[ti:Love: A Chemical Explosion in Your Brain+++爱情不过是大脑中的一种化学反应] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.24]From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report. [00:06.60]In the United States, February 14 is Valentine's Day [00:12.42]-- a day to celebrate lovers and loving relationships. [00:18.40]Images of red hearts are everywhere. [00:22.52]Lovers say nice things to each other, like [00:26.04]"I love you with all my heart" or "I love you heart and soul." [00:33.44]After all, many cultures view a big, beautiful, red heart [00:38.72]as the traditional sign of love. [00:42.64]But maybe it shouldn't be. [00:46.08]Maybe the symbol of love should be a big, soft, gray brain. [00:52.18]As it turns out, love is more an activity of the brain than an affair of the heart. [01:01.72]Over the years, research has shown that love [01:05.48]affects the brain in many ways and in a number of areas. [01:12.40]Psychology Today magazine's online blog looked at some studies and noted the results. [01:20.64]The blog explains that researchers generally use a technology called [01:26.52]functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to study the brain. [01:35.56]This technology can follow movement of blood inside the brain. [01:40.82]When a thought, substance, movement, or anything else [01:46.56]activates a part of the brain, blood flow to that area increases. [01:53.12]So, fMRIs can identify both the exact location in the brain and the amount of blood. [02:02.80]The magazine reports that these love studies note something similar: [02:09.60]that a brain on love looks a lot like a brain on drugs. [02:15.60]In 2010, researchers at Syracuse University in New York state [02:21.64]worked with other scientists in West Virginia and Switzerland. [02:27.87]Syracuse professor Stephanie Ortigue led this study. [02:33.28]Ortigue and her team found that falling in love [02:37.72]created the same "euphoric feelings as using cocaine." [02:43.92]They found that "12 areas of the brain work in tandem [02:48.42]to release euphoric-inducing chemicals [02:51.72]such as dopamine, oxytocin" and adrenaline. [02:57.38]When we are smitten with someone, chemicals such as adrenaline [03:03.36]make our face turn red, our hands sweat and our heart beat faster. [03:09.87]The website Health.com describes dopamine as the brain's pleasure chemical. [03:17.28]It activates the reward circuit in our brain [03:21.28]and plays a role in drug addiction and falling in love. [03:26.20]Dopamine makes lovers feel happy and energetic about each other. [03:32.80]Oxytocin is known as the "love hormone" [03:36.76]because it deepens feelings of attachment. [03:41.52]Oxytocin is the hormone that plays a role during pregnancy, [03:46.55]nursing and in mother-baby attachment. [03:51.36]Ortigue's team also found that falling in love affected intellectual areas of the brain [03:58.36]and not just the pleasure and reward center of the brain where drug habits may begin. [04:05.76]As a side note, they also found that falling in love takes about "a fifth of a second." [04:15.00]In 2012, researchers at Concordia University in Canada [04:20.28]with teams in Switzerland and the United States looked at sexual desire, or lust [04:27.52], and long-term attachment, or love, more closely. [04:32.36]They wanted to know if lust and love affected the brain differently. [04:40.76]The researchers of this study asked the study subjects to look at sexy, [04:46.28]erotic pictures of strangers and photographs of loved ones. [04:53.24]Then the researchers recorded their brain activity with fMRIs. [05:00.12]They found that love and lust activate "specific, but related areas of the brain." [05:08.56]What they found, for the most part, is that sexual desire [05:12.92]and love seem to affect two parts of the brain the most: [05:18.44]the insula and the striatum. [05:22.60]It's no surprise that they found these are also parts of the brain most often affected by drug use. [05:30.08]But now, let's get back to lust versus love. [05:36.52]Lustful, sexual desires begin in the pleasure center of the striatum. [05:43.20]As these feelings develop into attachment love, [05:47.76]they appear to still be processed in the striatum but in a different area. [05:54.00]This area is activated by love. [05:58.76]And it is involved in the process of giving value to things [06:03.44]that give us pleasure, like food, sex and drugs. [06:08.48]Jim Pfaus of Concordia was the lead writer of a report on that study. [06:15.88]He told Psychology Today that, "Love is actually a habit [06:21.64]that is formed from sexual desire as desire is rewarded. [06:27.80]It works the same way in the brain as when people become addicted to drugs." [06:34.16]So, if you celebrate Valentine's Day remember that your feelings of love [06:39.80]are really a complicated chemical reaction happening in your brain [06:45.16]-- which if you like science -- is actually kind of sexy. [06:50.76]However, if your partner isn't so scientifically-minded, [06:55.80]maybe keep the science to yourself [06:58.56]and instead give them a gift of flowers or chocolate this Valentine's Day. [07:05.16]And that's the Health & Lifestyle report. [07:07.68]I'm Anna Matteo. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM