Scientifically Proven: Love & Lust Are Very Different

At Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, neurologist Dr. Lucy Brown and her colleagues performed MRI brain scans on various college students who were in love. When shown a picture of their beloved, the caudate (involved in cravings) and the ventral tegmental (produces dopamine for pleasure and motivation) became very active. The high that one feels from following in love is very similar to the high one gets from cocaine, the scientists have discovered.

Another discovery made was that when shown erotic images, the college students' brains were affected in other areas. The hypothalamus (controls drives like hunger) and amygdala (controls arousals) were affected this time. However, love and lust are interrelated because as a person produces more dopamine, more testosterone is also being produced.

Discoveries about the the female brain and the male brain were also quite interesting: Males were more visually triggered (hence the porn industry) and women were more active in the area of the brain that governed memories (hence the nagging...).

It makes a lot more sense now why people do crazy things for love. Just as hunger and thirst drive us to drastic measures, love can drive us to do the same thing.

Source: [Link]