The Economist on the science of love

Scientists believe that love is little more than an influx of bonding hormones, namely oxytocin and vasopressin, according to The Economist. “[A] relatively small area of the human brain is active in love, compared with that involved in, say, ordinary friendship.” “Parts of the brain that are love-bitten include the one responsible for gut feelings, and the ones which generate the euphoria induced by drugs such as cocaine. So the brains of people deeply in love do not look like those of people experiencing strong emotions, but instead like those of people snorting coke. Love, in other words, uses the neural mechanisms that are activated during the process of addiction.”