 Have you ever wondered what it's like to be in love? Not the kind of love portrayed in rom-coms, which usually comes about after a series of meat feuds and dramatic breakups, but the kind of love that suddenly occurs to you when looking at your significant other and you realize that you want to stay by their side as long as you can. What happens in between those two moments? How do you end up falling in love? There are several theories and ideas about how people fall in love. Most of them are abstract, but let's focus on the theories that have some scientific evidence. Body On a physiological level, there are many signs and symptoms you may experience. Sweaty palms, racing hearts, and butterflies. All of these symptoms are simply a response to the thousands of biochemical interactions happening inside of you. You hold hands and oxytocin is activated. You go on a date and get home feeling like you're in the clouds. Cortisol levels have decreased. The early stages of falling in love are governed by a series of complex reactions. This is what we sometimes think of as romance. This stage is filled with angst, passion, and wanting to spend every second with that other person. Although it's common in the early stages of a relationship, it can happen multiple times through a long-lasting relationship too. Mind But what happens neurologically? Why do you fall in love? In 2015, doctors Richard Swartz and Jacqueline Old published their findings based on studies on love. One of their findings supported the idea that love or being in love is a primitive need. This concept was supported by Helen Fisher's 2005 study, which presents fMRI images of the brain when it's in love. Regions of the brain like the quadate nucleus and ventral tegmental areas are active when researchers showed participants' images of their romantic partners. Ventral tegmental is associated with pleasure, attention, and motivation to pursue rewards. It's no wonder these regions light up in these participants. The brains of these participants associated their partners with pleasure and attention. Additionally, these two regions are involved in a primitive neural network that enables us to go after things we desire. That is possibly why we constantly seek for the person we love. Another region involved in falling in love is the nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens is responsible for activities connected to goals and rewards, be it food, sex, regulating stress, and self-behavior administration. This region, together with the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, is responsible for helping us make assessments of others. But when in love, this region shuts down. Hence, the famous saying, love is blind. In a conversation with Harvard Medical Journal, Dr. Old asserted, we know that primitive areas of the brain are involved in romantic love and that these areas light up on brain scans when talking about a loved one. Of course, there are other factors at play. Not only are these regions activated, but also dopamine, oxytocin, and vasopressin, which all play a role in the attachment process. Dopamine gets released as a result of the activation in the reward center. The oxytocin is released during physical contact. But oxytocin is not just a feel-good neurotransmitter. It works together with vasopressin to create attachment. Vasopressin is what produces long-term relationships. If oxytocin is what deepens feelings after two people have sex, then vasopressin produces long-term attachment. The settling of these two chemicals is what helps calm the initial early relationship jitters. Once the relationship has calmed down, many people believe that love has died out. But that's not the case. Dr. Schwartz and Olds proved that these regions are still active in people who have been married for over a decade. A state-of-the-art investigation of love has confirmed for the very first time that people are not lying when they say that after 10 to 30 years of marriage, they're still madly in love with their partners. Love begins with romance, which is as necessary to fall in love. To feel your heart skip a few beats and to have that wonderful desire to see the person you love. This is how you slowly become attached to them and eventually fall in love. Have you learned something new from this video? Let us know in the comments. And thanks so much for watching. Until next time.