Attraction and Love

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Attraction and Love

• Biologically Based Behaviors

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Views of love

• Some choose an idealized and romantic view of
  attachment and love,

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Views of love

• whereas for others, love is more utilitarian.
• Here we will consider a sociobiological
  perspective on love.

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Imprints for attraction

• Patterns of attraction develop beginning at an
  early age ...

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Imprints for attraction

• persist through a latent period, then
  re-express in the prime reproductive years.

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Making ourselves attractive

• As we reach (or exceed) the prime reproductive
  years and seek to attract a mate, we may dress
  and behave so as to emphasize ...

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Making ourselves attractive

• or even deceive regarding our secondary sex
  characteristics and reproductive vitality.

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Making ourselves attractive

• We may also choose to advertise our willingness
  to take risks, or hint at extraordinary abilities.

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Making ourselves attractive

• We may cultivate an exotic appearance or persona,

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Making ourselves attractive

• or, as socially complex creatures, indicate
  special affinities.

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Affinities

• With the object being to find someone else with
  whom to be reproductively successful, ...

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Affinities

• or at least fulfilled.

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Reproductive success

• We must have mechanisms that keep us bound with
  and sexually responsive to someone,

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Reproductive success

• long enough and ardently enough to ...

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Reproductive success

• deliver the goods,

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Reproductive success

• in species-maintaining quantities.

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Binding forces

• Powerful forces must be at work to keep humans
  together for the many years required to raise
  children to their independence, despite the
  indignities,

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Binding forces

• the often unequal burdens, ...

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Binding forces

• the practical challenges, and the decades-long
  mundane routine of family life.

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Falling in love intensity

• Why is the onset of romantic love so often
  described as falling? Its a familiar
  sensation that combines euphoric intensity with
  anxiety.

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Errors of a System

• Sometimes we may gain insight about a complex or
  inaccessible system by observing its errors.

Allen Brisson-Smith, NY Times
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Errors of Love

• We sometimes pick the wrong love-object, or the
  wrong situation.
• Theme of much popular music.

Third rate romance, low rent rendezvous -- The
Amazing Rhythm Aces
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Errors of Love

• We may choose someone who is already involved
  with another.

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Errors of Love

• Leading to precarious situations, jealousy, and
  possible acts of retribution. Or of stalking,
  including driving hundreds of miles while wearing
  diapers.

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Errors of Love

• For some, the forces of love become too powerful
  and can go badly wrong.
• Have we seen elsewhere a similar transformation?

Police said Nowak drove from Houston to
Florida wearing diapers so she would not have to
stop, AP, Feb. 5, 2007
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Errors of Love

• Yes, we have, and in an unexpected place.

Faces of Meth Multnomah County (OR) Sheriff
Magical chemistry, or just plain chemistry?
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The intensity of good and bad romance may be
hard-wired

• It is however striking that studies of
  cocaine-and mu-opioid agonist-induced euphoria
  have shown increased activity in foci that seem
  to overlap with all foci activated in our study
  the anterior cingulate cortex 27, 34, the
  insula, the caudate nucleus, and the putamen
  27. This suggests a potentially close neural
  link between romantic love and euphoric states.
  Bartels A, Zeki S. The Neural Basis of Romantic
  Love. NeuroReport 11, 3829-3834 (2000).

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Romantic Love Brain Activity

• Fisher et al. found that specific brain regions
  were activated (as assessed by fMRI imaging) when
  subjects were shown images of their romantic
  partner.
• Some of these are ancient reptilian regions
  associated with reward systems.

From Fisher, H.E. Why We Love. New York Henry
Holt. 2004. p. 70
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Neurons and Neurotransmitters

• The human brain has around 1011 neurons and over
  1015 synaptic connections between neurons.
• Chemical messengers called neurotransmitters
  (NTs) convey a signal across the synapse.
  Different synapses use different NTs. Some brain
  regions are richer in synapses associated with
  one type of NT vs. another.
• NTs include acetylcholine, dopamine (DA),
  norepinephrine (NE), serotonin (5-HT), glutamate,
  aspartate, GABA, some others.

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Caution Brain Models are Simplistic

• Due to the massive complexity of the brain, any
  descriptive model within our current knowledge is
  necessarily simplistic. At best we can indicate
  experimentally supported tendencies, and not hard
  and fast connections.
• To say that one NT does one thing and another NT
  does another, is only slightly more meaningful
  than saying that the black keys on a piano make
  jazz and the white keys make childrens songs.
• To say that the level of an NT means something
  specific, is a similarly ambitious statement.

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Dopamine

• Romantic and sexual love can be highly addictive
  and painful to withdraw from.
• Cocaine is a powerful DA reuptake inhibitor (it
  increases the action of DA in the brain). It has
  potent but short-acting influence in brain
  regions thought to be reward centers. It is
  highly addictive and painful to withdraw from.
• A stimulatory role of DA in sexual behavior of
  man is suggested by reports of cocaine and
  amphetamine-addicts, who reported intense sexual
  desire and sexual activity

Melias M, Argiolas A. Dopamine and Sexual
Behavior. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews.
(19) 19-38. 1995.
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Norepinephrine

• Amphetamines, including methamphetamine,
  powerfully affect NE as well as DA.
• generally produces exhilaration, excessive
  energy, sleeplessness, and loss of appetite --
  some of the basic characteristics of romantic
  love. (Fisher, p. 53)

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Serotonin (5-HT)

• Low levels appear to be closely related to
  obsessive, ruminative behaviors. People who
  self-report as being in love, also report
  spending 90 percent of their waking hours
  thinking of their beloved reduced 5-HT.
  (Fisher, pp. 54-55)
• A typical treatment for obsessive-compulsive
  disorder, or intrusive ruminative thoughts, is to
  use a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor
  (SSRI) drug. Fluoxetine (Prozac) is the most
  familiar SSRI. SSRIs increase the effective
  level of 5-HT at some sub-types of 5-HT
  receptors.

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Oxytocin

• Oxytocin is a peptide hormone that triggers
  uterine contractions and the letdown reflex of
  breast milk delivery.
• It is given as a drug to induce labor.
• It is released by nipple stimulation, by physical
  contact,

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Oxytocin

• and in both sexes by orgasm.

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Oxytocin

• Oxytocin promotes feelings of bonding and
  togetherness.

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Conclusion

• Awed by her brightness
• Stars near the beautiful moon
• Cover their own shining faces
• When she lights earth
• With her silver brilliance
• Of love
• Sappho (ca. 612-570 BCE, tr. D.W. Myatt)