Love Feels the Same for Gays and Straights, says MRI Study
Not sure if that one- or two-night fling is turning out to be something more emotionally involved? Confused about your own feelings towards one, two, or more of your current lovers? Well, worry no more, because WebMD has the cure for you—and it involves a brain scan, because apparently love shows up on an MRI. Does this mean love is real, or it’s just chemistry?
According to researchers at University College London, romantic love lights up the same brain regions in people under the magnetic imaging device, whether they’re male or female, heterosexual or homosexual. When presented with a picture of the one they love, the study’s guinea pigs showed similar activity in the cortical and sub-cortical brain regions, and apparently being gay or straight didn’t make a difference.
In the study, 24 college volunteers were examined in the MRI, half of them male and half of them female, and six of each sex were divided into hetero- and homosexual categories. Turns out the parts of their brains that emit the “feel good” neurotransmitter, dopamine, got riled up equally in all cases. Meanwhile, other brain centers like parts of the temporal, parietal, and frontal cortex, completely shut down—centers that are thought to be important in judgment.
So love’s not only blind, but it makes us kinda dumb. We’ve all heard that before.
Not sure if that one- or two-night fling is turning out to be something more emotionally involved? Confused about your own feelings towards one, two, or more of your current lovers? Well, worry no more, because WebMD has the cure for you—and it involves a brain scan, because apparently love shows up on an MRI. Does this mean love is real, or it’s just chemistry?
According to researchers at University College London, romantic love lights up the same brain regions in people under the magnetic imaging device, whether they’re male or female, heterosexual or homosexual. When presented with a picture of the one they love, the study’s guinea pigs showed similar activity in the cortical and sub-cortical brain regions, and apparently being gay or straight didn’t make a difference.
In the study, 24 college volunteers were examined in the MRI, half of them male and half of them female, and six of each sex were divided into hetero- and homosexual categories. Turns out the parts of their brains that emit the “feel good” neurotransmitter, dopamine, got riled up equally in all cases. Meanwhile, other brain centers like parts of the temporal, parietal, and frontal cortex, completely shut down—centers that are thought to be important in judgment.
So love’s not only blind, but it makes us kinda dumb. We’ve all heard that before.
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