Space Aged Love
*The following is an article from the Washington Times that I clipped and posted on a cork board in my bedroom in Maryland. I believe it was written in 1998 (and I'm certain it was published on Valentines Day). This article is verbatim. In fact, I had wanted to scan and post it on my blog...but why not just write it all out and forget about learning that type of technology (for now). Although it seems like an impossibly long and boring article, it's worth the read to get to the section about a future where couples inject nasal spray into their noses to strengthen their relationship. So according to the Washington Times,this is what your brain is undergoing when you ask, "Who put the bop in the bop..."
*As a side note my friend Sarah Lees said this article ruined a part of her soul.
Love Seen as a Many Chemical Thing
by Joyce Howard Price
Romance, long regarded as the province of poets and dreamers, belongs to the chemists, too.
Lovers think they're giving in to their emotions, but the experts-if it's accurate to call anyone an expert in affairs of the heart- insist it's a physiological phenomenon, one driven by "feel-good" brain chemicals and hormones.
They insist other brain chemicals- and not just social norms- lead humans to fall in love, marry and stay married, and, in some cases, remain faithful to their spouses.
Some experts even predict that chemicals may one day direct men and women to fall in love with targeted objects of their affections. It already works in rats- laboratory rats, not human cads. But other experts disagree.
Love is a "natural high," similar to being "hopped up on coke," that's fueled by elevated levels of neuro-transmitters, or brain chemicals, such as "dopamine and norepineprhine," Anthony Walsh, professor of criminology at Boise State University and author of "The Science of Love: Understanding Love and its Effects on Mind and Body," says in a telephone interview.
Mr. Walsh is among a growing number of scientists and social scientists who are studying how chemical reactions lead to romance and long-term relationships. Others pursuing this discipline include neurobiologists, sex therapists and anthropologists.
In case anyone's forgotten, Mr. Walsh says, "when you are in love, you feel darned good. You have that giddy feeling, a feeling of exhilaration and euphoria."
Another neurotransmitter, called phenylethylamine, or PEA, "gives you that erotic high," says Robert E. Friar, professor of physiology and human sexuality at Ferris State University in Michigan.
And don't forget the hormones, testosterone and estrogen, which induces lust, which in the best of all possible worlds, accompanies love.
Mr. Walsh, who has been happily married more than 30 years, says he is not in a phase of his marital relationship where other brain chemicals are dominant. "The chemicals at work in the phase of my relationship I'm in with my wife are the same kinds of chemicals that make an infant calm when in the presence of his mother."
Such chemicals, which promote bonding and calming, include oxytocin, vasopressin and endorphins. Oxytocin is a hormone released during orgasm by both sexes and during childbirth by women. Vasopressin is an anti-diuretic hormone. Endorphins are polypeptides that have an opiate-like effect.
Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University, actually has students undergo magnetic reaconce imaging to detect changes in brain chemistry that occur during romantic relationships.
Some of the leading researchers in this field are interviewed in a report, titled, "The Science of Love," published in the February issue of Life magazine.
Dr. James H. Fallon, professor of anatomy and neurobiology at the University of California at Irvine College of Medicine, told Life that neuroscience discoveries of the last decade let researchers predict- and, even to a very limited degree, control- a phenomenon once thought uncontrollable: love.
"We are at the dawn of a new beginning, where people may soon never have to suffer the pain of love's slings and arrows," such as rejection, bonding difficulties, and attachment disorders, Dr. Fallon told the magazine.
He believes that within the decade there could be brain chemical nasal sprays to enhance desire and love between a couple. "We're very close. And that's not just happy talk," Dr. Fallon says.
Mr. Friar of Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich., believes such predictions are "a little far-fetched." In an interview, he says it's possible such beneficial treatments may become available. But he dismisses the notion they will be cure-alls.
Neuro-transmitters do play a role" in sparking romance and making it last, he says in a telephone interview. "But they are not the only factor,' he quickly adds.
Mr. Friar points to an experiment with lab rats that dramatized the role oxytocin plays in fostering exclusive attachment to one love object. In the experiment, he says, a female rat in heat was injected with oxytocin as she watched a particular male rat. The female was then placed in a group of male rats that included the one she saw when she received the hormone.
"The female rat then fought off all the other male rats to get to the one she saw when she was given oxytocin," Mr. Friar says.
But he cautions that a human female receiving oxytocin wouldn't necessarily respond that way. He notes that if he didn't bathe for six months, his wife wouldn't respond to him sexually, no matter how much oxytocin she received while observing him.
"The human brain is so complicated. There is tremendous inter-play...hormones are part of a very big picture," he says.
Mr. Friar says an individuals family background and "current environment" are also factors in the outcome of a relationship. "It's not as simple as saying a nasal spray will take care of everything. You really have to work at it," he says.
"My wife and I have been married 37 years, and I make a point of complimenting her once or twice a day...and I recently surprised her by giving her a pair of pearl earrings- which I knew she really liked and wanted- when we were together on an airplane flying over the ocean," he says.
He argues that oxytocin alone can't be counted on to keep a relationship intact, saying levels of the hormone "begin to drop after four or five years."
Levels of oxytocin would seem to be inadequate in so-called "sex addicts" and others who move from affair to affair rather than face long-term commitment. Such persons, Mr. Walsh says, discover they "cant' get the same love high [they've come to expect and desire] with the same person," so they move on to another conquest.
*As a side note my friend Sarah Lees said this article ruined a part of her soul.
Love Seen as a Many Chemical Thing
by Joyce Howard Price
Romance, long regarded as the province of poets and dreamers, belongs to the chemists, too.
Lovers think they're giving in to their emotions, but the experts-if it's accurate to call anyone an expert in affairs of the heart- insist it's a physiological phenomenon, one driven by "feel-good" brain chemicals and hormones.
They insist other brain chemicals- and not just social norms- lead humans to fall in love, marry and stay married, and, in some cases, remain faithful to their spouses.
Some experts even predict that chemicals may one day direct men and women to fall in love with targeted objects of their affections. It already works in rats- laboratory rats, not human cads. But other experts disagree.
Love is a "natural high," similar to being "hopped up on coke," that's fueled by elevated levels of neuro-transmitters, or brain chemicals, such as "dopamine and norepineprhine," Anthony Walsh, professor of criminology at Boise State University and author of "The Science of Love: Understanding Love and its Effects on Mind and Body," says in a telephone interview.
Mr. Walsh is among a growing number of scientists and social scientists who are studying how chemical reactions lead to romance and long-term relationships. Others pursuing this discipline include neurobiologists, sex therapists and anthropologists.
In case anyone's forgotten, Mr. Walsh says, "when you are in love, you feel darned good. You have that giddy feeling, a feeling of exhilaration and euphoria."
Another neurotransmitter, called phenylethylamine, or PEA, "gives you that erotic high," says Robert E. Friar, professor of physiology and human sexuality at Ferris State University in Michigan.
And don't forget the hormones, testosterone and estrogen, which induces lust, which in the best of all possible worlds, accompanies love.
Mr. Walsh, who has been happily married more than 30 years, says he is not in a phase of his marital relationship where other brain chemicals are dominant. "The chemicals at work in the phase of my relationship I'm in with my wife are the same kinds of chemicals that make an infant calm when in the presence of his mother."
Such chemicals, which promote bonding and calming, include oxytocin, vasopressin and endorphins. Oxytocin is a hormone released during orgasm by both sexes and during childbirth by women. Vasopressin is an anti-diuretic hormone. Endorphins are polypeptides that have an opiate-like effect.
Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University, actually has students undergo magnetic reaconce imaging to detect changes in brain chemistry that occur during romantic relationships.
Some of the leading researchers in this field are interviewed in a report, titled, "The Science of Love," published in the February issue of Life magazine.
Dr. James H. Fallon, professor of anatomy and neurobiology at the University of California at Irvine College of Medicine, told Life that neuroscience discoveries of the last decade let researchers predict- and, even to a very limited degree, control- a phenomenon once thought uncontrollable: love.
"We are at the dawn of a new beginning, where people may soon never have to suffer the pain of love's slings and arrows," such as rejection, bonding difficulties, and attachment disorders, Dr. Fallon told the magazine.
He believes that within the decade there could be brain chemical nasal sprays to enhance desire and love between a couple. "We're very close. And that's not just happy talk," Dr. Fallon says.
Mr. Friar of Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich., believes such predictions are "a little far-fetched." In an interview, he says it's possible such beneficial treatments may become available. But he dismisses the notion they will be cure-alls.
Neuro-transmitters do play a role" in sparking romance and making it last, he says in a telephone interview. "But they are not the only factor,' he quickly adds.
Mr. Friar points to an experiment with lab rats that dramatized the role oxytocin plays in fostering exclusive attachment to one love object. In the experiment, he says, a female rat in heat was injected with oxytocin as she watched a particular male rat. The female was then placed in a group of male rats that included the one she saw when she received the hormone.
"The female rat then fought off all the other male rats to get to the one she saw when she was given oxytocin," Mr. Friar says.
But he cautions that a human female receiving oxytocin wouldn't necessarily respond that way. He notes that if he didn't bathe for six months, his wife wouldn't respond to him sexually, no matter how much oxytocin she received while observing him.
"The human brain is so complicated. There is tremendous inter-play...hormones are part of a very big picture," he says.
Mr. Friar says an individuals family background and "current environment" are also factors in the outcome of a relationship. "It's not as simple as saying a nasal spray will take care of everything. You really have to work at it," he says.
"My wife and I have been married 37 years, and I make a point of complimenting her once or twice a day...and I recently surprised her by giving her a pair of pearl earrings- which I knew she really liked and wanted- when we were together on an airplane flying over the ocean," he says.
He argues that oxytocin alone can't be counted on to keep a relationship intact, saying levels of the hormone "begin to drop after four or five years."
Levels of oxytocin would seem to be inadequate in so-called "sex addicts" and others who move from affair to affair rather than face long-term commitment. Such persons, Mr. Walsh says, discover they "cant' get the same love high [they've come to expect and desire] with the same person," so they move on to another conquest.
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