The Brain in Love

[smokingboot]

I recently linked to an article on certain mystical aspects of love (find via the tag at the bottom of this post)http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/helen_fisher_studies_the_brain_in_love.html is a different take on the phenomenon, Helen Fisher's TED lecture specifically considering what happens in the brain in love.

It is a beautiful talk and I find it very interesting though self evident in parts: You fall in love, the brain starts producing lots of dopamine; well I could honestly have guessed that. What I want to know is, does the brain start producing dopamine because I see The One, or do I decide he's The One because I meet him at a time when my brain is producing lots of dopamine? And there is a gentle conformity to stereotypes* which I am not sure about, though she has the grace to accept that these may have more to do with the evolution of Nurture rather than Nature. It is a very graceful passionate lecture with brilliant touches about rejection, long term love, and love in nature.

Something I find interesting is the way both the earlier article and the lecture rely heavily upon poetry to express the essence of love.

The time may well come when jfs heartily regrets introducing me to TED!

Edited to add
* Helen speaks of four different 'types' of personality, the Dopamine, Serotonin, Estrogen and Testosterone types. I have just tried the test on the website she mentions (http://www.chemistry.com/) she mentions in her talk, and to a certain extent, it's old wine in new bottles. It turns out that I am a negotiator (Estrogen)/Explorer (Dopamine) type. OK, why am I estrogen? Empathy is the key identifier for estrogen types in the test, for no stronger reason than that women = estrogen and are traditionally considered to be empathic...or maybe I have missed something. Now, the first thing we establish before the test starts is that I am a straight female. So was it the test results that made me Estrogen, or was that extrapolated from this originating info? Hmm...Not sure about this. But still a fascinating talk.

Comments

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

Very interesting. However, I couldn't help but notice that she never mentioned the existence of any control group who were not in love and did not have those brain areas active.

I am also surprised that she didn't mention the research concerning the connection between smell, immune systems and attraction in relation to picking a specific mate: see http://psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=20071228-000001&page=2

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess she had to concentrate on her own findings, though I agree that surely comparing MRIs of those not in love would have been the appropriate benchmark to set against those wildly in love/rejected/long term in love.

Thank you for the article, very interesting! With all of these, I am growing increasingly wary of 'studies' that seem to shore up established beliefs they never seem to cover a large group of test subjects. Furthermore, it's all about finding the right mate to produce a baby, as though we must assume that this is what it's all for, and I challenge that.

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

I just did the test too. Very annoying that you have to sign up to their damn dating thing to do it, but I don't think I'll be having to worry about it too much given that my profile description says "I only signed up to see the test results and am not really interested in this dating site, nor am I actually widowed - I'm happily married with no interest in meeting anyone else thank you very much, and no I don't live in the USA either, but it needed a zip code so I got one from Google." *grin*

Anyway, I got director/explorer: You are courageous; and you seek challenges. You are a tough-minded, independent and daring thinker who likes to explore ideas or problems thoroughly. You focus easily. And you are persistent, systematic and competent in pursuing your interests and goals.

You are also assertive; and you enjoy the opportunities your hard work wins.

You have a lot of energy. You think quickly, make decisions more easily than most, dislike unnecessary rules, and take a rational approach to people, issues and ideas.

You don't often enjoy "small talk." You are generally not interested in pleasing boring people and you gravitate to men and women who are intellectually exciting and get to their point quickly during conversations.

You are not conventional in most of your attitudes and values. You tend to be irreverent and pragmatic and you like spontaneous people. You can be an exciting, yet hard driving and exacting, friend and companion.

At least 30% of that doesn't sound like me at all - e.g. I would NEVER call myself focussed! However, my score was fairly equally divided between the four types: 28/26/25/20, with "negotiator" being my lowest. Thought I'd mention that given your comment about estrogen above given that I'm a (mainly) striaght female. The other thing that I find interesting is that the short description of "negotiator" actually fits much better with how I see myself than the others, yet my score in it was lowest.

[sack-boy.livejournal.com]

I also was miffed re: the having to sign up - I gave the Zip Code of the Whitehouse. However having waded through to the results I giggled at the tosh that they said I was (B/d allegedly) and then resigned from the site.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

It is bloody annoying about the whole sign up palaver! Let's hope that scores of hopeful guys won't throw themselves at my assumed name somewhere in New York!

V interesting and reassuring about your result and the estrogen thing, but I agree with what you say about negotiator as a Utype. Some of the questions are just silly...I'm trying to remember, there was one that foxed me, something about being analytical? logical? methodical? Can't recall and refuse to wade back through it! In everyday life I'm not logical. When I edit, I analyse and am methodical and I am very good at it and enjoy it. So where does this put me on the scale?

But maybe I am expecting too much...

[cyanidemigraine.livejournal.com]

i got Your major personality type = Negotiator
Your minor personality type = Explorer

and no mention of estrogen anywhere, which presumably is because im a manly man and they suspect id get upset?

there wasnt an option for bisexual people though, maybe if id put in "man seeking man"it would think i was less threatened by calling me estrogeny?

i put in i was from beverly hills, as its a zip code i know off by heart *grins*

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Mine like yours...she doesn't talk about the four brain chemical = four basic types much here, and I'm probably doing her a massive disservice by over-simplifying (I think the webpage is something she was consulted on, rather than her baby) but on her blog she does. It's something like Explorer = dopamine, Negotiator = estrogen, Builder = Serotonin, Director = Testosterone, but I might have got the last two mixed up. I hope so or it really is trite!

Beverley Hills...I so want to know why you know the zip code!

[cyanidemigraine.livejournal.com]

from the TV series "beverly hills 90210"

:)