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J Neurophysiol 94: 327-337, 2005. First published May 31, 2005; doi:10.1152/jn.00838.2004 Free Article
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Reward, Motivation, and Emotion Systems Associated With Early-Stage Intense Romantic Love

Arthur Aron1,*, Helen Fisher3,*, Debra J. Mashek1, Greg Strong1, Haifang Li2 and Lucy L. Brown4,*

1Departments of Psychology and 2Radiology, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York; 3Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey; and 4Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York

Submitted 16 August 2004; accepted in final form 20 March 2005

Early-stage romantic love can induce euphoria, is a cross-cultural phenomenon, and is possibly a developed form of a mammalian drive to pursue preferred mates. It has an important influence on social behaviors that have reproductive and genetic consequences. To determine which reward and motivation systems may be involved, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging and studied 10 women and 7 men who were intensely "in love" from 1 to 17 mo. Participants alternately viewed a photograph of their beloved and a photograph of a familiar individual, interspersed with a distraction-attention task. Group activation specific to the beloved under the two control conditions occurred in dopamine-rich areas associated with mammalian reward and motivation, namely the right ventral tegmental area and the right postero-dorsal body and medial caudate nucleus. Activation in the left ventral tegmental area was correlated with facial attractiveness scores. Activation in the right anteromedial caudate was correlated with questionnaire scores that quantified intensity of romantic passion. In the left insula-putamen-globus pallidus, activation correlated with trait affect intensity. The results suggest that romantic love uses subcortical reward and motivation systems to focus on a specific individual, that limbic cortical regions process individual emotion factors, and that there is localization heterogeneity for reward functions in the human brain.

Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: L. L. Brown, Depts. of Neurology and Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, K-810, Bronx, NY 10461 (E-mail: brown{at}aecom.yu.edu)




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