Love-related changes in the brain: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Hongwen SongXiaochu Zhang

Abstract

Romantic love is a motivational state associated with a desire to enter or maintain a close relationship with a specific other person. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have found activation increases in brain regions involved in the processing of reward, motivation and emotion regulation, when romantic lovers view photographs of their partners. However, not much is known about whether romantic love affects the brain's functional architecture during rest. In the present study, resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) data was collected to compare the regional homogeneity (ReHo) and functional connectivity (FC) across an "in-love" group (LG, N = 34, currently intensely in love), an "ended-love" group (ELG, N = 34, ended romantic relationship recently), and a "single" group (SG, N = 32, never fallen in love). Results show that: (1) ReHo of the left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) was significantly increased in the LG (in comparison to the ELG and the SG); (2) ReHo of the left dACC was positively correlated with length of time in love in the LG, and negatively correlated with the lovelorn duration since breakup in the ELG; (3) FC within the reward, motivation, and emotion regulation n...Continue Reading

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Citations

Feb 22, 2016·Brain Structure & Function·Seishu NakagawaRyuta Kawashima
Jun 13, 2016·Current Opinion in Neurobiology·Claudia Lieberwirth, Zuoxin Wang
Aug 17, 2016·Behavioral Sciences·Brian Y ParkAndrew P Doan
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Oct 5, 2016·Human Brain Mapping·Yafeng PanYi Hu
Feb 5, 2019·Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience·Anne C LauritaR Nathan Spreng
May 16, 2019·Brain and Behavior·Bianca P AcevedoLucy L Brown
Aug 8, 2020·Perspectives on Psychological Science : a Journal of the Association for Psychological Science·Anthony G VaccaroAntonio Damasio
Apr 30, 2021·Frontiers in Psychology·Adam Bode, Geoff Kushnick

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Software Mentioned

Statistical Parametric Mapping software SPM8
DPARSF
Data Processing Assistant for Resting - State fMRI ( DPARSF fM...
ReHo

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