Hi everyone!

This post is about love and how is affected our brain, since it has been valentine's day.

Font: https://upliftconnect.com/neurobiology-of-love/

What is love?

It's difficult to define it, since it implies so many emotions, feelings, experiences ...
We usually say that love is blind, that it can not be controlled.
But according to science, love is pure chemistry. And it's something that is reflected in the activity of our brain.

According to scientists, love has different phases. If you search online, you will find that some scientists classify it as a feeling that has 3 phases, 4 or 5.
The important thing about this is that everyone agrees that people don't feel love in the same way, with the same frequency and intensity.
And this is something that needs to be explained by science.

As time passes and we will know more about our beloved person, it changes our way of seeing love and our way of relating to each other. And because of that, our brain will also activate or deactivate certain areas.

At first, we can say that love has 4 phases:

Phase 1 - Attraction and desire
This phase is characterized by the increase of three hormones in the brain: testosterone, phenylethylamine and adrenaline.
Testosterone increases the libido, which is the term used by medicine and psychoanalysis to refer to sexual desire.
The increase in phenylethylamine makes us happier and more satisfied. That is to say, it makes life seem fun to us.
While the adrenaline causes a series of physiological responses, such as heart beat faster, high blood pressure, increased red blood cell count ...

This phase is typical of the first days when we are falling in love with that person. There are flirtations, glances, rubs, etc.

Phase 2 - Romantic love
In this stage, other hormones are taken into account.
On the one hand, there's a decrease in serotonin, which causes us to feel a certain obsession. That is, we want to be with that person always, to know what he feels, what he thinks and even what he does.
And on the other, it increases the secretion of dopamine; a hormone that is related to addiction, as it causes euphoria, exaltation, lack of sleep and appetite, high energy and attention, excitement.

This phase corresponds to the first days of courtship. When everything seems perfect in the relationship.

Phase 3 - Couple's love
The third phase is according to experts where the love of a couple is tested. That is, in this phase is when many couples break up because there are problems and crises. So, it's considered that this phase lasts from 1 to 3 years.
There's an increase in endorphins, which make us feel comfortable; and oxytocin, which increases trust, attachment and fidelity with a person.

Phase 4 - Motherly love
It's the phase where the couple is already quite stable and where they see the opportunity to have children. Therefore, at this stage, oxytocin is also high, since it is a hormone involved in maternal and parental behavior.

But how do we know if a person is in love or not?
It's very simple if we look at your brain activity.
In love, there is an activation of the insula and the striated nucleus, two areas of the brain that are also activated when drugs are taken. That is why some label love as a drug, an addiction like any other.

Font: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/your-brain-in-love-graphsci/

Studies were carried out on subjects whose brain activity was they observed while viewing erotic images or photographs of loved ones. And they came to the conclusion that both love and sexual desire activate areas of the striated nucleus and the insula.

However, the neurons that are stimulated are slightly different. The region activated by sexual desire is the same that is set in motion by stimuli that cause immediate pleasure (such as sex and food).
But the brain area linked to love is involved in conditioning processes, through which those things that generate a reward are attributed to value, turning the desire into love. That is why it is said that it is complex and that to feel it, it is not necessary that the person is physically present.

I give you a article about the phases of the love:
https://www.today.com/health/how-long-does-passion-last-four-stages-love-t108471

Types of love

With the passage of time and according to the cultural history of each person, we can see that love has different forms according to the implications of certain aspects, stories such as commitment, intimacy and passion.

Font: https://www.scoopwhoop.com/types-of-love-according-to-psychology/

Romantic love (intimacy + passion): There is a physical as well as an emotional attraction.
Love partner / sociable (intimacy + commitment): There is a concern for the welfare and happiness of the other, so there is communication, socio-emotional support and mutual understanding.
Fatuous love (passion + commitment): In this case, there is no privacy. So there are certain things about the couple that we still do not know about.
Completed love (passion + commitment + intimacy): This type of love is what should be produced to have a good and stable relationship.

I hope this post will clarify a little more than love is not as complex as it seems. That it is enough to know how our brain is reacting to that person. That there are a few symptoms that occur when we think, we are or we see that person (sweating of the hands, rapid heart palpitation, difficulty concentrating ...).
And also that there are many forms of love and none is better than another.

I give you a video that also explain love...