The story of a romance kindled on a clinical trial for a new antidepressant, The Effect upends some of the widely held assumptions about romantic love, asking whether humans are the sum of our chemical selves or something more. Dive into the current science about the interplay of attraction, chemicals, and romantic love.
The Science of Attraction, Dawn Maslar (animated, part of TED-Ed)
Romantic chemistry is all about warm, gooey feelings that gush from the deepest depths of the heart...right? Not quite. Actually, the real boss behind attraction is your brain, which runs through a very quick, very complex series of calculations when assessing a potential partner. Dawn Maslar explores how our five senses contribute to this mating game, citing some pretty wild studies along the way.
“The Brain In Love," Ted Talk by anthropologist Helen Fischer: video and transcript
Anthropologist Fischer & her colleagues put people currently in love and people who had recently experienced breakups into an MRI machine to investigate the science of love, obsession, dopamine, and heartache.
Three-minute video about dopamine & norepinephrine, the brain on cocaine or love (very similar).
“Romantic love is not simply an emotion; it is a drive from the motor of the mind, and this motor brings about intense energy, focused attention, and elation.”