Feelings of Love Produce Chemical Changes in Brain

True love produces visible changes in the brain that can be seen with functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), researchers from University College London reported Wednesday at a European neurosciences meeting.

Each of 16 volunteers was shown a picture of their beloved and a photograph of a friend whom they had known for a similar period of time by neurobiologist Semir Zeki. Whenever a picture of the loved one was shown it produced chemical changes in the brain that were not active when they were shown pictures of friends. “These parts of the brain are also the parts which are active in euphoric states generated by exogenous substances such as cocaine,” Zeki said.

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Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II.