 today. We will explore what love literally does to the brain. Let's get chemical. When you think of love, a big red heart comes to mind, but it is the brain that is responsible for everything you feel where love is concerned. Yes, you heard that right. According to neuroscientist and author of Wired for Love, Stephanie Cacioppo, love is a biological necessity. It's as needed for our well-being as exercise, water, and food. From a neuroscientific viewpoint, we can say that love blossoms in the brain. You may still be asking yourself how so when countless phrases and songs relate love to the heart. Well, to shed further light on this matter of the heart, Cacioppo conducted a series of functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI, and found that when love strikes, up to 12 areas of the brain work together to release chemicals, such as the feel-good hormone dopamine, the cuddle hormone oxytocin, and even adrenaline, which induces a sense of euphoria. Simply thinking about the object of your affection is enough to release waves of these brain chemicals. During her research, Cacioppo also noticed that each subject's serotonin levels had dropped significantly. Serotonin is a crucial hormone in regulating things like appetite and intrusive thoughts. Since low levels of serotonin are common among those who suffer from anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders, Cacioppo says that this explains why people in the early stages of love can become obsessed with small details, spending hours debating about a text to or from their beloved. So if you tend to forego lunch while daydreaming about your loved one, now you know why. Going for the perfect love combo. Throughout life, you find yourself loving many people and things, which raises the question of the difference between platonic and romantic love. How does the love you feel for your partner versus the love you feel for a hobby, friend, or family member differ? According to the University of Cambridge, romantic love is distinguished from platonic love by high arousal or strong emotions, while platonic love is also associated with releasing oxytocin and another love hormone, vasopressin. It lacks the neurotransmitters that induce the passion and intensity of romantic love. You can quickly love a friend or significant other, but the brain registers and classifies the love you feel as different. Oxytocin, also called the love hormone, provokes feelings of contentment, calmness, and security, which are often associated with mate bonding. Vasopressin encourages behavior that produces long-term, monogamous relationships. The differences in behavior associated with the actions of the two hormones may explain differences in the two kinds of love. In a 2005 study, participants alternately viewed a photograph of their beloved and a photograph of a familiar person. When viewing the photo of their romantic partner, participants experience brain activation in the midbrain's ventral tegmental area, VTA, which is the part of the brain connected to meeting basic needs such as drinking when we're thirsty and eating when we're hungry. The activation in this very basic part of the brain is telling us that romantic love is actually a drive to fulfill a basic need for survival. Love addiction. What makes love dangerous? Numerous songs have described love as addictive and insatiable. Do any all-time favorites come to mind? There have even been claims that love can be just as dangerous as any other addiction. Due to the rapid surge of hormones like dopamine and oxytocin, while the term love addiction is controversial among many mental health care professionals, it has been agreed that having an overwhelming or obsessive compulsion towards love or a loved one is not uncommon and unhealthy. When in love a multitude of hormones are released, making us feel good and more than happy to be near the person making us feel this way. But you know that saying too much of anything can be bad for you? Well that can apply to love too. In an article by Harvard University called Love Actually, the author Catherine Wu describes that attraction is much like an addiction to another human being. You feel the strong urge to be closer to them, sometimes at the cost of your schedule, self-care and mental health because of the hormones running rampant in your brain. Despite the opposition to the ideas of love addiction, anthropologist and TED speaker Helen Fisher proposes that love addiction is just as real as any other addiction in terms of its behavior patterns and brain mechanisms. Fisher says that besotted lovers express all four of the basic traits of addiction, craving, tolerance, withdrawal and relapse. Did you learn something new about love today? Did this video help make sense of why being with your partner or crush makes you happy? Share with us in the comments and tell us about your ideas of love. If you found this video educational please like it and share it with your friends looking to learn more about love. And if you're interested in learning about love styles and the psychology behind our views on love, check out our video The Six Love Styles and How to Understand Yours. Until next time remember to hit that subscribe button to be kept up to date on our latest videos. Take care and remember that you matter.