ATTN: Phoxxy

[Telarus]

You can go throw this in.. (who's was it, snake man's?) face:

Love: it's all the same to the brain
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01-brain.html

(PhysOrg.com) -- There are no differences between heterosexuals and homosexuals or between women and men in terms of the brain systems regulating romantic love, according to new UCL research published in the latest issue of PLoS One.

The study, by Professor Semir Zeki and John Romaya from the Wellcome Laboratory of Neurobiology at UCL, is a continuation of earlier work from the same lab which described brain activity in terms of romantic and maternal love.

In this latest study, 24 subjects were asked to view pictures of their romantic partners, as well as pictures of friends of the same sex as their partners but to whom they were romantically indifferent, while the activity in their brains was scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The subjects varied in age from 19 to 47, with their relationship lengths varying from 4 months to 23 years. Half of the subjects were female (6 heterosexual and 6 homosexual) and half were male (6 heterosexual and 6 homosexual). All reported being passionately in love and in a sexual relationship with their partner.

All of the study participants were asked to rate their feelings towards their romantic partners both before and after scanning and declare their sexual orientation on the Kinsey rating which includes groups ranging from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual.

The fMRI results showed a very similar pattern of activity between the different groups and involved activation of both cortical and sub-cortical areas, mainly in areas that are rich in dopaminergic ("feel good") neurotransmitter activity. These areas included the hypothalamus, ventral tegmental area, caudate nucleus and the putamen, as well as the insula, hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex. Dopaminergic activity is strongly linked to other neurotransmitter activities - such as those mediated by oxytocin and serotonin - which are thought to be important in regulating emotional relationships and bonding between individuals.

The studies also showed that there is extensive de-activation of large parts of the cerebral cortex when lovers - whether heterosexual or homosexual or whether female or male - view pictures of their romantic partners. The de-activated areas involve parts of the temporal, parietal and frontal cortex and include cortical areas thought to be critical in judgment. This may account for why we are often less judgmental about our lovers and lends credence to the old adage "love is blind".

Professor Zeki said: "Passionate romantic love is commonly triggered by a visual input and is an all-consuming and disorienting state. Previous studies have demonstrated that despite the complexity of this emotion, the brain patterns triggered when viewing the face of someone you're in love with are limited to only a few, though richly connected, brain regions".

This made it plausible to the researchers to suppose that it would be possible to detect any differences relatively easily. Given the profound similarity in the sentiment of love expressed in both opposite or same-sex contexts, the authors hypothesised that the pattern of brain activity in response to viewing the face of a romantic partner would be the same in the different groups.

Professor Zeki said that the study was influenced by a reading of the world literature of love, from Plato to Shakespeare, Dante, Rumi, Verlaine and others, in which very similar sentiments are expressed whether in the context of opposite or same sex relationships - and this ambiguity is reflected in the results.


More information: Research paper in PLoS One: http://www.plosone ... pone.0015802               

Provided by University College London

[Phox]

Thanks, Telarus. That makes me happy. But at this point in time, I have no intention of going back and bringing it up. Besides, he said he wouldn't accept any scientific source (and it was DM).

I appreciate the thought, and I am very pleased to see this study taking place. Hopefully larger studies are in the works. 

[Don Coyote]

So love is love.
Fucking knew it.

[Triple Zero]

It just makes me wonder, what does this experiment actually prove?

Not that I have any doubts on the matter, but IMO it doesn't actually prove anything like "homosexual love is just as valid/natural/etc as heterosexual love", or similar.

Because what if they'd included bestiality or paedophilia in the experiment? Now it would be interesting if in those cases the corresponding bit in the brain would not light up. In that case, you could pose a hypothesis that "in the case of perverted badwrong kinds of love the lurve-centre of the brain does not activate like it does in heterosexuality just as much as in homosexuality".

I'm afraid however, that it would probably light up just the same, as would it with that guy that fucks cars, the guy that fucks chairs (aka co-author of your favourite holy book)* and the guy that would fucking anything (Cpt. Jack Harkness)**.

In which case it would show, well, that humans are crazy enough to fall in love with anything, but it still wouldn't tell us anything about homosexuality in particular.



* unavailable for this experiment on account of being dead.
** also unavailable on account of being non-human and fictional.

[Telarus]

I t took me a moment to find their "falsifiable prediction", but they did have one.

Professor Zeki said: "Passionate romantic love is commonly triggered by a visual input and is an all-consuming and disorienting state. Previous studies have demonstrated that despite the complexity of this emotion, the brain patterns triggered when viewing the face of someone you're in love with are limited to only a few, though richly connected, brain regions".

This made it plausible to the researchers to suppose that it would be possible to detect any differences relatively easily. Given the profound similarity in the sentiment of love expressed in both opposite or same-sex contexts, the authors hypothesised that the pattern of brain activity in response to viewing the face of a romantic partner would be the same in the different groups.

So there was previous work done investigating how the brain responds to visual imagery of heterosexual people's romantic partners. So they had plenty of data on where to look for differences (if any could be found).

I also don't think that this has to do as much with pure sexuality as you are suggesting (the participants didn't see their partners naked or anything). Although those would be some hilarious experimental setups.

[Telarus]

Actually, I think there have been some cases of romantic love of objects. Boston Legal used it as a hilarious plot line for an episode or two. This lady would take her clock to the movies and dates and whatnot. You'd need to figure out if that was urban-myth inspired or grounded in something.

THAT would be an interesting comparison to include to contrast the above.

[BadBeast]

There's a bloke in Kenilworth who gets it on with street furniture. Benches, Bins, Statues, Traffic Bollards, you name it. He gets caught, then he's in for 2 weeks observation, they get him stabilized on Meds, let him out again. Then he forgets to take his pills, gets the horn, and fucks a traffic cone or something. He took one on a date once, and fucked her in the Library. (I know, what a cheapskate)