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Intimate relationship with a loved one affects brain structure
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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Intimate relationships with a loved one affect the structure of the brain and help maintain sexual desire for a longer period.
American sexologist David Schnarch defines sex as a chance to experience moments of special closeness and unity with a partner. In his book Intimacy and Desire, he calls them sensorimotor moments of encounter.
“At these moments, the heart and soul calm down, the relationship as a whole becomes more stable, and sexual attraction to a loved one is strengthened,” says Shnarch.
Scientists believe that the key to the positive effect of having sex with a loved one is hidden in a phenomenon called neuroplasticity. This is a property of the human brain, which consists in the ability to change under the influence of experience. The human brain also has the ability to adapt and builds its structures, interacting with other organs.
As for sexual relations, here, according to Schnarch, the phenomenon of neuroplasticity has a positive effect if the partners maintain eye contact during sexual intercourse. In this regard, he speaks of a "volcanic fusion of thoughts" of the partners and "emotional openness."
"Sexual contact should be a joint act, not a way to satisfy desire through the body of another person," says Munich neurobiologist Ernst Pöppel. As a result of various psychophysiological experiments, the scientist showed that a person can be aware of incoming information, constructing a single picture from it, only within a strictly defined period of time - three seconds. In other words, Pöppel claims, the present lasts for us only three seconds. The scientist says that two people performing a joint action, in this case, sexual intercourse, synchronize their three-second rhythm, and therefore increase the likelihood that the highest peak of sexual desire will be reached simultaneously.
In 2001, neurobiologist Knut Kampe wrote in the journal Nature about why we find the orgasm we have when we look into the eyes of our loved one particularly pleasurable. Eye contact increases the production of the neurotransmitter and hormone dopamine, which is key to the brain's reward system.
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