What is love according to scientists. Chemistry of love. What is love scientifically? Fromm on the objects of love

Every person knows. However, if you ask this question different people the answers will be completely different. Why is that? And is there the only true and correct definition of love - this is what I want to talk about.

The science

So what is love? The definition of love has tried to give many minds of mankind throughout the history of earthly civilization. That is why it is worth this concept viewed from different points of view. And I want to start my analysis with the scientific sphere. Interesting for many will be the fact that there is a special chemistry of love. Scientists have proven that when a person falls in love, his body produces such an amount of hormones that is akin to drug or alcohol intoxication. In this case, the brain receives signals that indicate that a person is in a state of love. However, this is only one side of such a state, and to consider love only as chemistry is simply a crime.

1. Love is a drug. Proof of this is a tomography of the head of a man in love. The same areas of the brain are activated in him as in a person who has used cocaine and is in a state of euphoria.
2. Love is a way of survival. Scientists have proven that human love is a somewhat modified form of infatuation in animals. That is, it is easier for a person to find one partner for life, and not constantly seek new ones to satisfy their own sexual needs.
3. Love is blind. This statement also has scientific evidence. A German researcher found that the areas of the brain responsible for rational decisions And negative emotions a person in love simply turns off.
4. Love is addiction. Scientists say that it is necessary to treat for love in the same way as for drug addiction: remove all factors that irritate him from the “sick” field of vision: photographs, gifts, any reminders of the object of desire.
5. Healing from love. Since when a person falls in love, the level of a hormone such as serotonin drops quite seriously, doctors offer to compensate for it with medication in order to be able to avoid crimes based on this feeling (as statistics show, their number has recently increased significantly). However, if you “overdo it” with this hormone, a person will not fall in love, but the attraction will remain, which is fraught with promiscuity.
6. Men love with their eyes. This statement is known to many people, but not everyone knows that it also has scientific evidence. During falling in love, the guys activate the zone that is responsible for the visual factor. It will be interesting that the zone responsible for memory becomes active in women: the lady remembers the behavior of her partner in order to analyze it later and draw conclusions: is it worth being with such a person further.

Dictionaries

So, as a small conclusion, I would like to give a few explanations of what love is. Scientific explanation, formulations:

1. This is a strong heart feeling, an emotional attraction.
2. Sexual attraction, attraction.
3. Strong positive emotions.
4. Intimacy, tenderness.

But in general, we can say that love from a scientific point of view is pure chemistry.

Art

It will also be interesting that you can see love. Photos, pictures - they perfectly illustrate this feeling. However, this is not enough for art. Many writers also thought about what love is. She is sung in verses, songs, necessarily appears on the pages of prose stories and novels. Various have already become so famous that people sometimes do not even know who said it and what work they are taken from.

1. Boris Pasternak: "Love is a lofty disease."
2. Stendhal, "On Love": "Love is like a fever, it can come and go without the slightest feeling of a person's will."
3. Haruki Murakami, "Kafka on the Beach": "Every person who falls in love is looking for something they lack."
4. "Physiology of marriage" Honore de Balzac: "Real affection is blind. You should not judge the people you love."
5. Shakespeare, "Dream in midsummer night”: “That’s why Cupids are portrayed as blind, because the lover looks not with his eyes, but with his heart.”
6. Fyodor Dostoevsky, "The Brothers Karamazov": "What is hell? Regret that you can not love even more."

And there are many more such statements. As for the nuances, they will all be different, but they will still have a single line.

Philosophers: Erich Fromm

Philosophers also have their own works on this topic. They talked a lot about love, giving information from a variety of points of view. Now I would like to pay attention to Erich Fromm and his work "The Art of Loving". What interesting conclusions did this philosopher make in his work. So, in his opinion, love is not just a sentimental feeling that can arise in a person. This is not enough, not enough. In order for love to develop, develop and grow morally, the person himself must. The first step that everyone must take is to realize that love is an art, akin to the art of living. And in order to understand love in its entirety, each person must perceive it as something more than a given. The philosopher also says that in addition to love, there is some other form of relationship, a symbiotic unity. It is of two types:

1. Passive is, to some extent, masochism, when a person submits himself to the will of another, becomes an integral part of him. In this case, he loses his individuality.
2. Active is sadism, when one person subjugates the will of another person, making him an integral part of himself.

However, mature love is the opposite of these forms of relationships. This is the union of two people while maintaining their personality, individuality, integrity. According to Erich Fromm, love is a kind of force that breaks down walls, helping a person to reunite with another person. Real mature love is a paradox: two people become one, while remaining two personalities. Important nuances of love, according to the author:

1. If a person loves, he will give (himself, his life).
2. A person is completely interested in the life of his partner.
3. Partners must respect each other.

Fromm on the objects of love

1. Brotherly love is fundamental, the basis of other types. This is respect, care, responsibility.
2. A mother's love is the first love in every person's life. Its essence, according to the author, should involve the woman's desire for the child to separate from her in the future.
3. Erotic love is a complete carnal unity with one person.
4. Self love. The author writes that this should not be confused with selfishness, these are different concepts. Only by loving yourself, a person can become loved and someone else.
5. religious form of love.

Philosopher Carl Jung

What other philosophers talked about love? So, why not turn to the writings of Carl Gustave Jung, who at the same time was a great psychiatrist and at the same time also a student of Sigmund Freud? His main and favorite phrase: “Nothing is possible without love,” from which many conclusions can already be drawn. According to the author, love is the most powerful all-conquering factor in human life. So, it is impossible to consider this topic without two archetypes that are inherent in every person: Anima and the so-called personification of the unconscious beginning of a representative of the opposite sex in the psyche of each individual person. These halves are attracted to people. What, according to Jung, is love? The definition of love given by the author: the features hidden in a person are in another person, and they also attract him, arousing a feeling of love.

Anthropology about love

The definition of the word "love" also tried to give such a science as anthropology. Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love deserves special attention. Here she identified three fundamental whales of this feeling: attachment (a sense of security and tranquility), romance (the most powerful stimulant for the emergence of love) and lust (satisfaction of natural needs).

Religion

Be sure to mention that there is also a religious definition of love. The Bible has a lot to say about this feeling.

1. Prov. 10:12: "... the love of a man covers all his sins..."
2. Song of Songs 8:6-7: “… love is strong as death; she is fierce, like the underworld; her arrows are fiery; its flame is very strong. Rivers and great waters will not flood it.”
3. 1 Pet. 4:8 “... Have love for one another, for it is love that covers all sins.”
4. 1 John. 4:7-8,18: "... love is from God, everyone who loves is born of God and knows God."
5. 2 John. 6 "...love consists in this, that all should do according to the commandments of God."

These are not all quotes about love that can be found in the main book of mankind, but they fully reflect the mood and definition of this feeling according to religious canons.

Psychology

1. Passion. Attraction, excitement. This is the physical side of love.
2. Proximity. Friendship, unity. emotional side.
3. Commitments. Willingness to solve the couple's problems, caring. This is the moral aspect of this feeling.

Love in Greek

The theme of love has been touched upon by all peoples and cultures. At this stage, I would like to talk about what types of love the ancient Greeks singled out.

1. Agape. It's not just love, but more compassion. The highest type, when a person can give his all without expecting anything in return.
2. Eros is passion. However, this is not always a bodily passion; it can also be spiritual. Eros by its nature is delight, love.
3. Filia, or sons, is brotherly love. A calmer feeling, the main thing here is spirituality.
4. Storge is more like an attachment. Most often it is marital love.

These four types of love are still basic today, but in modern world there are other subtypes. Such a type as mania may turn out to be interesting - this is madness, love-obsession.

household level

As already mentioned above, for each person love is something different, special. Everyone understands it in their own way, there is nothing wrong with that. How can you characterize love in a simple way, without referring to the opinions of scientists, writers or philosophers?

1. Love is the desire to do something good for a loved one, to constantly please him.
2. “What kind of love is there if I can’t breathe without it” (feature film “Love and Doves”). Love is the desire to always be with a loved one, if not physically, then at least mentally.
3. Love is constantly thinking about whether the person you love is well: is he warm, has he eaten, is he okay.
4. Love is more about giving than receiving without thinking about it at all.

To love means to forgive, to try to be better, not to pay attention to shortcomings. Love is a constant work not only on relationships, but also on yourself. This is work that can only be rewarded after years.

Man in many of his manifestations is an irrational being, especially when it comes to emotions and feelings: sometimes they are not so easy to justify from a logical point of view. If we talk about such a complex phenomenon as love, then the law of cause and effect completely ceases to work, because the state of love is too complex and multifaceted to be sorted out, which is called “brick by brick”.

Nevertheless, experts do not stop trying to explain love passion with chemical reactions, animal instincts, or, say, social patterns. The following are eight sayings of scientists in which they express their vision of love.

1. "Love is like thirst" - Lucy Brown, a neurologist from the Medical College. A. Einstein, New York, NY

The experience of a lover is like a feeling of thirst, which can only be quenched by the presence of the object of passion. All thoughts, actions, aspirations - everything suddenly obeys the desire to be close to the beloved (or beloved). Of course, everyone has their own temperament, and everyone expresses romantic feelings in different ways, but any person, falling in love, experiences a state similar to euphoria, and it occurs only in the presence of the "second half".

After studying the brain activity of several couples in love using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we came to the conclusion that when lovers are together, or think about each other, they activate areas of the brain that are also responsible for feeling the joy of any reward. or recognition, and in terms of strength this feeling is quite comparable to thirst or hunger. We can say that falling in love is part of the reproductive mechanism inherent in us by nature itself: it contributes to the establishment of strong emotional ties between sexual partners and thus increases the chances of having children.

2. “Love is like having someone in your head.” - Helen Fisher, Anthropologist at Rutgers University, New Jersey

There are different types of love, but I think there are three main types of it: sexual attraction, falling in love, and deep affection. My colleagues and I have been studying the functioning of the brain of lovers for a long time, one of our experiments involved 60 men and women aged 18 to 57 years old, whom we examined using MRI, analyzing the main manifestations of romantic feelings.

The first thing a person begins to experience when he falls in love is a certain feeling of “speciality” and “uniqueness” of everything connected with the object of love - his (or her) clothes, car, street, whatever. The lover begins to focus on his passion in everything: he mopes when he (she) does not call and “shines” with happiness when the relationship is getting better.

The state of falling in love is also characterized by increased heart rate, increased sweating and a physiological state, which is also called "butterflies in the stomach." This is due to an increase in the production of the hormone dopamine, which causes delight in a person, a surge of energy and encourages action - these sensations can be compared to the fact that someone who has settled right in the head constantly calls to run somewhere, take action, and all for the sake of the three most main words: "I love you."

I believe that love serves for more reliable reproduction of offspring: it forces us to focus all our attention on one partner and not scatter on casual sex.

3. "Love as a building material" - Daniel Krueger, psychologist at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michiga

Love is a positive experience that contributes to the establishment of stable social ties and the formation of stable relationships and, as a result, facilitates the creation of a family as a fundamental unit of society. Without it, we would more often act solely from our own short-term selfish motives and considerations of personal gain, which would inevitably affect the situation in society.

The feelings we have for loved ones strengthen long-term relationships, which in turn has a positive effect on the birth of socially protected children. Love allows people to take care of offspring until they become independent, and this, it seems to me, is its main socially significant function.

4. “Love expresses itself as an insistence on caring.” - David Givens, Director of the Center for Non-Verbal Studies, Spokane, Washington

First of all, love is an emotion, a feeling of affection and devotion that a person feels towards someone or something. An ardent passion can be stronger, for example, love for family members or even for one's own children, or it can be expressed only in sexual desire.

Love originates in the same part of the brain as maternal affection, the desire to care for offspring, so I believe that it developed from maternal instinct. The fact that lovers feel the need to care for each other, help and support in everything confirms this.

5. "Love is sex" - Luis Garcia, professor of psychology at Rutgers University

Science knows a lot of evidence that sexuality plays a very important role in relationships. A number of studies show that satisfaction with intimate life directly affects, for example, the overall impressions of marriage, in addition, according to the results of our experiments, a person who lives a full sex life, is more likely to find a long-term and fruitful relationship.

Together with a colleague, Dr. Charlotte Markey, we interviewed several couples who have lived together for quite a long time - in a civil marriage or registered, it does not matter. It turned out that one of the main incentives in living together was their sexual attraction to each other. Also on intimate life, and therefore on feelings, a rich sexual experience, and if it is approximately the same for partners, their union has every chance of being happy for many years.

6. "Love is unthinkable without respect" - Keith Wax, psychologist, author of Relationships for Dummies

There is no love without mutual respect and trust. Lovers try to show their best side, so successful relationships always consist of honesty, fidelity, emotional support and self-sacrifice. Love gives each a sense of their uniqueness and forces them to accept the uniqueness of the other: each believes that if his partner is well with him, it is necessary to take measures so as not to destroy the delicate balance. Therefore, any loving person seeks to defend the interests of his “second half” and satisfy her needs.

I believe that the feeling opposite to love is not hatred, but indifference: if you stop worrying about a person and do not feel the need to take care of him, this indicates a loss of respect, which means there can be no talk of love.

7. "Love is a long-term relationship" - Stephanie Ortig, neuroscientist at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York

Everyone knows what love is, but no one can give a clear agreed definition. In my interpretation, I use the results of my psychological research and neuroimaging of the brain of lovers. In my opinion, love is a complex positive and motivating mental state, characterized by the desire for unity with a certain person. This state includes a number of chemical, emotional and cognitive processes.

If, when communicating with a partner, activity of certain sections of neurons is observed, this indicates the presence of love, and we do not know any evidence that love cannot last as long as you like, but the problem is that it is influenced by too many factors, the change of which is sometimes impossible to predict . However, if we consider love as an established affectionate attitude towards someone, such types of love as maternal and paternal, love of children for parents and love between sexual partners fall under this definition.

8. "Love as a historical constant" - Stephanie Kunz, historian at Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington

People have been falling in love throughout their history, but passionate romantic feelings, until relatively recently, were not considered a worthy basis for a relationship, let alone marriage. Most of them got married and got married, obeying the will of their parents, who, as a rule, took into account only mercantile considerations when choosing a life partner for their son or daughter.

The situation began to change in the 19th century - love began to play in family relationships much more significant role. People had to rediscover their attraction to the opposite sex and recognize that love must be at the heart of any successful marriage. I believe that in our time, spouses and lovers should feel for each other not only love passion, but also friendly feelings. The combination of love and friendship will provide partners with a long, happy and fruitful relationship.

On the tomography of the brain of a person in love, it can be seen that the zones responsible for the reward system are excited in him. This is explained by the action of the hormone dopamine, which causes a feeling of pleasure. This is how the brain reacts to powerful narcotic substance - cocaine. At the same time, at the beginning of the appearance of a feeling, the level of dopamine rises very strongly, and then falls below normal, which can cause depression. Since love feelings are similar in effect to cocaine, unrequited love can be cured. This is done as in the case of drug addiction: all reminders and incentives are removed from a person’s life, and the empty space is filled with something new, for example, another hobby or an interesting hobby. In animals that bind themselves in long-term relationships, biologists distinguish stages of desire, infatuation, and affection in their union. Desire is explained by basic needs, passion for fixation on a particular object, and thanks to attachment, animals develop a strong bond when they are ready to breed and raise offspring for a long time with one individual. Human love is scientifically similar to animal infatuation. She appeared with the aim of procreation and helps to save effort, not to waste her energy, but to achieve only one partner. It is believed that the feeling of love lasts from 1.5 to 3 years, and then it is replaced by mutual respect, habit. Such a period guarantees the participation of the father in the most difficult time of raising a child. In some cases, for example, during separation, strong love feelings can last longer. No wonder it is believed that love is also blind. German scientists have found that a person in love turns off brain areas responsible for rational thinking and negative emotions. In lovers, the level of serotonin is greatly reduced, the control system is turned off. Because of such chemical changes in the body, some people go to crime, suicide, so some scientists are inclined to think that unhappy feelings should be treated with pills. Treatment should be aimed at increasing the amount of serotonin in the body, modern antidressants successfully cope with this. Strong changes in the environment can save fading love. In response to them, the brain receives an increased dose of all dopamine, so dating in a romantic setting, relaxing together can save a falling apart relationship. From a scientific point of view, love is very different for representatives of different sexes. A man really loves with his eyes, as the lover increases the activity of those parts of the cerebral cortex that are responsible for vision. But for women, love is associated with memory, so she remembers the behavior of her partner, analyzes the information received and draws conclusions about the possibility of further building relationships.

We think that the ability to love sets us apart from most animals. But from the point of view of science, all romantic experiences are just the cunning of selfish and cynical genes, whose only desire is endless reproduction.

Cunning

From the point of view of evolution, any living being is just a set of genes that copy themselves. Genes can grow into cells, grow organisms, interact with each other, but in the end, only those who manage to save their copies will leave a mark on history. To achieve the goal, the genes go to all sorts of tricks. Some rely on simplicity and efficiency and produce maximum copies in the shortest possible time. For example, bacteria divide in two, and hydras bud off new organisms from themselves. This is called asexual reproduction. Other genes are smarter. They do not just copy themselves, but mix with other genes and create offspring from the resulting mixture.

This is the essence of sexual reproduction, which gave living beings a choice: with whom would they “mix” in such a way as to ensure the greatest success for the offspring? asexual reproduction focused on quantity only. For sex, quality is important. The “pick and mix” strategy has proven remarkably effective. She helped genes master the entire planet - from mountain peaks to the seabed.

Using sexual reproduction, the genes built fancy machines for themselves, like human body- all for the sake of continuing to copy yourself. But what if we - intelligent adults - are not interested in the intentions of our genes? What if we don't want to breed? Of course, the genes provided for this. To deceive man, they invented love. American anthropologist Helen Fisher divided love into three biological components: lust, attraction, and attachment. Just as in an airplane the individual motors operate independently of each other, so in the brain the three components of love independently control our emotions and desires. You can feel affection for one partner, attraction to another, and at the same time get excited at the sight of spicy photos of someone else.

Lust

Lust, or libido, is the desire to participate in sexual reproduction at all costs. With whom, for what and with what outcome is not so important. The process matters, not the result.

The reaction of animals to pheromones can be considered an analogue of human lust. For example, they are isolated by sexually mature male mice. Pheromone molecules entering the nose of a female mouse bind to special receptors on the nerve endings. They transmit the signal "It's time to breed!" right into the brain, which immediately begins to command: “Prepare for ovulation, pump sex hormones into the blood, don’t lose sight of the male!” Lust is the main engine of reproduction, and in Homo sapiens it works on sex hormones: estrogens and androgens. Being an ancient mechanism, lust is blind, and moral norms are powerless against its oppression.

attraction

If, for lust, everyone around is the same person, then at the level of attraction, a choice occurs, for the sake of which everything was conceived. The female deer will give preference to the male who won the battle. The young lady will go on a date with the most charming boyfriend. From the point of view of neurophysiology, there is no difference between these events.

Dopamine is considered the main substance responsible for attraction, which is also called falling in love. As soon as the level of dopamine in the brain rises, euphoria sets in, a person becomes overactive, loses appetite and sleep, worries over trifles, and at the same time begins to think better.

The same effect is caused, for example, by cocaine and amphetamines, which force the body to “squeeze out” all the dopamine from itself. Why would genes make a person nervous, but joyful and smart? The answer is simple: the gene transfer machine must overcome any difficulties, but bring it to sexual reproduction with the chosen partner. And do it as quickly as possible, until there is another who wants to participate in the mixing of genes. That is why the lover is so nervous and sees only one way out of the painfully sweet state: to achieve the lady of the heart. And, of course, to deliver the genes where they should be.

Attachment

Attachment appeared in living beings by evolutionary standards quite recently. The superstructure over lust arose about 120-150 million years ago among mammals and the first birds. This is not surprising: if lust and attraction are based on obvious, momentary observations and direct sensations, then attachment requires a look into the future, and this is much more difficult.

Why did genes invent such a complex mechanism? If we imagine that offspring appear immediately after fertilization and immediately begin an independent life, then attachment is even harmful: what is the point of limiting reproduction to just one set of genes? But the more complex living beings became in the course of evolution, the more time and energy their offspring required. It only takes twenty minutes and a pinch of sugar to make a new bacterium. To get a full-fledged new person, you need nine months of pregnancy, comfortable conditions, a special diet, painful childbirth, and a couple of decades of care and upbringing.

With the complication of animals, reproduction has become a long-term construction project that needs to be planned in advance. It has become unprofitable to change sexual partners like gloves: if the relationship ends after fertilization, then who will be looking for food? Neither attraction nor lust take such complexities into account. Their mission ends when the genes are passed on to the next generation. What was needed was a way to get the breeding machines to choose a long-term mate, not just an attractive mate.

The main “attachment molecule” is the hormone oxytocin. It is released in large quantities during childbirth, helping to cope with pain and forget about it in the future. This hormone promotes the release of milk, directly affects the manifestation of tenderness to children and stimulates parental behavior. Oxytocin increases the desire to spend time with a partner, maintain social and physical contact with him. We can say that oxytocin is the hormone of plans for the future.

Love

Systems that provide lust, attraction and attachment in humans are also found in other mammals. In studies of the role of oxytocin, for example, prairie voles are often used - these rodents are monogamous and attached to a partner. But this does not mean at all that love means the same for a vole as it does for a person. We need to look for the starting point of what we call love. It is believed that the emergence of love in humans is associated with the early evolution of great apes. Eight million years ago, the changing climate of West Africa forced our ancestors to leave the thinning forest for the savannah. In open spaces, you had to move long distances, and already about four million years ago, Australopithecus stood on their feet, instead of climbing trees.

Having straightened up, the female could no longer carry the child on her back, and this made it difficult to find food. But bipedalism freed the hands of males, and they began to carry their food over long distances, instead of dining on the spot. Families with a distribution of roles have gained an evolutionary advantage: females take care of children, males bring food. In the new environment, the ancient oxytocin system proved extremely useful.

Having played with the settings of the brain, evolution "connected" the rapidly developing emotions and consciousness of Australopithecus to the action of the hormone - improved nutrition and new opportunities for raising cubs greatly increased it intellectual ability. In less than three million years, the hormonal and emotional processes, invented by the genes to copy themselves as efficiently as possible, have grown into a dense shell of culture. Religions sang oxytocin, and medieval minstrels sang dopamine. But this fact should not at all upset people who seem to be losing control over their lives: after all, who, if not genes, knows better how to please us? So it's worth relaxing and having fun.

Time scale. Chronicle of reproduction

3.5–1.2 BILLION YEARS AGO (exact date unknown)
The emergence of sexual reproduction. Ancient bacteria exchange genes.

1.2 BILLION YEARS AGO
The first fossil "men" and "women": red algae Bangiomorpha.

0.5 BILLION YEARS AGO
Ancient jellyfish reproduce sexually, but female and male individuals are not distinguished. Hermaphroditism is still popular among invertebrates.

0.3–0.1 BILLION YEARS AGO
Arthropods discover pheromones: an explosive spread of "sex drive" among crustaceans and insects.

145 M YEARS AGO
Birds master the air environment. The need to teach the chicks the complex skill of flight leads to the emergence of married couples and joint care for offspring.

50 M YEARS AGO
Males of some fish (for example, butterfish) guard eggs along with females.

2 MILLION YEARS AGO
Prairie voles use oxytocin as a "love hormone", forming stable monogamous pairs.

195 THOUSAND. YEARS AGO
Modern people live in classical families: a man is a breadwinner and a wife is a mistress.

Have you ever thought about the reasons why you fall in love? Have you ever noticed that love is some kind of mysterious but natural "emotion" that does something to your chemistry? Or maybe you came to the conclusion that love helps our species to survive? Let's look at what love is from a scientific point of view.

Serotonin

Serotonin plays an important role in chemical substances brain used to maintain feelings of love. Serotonin distracts your mind, making it think about your partner. It is like a filter that keeps other thoughts from taking center stage. Sandra Langeslag and her colleagues report that men and women have different levels of serotonin when they are in love. Men in love have lower levels of serotonin than women. Participants in love said that about 65% of the time their mind was occupied with thoughts about their soulmate.

Third Stage of Love: Attachment

When a couple successfully goes through the two aforementioned stages of love, their bond with each other becomes very strong. Attachment is a bond that helps a couple take their relationship to an advanced level. At this stage of the relationship, couples often have a strong desire to have children and take care of them.

Researching the "attachment factor", scientists have discovered two hormones that contribute to maintaining a feeling of love for your partner. These hormones are oxytocin and vasopressin.

Oxytocin

Oxytocin, also known as the "cuddle hormone", is one of the most powerful hormones released by men and women alike, especially during orgasm and cuddling. Oxytocin articulates the depth of love and keeps partners attached. One study concluded that the more often partners have sex, the more attachment they develop. Oxytocin plays a key role in belonging and attachment in humans.

Similarly, oxytocin helps create a strong bond between mother and baby during childbirth. In addition, it is such a sensitive hormone that it automatically signals the breast to release milk at the sound or touch of the baby. Oxytocin and prolactin mediate specific female behaviors such as lactation and childbirth. This hormone also helps predict the other person's behavior and improves interaction between couples, enhancing social bonding.

Vasopressin

Vasopressin, our natural antidiuretic, works with the kidneys to control thirst. This hormone is released in large quantities immediately after sex. Although the brains of women and men are structurally different, they both secrete vasopressin from the pituitary gland.

Vasopressin is called an important hormone that promotes long-term relationships. A biological psychology study evaluated 37 couples by measuring blood levels of neuropeptides and observed the relationship between vasopressin levels and marital support, desire to maintain a relationship, lack of negative communication, and the number of social contacts.

What does the science of love say?

We can say that love is one of the most delightful feelings in our lives. The expression “love is blind” is true because you never know when your brain will trigger the mechanisms of falling in love. A significant number of chemical reactions are involved in fueling lust, attraction and affection between partners. The partner does not need to be elevated, sexy or beautiful - this feeling is deeper than physical tactility. Love is a natural muse, a difficult but necessary feeling for all of us.