Feb 13, 2007 01:04 PM
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New York, 5:47 PM
Tue Feb 9
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In the spirit of the season, the Times and the Journal have gotten together (in the sense of publishing separate articles) to tell you that if you're in love with someone, you're basically nuts. And who better to share that joy than frequent Dave Zinczenko co-expert—on "The Today Show," at least, as we can't speak to her private life—Dr. Helen Fisher!
Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers who has written extensively on love and mating, described a recent experiment in which she and colleagues put 15 people who had been madly in love and freshly rejected through M.R.I. scans. Their scans showed decreased blood to the area of the brain associated with decision-making. But the brains showed increased activity in the dopamine reward system, or what Dr. Fisher called "the wanting-seeking system," associated with craving and taking big risks, as well as in areas associated with physical pain and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The overall picture was of what Dr. Fisher calls "abandonment rage."New York Times"You've got a person who has enormous energy and intense motivation and craving, with focused attention, willing to take huge risks, in physical pain, trying to control their anger, and obsessively thinking about someone," she said. "It's a bad combination."
"The brain system involved in romantic love is powerful," says Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at New Jersey's Rutgers University who has led much of the research into love's impact on the brain. "Everything that is going on in the brain, everything that happens with romantic love has a chemical basis." Using brain scans to study emotional changes is still a new science. But the images signal the potential toll of relationship problems. "It's not a good combination," notes Dr. Fisher. "You're feeling intense romantic love, you're willing to take big risks, you're in physical pain, obsessively thinking about a person and you're struggling to control your rage. You're not operating with your full range of cognitive abilities. It's possible that part of the rational mind shuts down."Wall Street Journal
Nevertheless, all those diamond ads you see alongside the articles in the papers? Not frivolous at all. Go, shop! Happy Valentine's Day!
My Not-Even- Remotely-Funny Valentine [NYT]
Is It Love or Mental Illness?
They're Closer Than You Think [WSJ]
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