Scientists have managed to determine the difference between love and lust
Last reviewed: 30.05.2018
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
For the first time in history, scientists have been able to determine the difference between love and lust at the neurological level. It turns out that these feelings affect different areas of the brain.
Researchers from the Canadian University of Concordia conducted 20 different experiments, which allowed us to determine that love and lust activate different areas of striatum (striatum of the brain). Lust affects the area that is responsible for the pleasures, and love activates that zone that determines the meaning of pleasures.
During the experiment, volunteers were shown either erotic pictures of men and women to awaken desire, or photos of their beloved. All this helped to bring out the scientific formula of love.
It turned out that the striatum is involved during the occurrence of both emotions. But if lust activates that its zone, which is also responsible for the reaction to tasty food (that is, pure pleasure), then love also engages another part. Science believes that it is responsible for evaluating those things that we love. That is, a person does not just experience a physical attraction to someone, but also understands how much this person means to him. Which is love.
However, love can not be called from the scientific point of view a "pure" feeling. Part of the striatum, responsible for love, is also responsible for the formation of drug dependence, according to the Journal of Sexual Medicine. Now it becomes clear why love is so often called a drug.
According to the authors of the study, love is a habit that is formed when rethinking sexual desire and giving it special value. In other words, a great feeling arises when the object of our sexual lusts becomes dear to us not only as a potential sexual partner. This is the modern formula of love.
[1]