the other person, a feeling of trust, closeness and bonding. It is also associated with the anxiety and eargerness usually observed in lovers. High levels of oxytocin results in over excessive cravings for the other individual, and is the hormone behind suspicion, stalking and even sex offending.
Yes, the fight or flight hormone. Most of us are very familiar with this hormone and its basic functions. However, it is also the hormone responsible for the intense physical activity we observe when our lover is in close proximity. Heart racing, palms sweating, pupils dilating and mouth parched, all these reactions are as a result of the release of adrenaline. Also it is the hormone responsible for sleep loss whenever love is still new, because whenever the adrenaline level is beyond normal, it is very difficult to sleep for up to four hours until the adrenaline level normalizes.
In the Sherlock Holmes drama Series, Scandal in Belgravia (I am fond of referring to Sherlock Holmes because he is one of my favorite fictional characters), Sherlock Holmes could easily tell that Irene Adler was in love with him simply by feeling her pulse and observing her pupils despite the fact that she was an expert at hiding her feelings. Hence he took advantage of what Irene Adler was ignorant about: that when one is truly in love with another, the hormones evince everything.
The amygdala is the integrative center for emotions, emotional behavior, and motivation. it is also the part of the brain that regulates fear and negative emotions. However, brain scans shows that the amygdala does not function properly during the incipient stages of love and therefore can result in clouding one's judgement of any situation that concerns one's lover. This is as a result of overflowing of adrenaline and , norepinephrine, the hormone associated with emotional dependency. This level of hormonal rush also results in a "shut down" of the brain's frontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for making good decisions and thus explaining all the crazy and unreasonable decisions we make when we are in love.
In the overview of it all, love is associated with behaviors and the behaviors observed during love is associated with simple chemical and hormonal reactions which also results in physical reactions as well. And even though there seem to be an aesthetic attachment to the value of love, attributing love to the heart and rendering it in an interpretation that seems obscure (after all, the only function of the heart is to pump blood through our veins and arteries). From a scientific viewpoint, rather, love is nothing more than the brain doing more than is usual, a simple reaction resulting in a complex behavior.
