1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,360 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hi 2 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:08,880 Speaker 1: brain Stuff. I'm Lauren vogel Bomb, and this is a 3 00:00:08,920 --> 00:00:12,680 Speaker 1: classic brain Stuff episode. This is actually a script that 4 00:00:12,720 --> 00:00:15,440 Speaker 1: we wrote back when we were doing brain Stuff videos, 5 00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:17,960 Speaker 1: so I tried to adapt it to work without visuals. 6 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:21,079 Speaker 1: In this one, we get into the sticky science of 7 00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:26,200 Speaker 1: whether being in love can actually be an addiction. Hey, 8 00:00:26,239 --> 00:00:33,000 Speaker 1: they're brain Stuff Lauring vogel Bomb. Here, nicotine, chocolate, alcohol, opioids, work, gambling, sex, food, 9 00:00:33,479 --> 00:00:36,080 Speaker 1: You might as well face it. Life is basically a 10 00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:39,879 Speaker 1: gauntlet of substances and behaviors that humans can become obsessed 11 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:43,920 Speaker 1: with and dependent on. But what about love? Not just sex, 12 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:47,839 Speaker 1: but the deep interpersonal attachment we call love? Can it 13 00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:51,640 Speaker 1: be addictive? The notion of obsessive, all consuming, and even 14 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:55,440 Speaker 1: addictive love goes back literally thousands of years. The ancient 15 00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:58,840 Speaker 1: Greek poets Sappho wrote about watching her lover marry someone else, 16 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:02,720 Speaker 1: and she describes being seized with trembling, drenched in cold sweat, 17 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:05,680 Speaker 1: and feeling nearly dead. She might as well be describing 18 00:01:05,680 --> 00:01:08,680 Speaker 1: opium withdrawals or singing a verse of addicted to love. 19 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:12,360 Speaker 1: Romantic love does have a lot of external features. In 20 00:01:12,440 --> 00:01:15,679 Speaker 1: common with drug addiction, initial feelings of bliss and euphoria 21 00:01:15,959 --> 00:01:20,360 Speaker 1: and obsessive fixated behavior, often leading to poor, potentially life 22 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:23,680 Speaker 1: ruining decisions. A twenty ten paper from the New York 23 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:27,240 Speaker 1: Academy of Sciences points out that common criteria for diagnosing 24 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:32,360 Speaker 1: drug dependence include life interference, tolerance, withdrawal, and repeated attempts 25 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:35,680 Speaker 1: to quit. Sound anything like your relationship with your X. 26 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:39,520 Speaker 1: If so, you're certainly not alone, but is there any 27 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:42,680 Speaker 1: more measurable basis for thinking love can be considered an 28 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:47,280 Speaker 1: addiction in the brain. Actually, yes, let's talk brain imaging. 29 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:50,440 Speaker 1: One way that addiction hijacks the human brain is by 30 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:54,080 Speaker 1: taking advantage of mammalian reward and motivation systems like the 31 00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:59,120 Speaker 1: mesolimbic dopamine system, which includes the ventral tegmental area and 32 00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:02,440 Speaker 1: the nucleus incumbents. This is part of the nervous system 33 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:05,320 Speaker 1: that gives us internal rewards when we do something with 34 00:02:05,360 --> 00:02:09,160 Speaker 1: an evolutionary benefit, like eating or having sex. Essentially, it's 35 00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:11,639 Speaker 1: how the brain tells itself, Hey, what you just did? 36 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:15,799 Speaker 1: Do that again and again and again, whether it's eating 37 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:19,839 Speaker 1: a nutritious meal or unfortunately, snorting cocaine. Back in two 38 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:22,320 Speaker 1: thousand and five, a study in the Journal of Neurophysiology 39 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:24,200 Speaker 1: used f m r I to look at the brains 40 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:27,200 Speaker 1: of test subjects who self reported that they were intensely 41 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:30,560 Speaker 1: in love with someone else. When these lovebirds were shown 42 00:02:30,639 --> 00:02:33,400 Speaker 1: pictures of the people they adored, there was activation in 43 00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:37,440 Speaker 1: sections of that same mammalian reward and motivation system, for example, 44 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:40,679 Speaker 1: the right ventral tech mental area. But that's not all. 45 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:43,600 Speaker 1: A follow up study in two looked at what happened 46 00:02:43,639 --> 00:02:45,280 Speaker 1: to the brains of men and women who had been 47 00:02:45,320 --> 00:02:48,440 Speaker 1: rejected but reported that they were still deeply in love. 48 00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:52,079 Speaker 1: It wasn't pretty. When heartbroken lovers were forced to look 49 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:54,840 Speaker 1: at pictures of their exes, there was elevated activity in 50 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:57,679 Speaker 1: our old friends, the ventral tech mental area, and the 51 00:02:57,760 --> 00:03:01,320 Speaker 1: nucleus incumbents. Researchers point it out that the rejected lovers 52 00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:04,359 Speaker 1: showed several neural correlates in common with the brain activity 53 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:07,320 Speaker 1: of cocaine addicts craving their drug, So at the level 54 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:10,160 Speaker 1: of brain chemistry, romantic love can be kind of like 55 00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:13,560 Speaker 1: substance addiction. But there are reasons why you might not 56 00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:15,799 Speaker 1: want to refer to your latest crush as a full 57 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:19,760 Speaker 1: on addiction. Just yet. For example, the Diagnostic and Statistical 58 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:23,280 Speaker 1: Manual of Mental Disorders does not officially recognize love addiction, 59 00:03:23,639 --> 00:03:26,320 Speaker 1: and while cravings for love can be devastating when they're 60 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:29,800 Speaker 1: unrequited or self destructive, they can also be deeply fulfilling 61 00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:31,800 Speaker 1: in a way that no drug habit ever could be. 62 00:03:38,680 --> 00:03:41,280 Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Joe McCormick and produced by 63 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:44,400 Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil and Tyler Klang. For more on this and 64 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:48,920 Speaker 1: lots of other topics about brain Stuff, visit howstworks dot com. 65 00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:51,080 Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is a production of I heart Radio. For 66 00:03:51,240 --> 00:03:54,080 Speaker 1: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, 67 00:03:54,200 --> 00:03:56,880 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.