Romantic and parental love activate the brain's reward circuitry more extensively than love for pets, strangers, or nature, according to a recent study.
A recent study investigated the neural correlates of six distinct forms of love: romantic, parental, friendship, compassion for strangers, love for pets, and love of nature. Researchers employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain activity in participants as they were exposed to audio narratives designed to evoke each type of love, followed by an imagery period. The study also included neutral control stories as a baseline for comparison.
The study included 55 participants, consisting of 29 females and 26 males, with an average age of 40.3 years. Among them, 27 were pet owners, which affected the neural activity recorded during experiences of love for pets. In addition to fMRI, the study utilized several questionnaires and behavioral tasks to gather comprehensive data.
Published in Cerebral Cortex, the study found that different forms of love engage specific brain regions, particularly those related to reward processing and social cognition. Romantic and parental love, which are characterized by close affiliative bonds, elicited significant activation in the brain's reward circuitry, including the striatum and orbitofrontal cortex. These forms of love also significantly engaged regions associated with social cognition, such as the temporoparietal junction. The study also observed deactivations in certain brain regions, particularly during the imagery period.
Romantic and parental love engaged the striatum, orbitofrontal cortex, and amygdala more extensively than love directed toward pets, strangers, or nature. Additionally, pet owners exhibited greater activation in areas like the precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex, and temporoparietal junction compared to non-pet owners when experiencing love for pets. Love for pets, particularly in pet owners, activated regions associated with empathy and social cognition more than in non-pet owners. In contrast, love for nature, while activating reward-related areas, did not strongly engage the social cognition networks typically involved in interpersonal love.
Love directed toward strangers showed the lowest activation levels in the brainstem and reward-related regions when compared to other forms of love. Love for nature specifically engaged areas such as the parahippocampal gyrus and cuneus, which were not as prominently involved in other types of love.
Participants reported that romantic and parental love elicited greater arousal and bodily awareness compared to their experiences of love for pets or strangers. They identified romantic and parental love as the most intense forms of love, receiving the highest scores on emotional intensity measures. Love for strangers was considered the least aligned with participants' personal views of love and was the hardest to engage with during the imagery tasks.
The level of brain activation varied depending on the type of love, with stronger activation associated with closer affiliative bonds and whether the love was directed toward an interpersonal or non-interpersonal target. During the audio narratives, the most extensive brain activation related to love was seen in close relationships, such as romantic love, parental love, and love for friends, involving regions like the insula, striatum, thalamus, and brainstem.
In the brainstem, areas such as the ventral tegmental area, substantia nigra, lateral parabrachial nucleus, pedunculotegmental nucleus, subthalamic nucleus, and locus coeruleus showed more significant activation in close relationships compared to love for strangers, pets, or nature.
The results suggest that the neural experience of love is influenced by the closeness of the relationship and the nature of the loved object. While all forms of love activate similar neural networks, the intensity and distribution of this activation vary, reflecting the different ways love is processed in the brain. These findings offer information on the neural basis of love, indicating that various forms of affection—whether toward humans, animals, or nature—are linked to neurobiological processes.
The researchers drew connections between their findings and evolutionary theories about human altruism and attachment. They noted that their findings help explain why humans might use the term "love" for a wide variety of situations.
The study authors acknowledged limitations, including the need for further cross-cultural research to better understand how cultural and demographic factors influence various feelings of love and their correlates in the human brain.
The researchers reported no conflicts of interest.
