In 1938 composer Cole Porter wanted to know: “What Is This Thing Called Love?” Fast forward fifty years later, 80’s hair band, White Snake, tossed their tresses and asked: “Is This Love?” A decade passed and the question remained with One Hit Wonder, Haddaway, moaning: “What is love? Baby don’t hurt me”, while visions of a glimmering, disco ball and Night at the Roxbury danced in our heads. The answer to the question “What is love?” varies depending on whom you ask, as does the intensity and philosophical outlook of the person being queried. Apparently composed of astounding elements, love’s magnetic forces reputedly enable man to “move mountains” and “swim the deepest seas.” What is this phenomenon that “conquers all” and floods our airwaves with sappy tunes or forlorn angst. What do we seek?
There are many “types” and expressions of love. We can proclaim our love to a partner and in the next breath say “I love ice cream.” Merriam Webster dictionary offers thirteen definitions of love with varied meanings based on whether the word is used as a noun or verb. Some Webster definitions of love as nouns are: “a. (1) a strong affection for another arising out of kinship, or personal ties (2) attraction based on sexual desire: affection and tenderness felt by lovers (3) affection based on admiration or benevolence, or common interests (4) assurance of love (5) the object of attachment, devotion or admiration (6) a god or personification of love (6) a person’s adoration of god and (7) an amorous episode or sexual embrace. And definitions of “love” in the verb form include: (1)“to hold dear (cherish) (2) to feel a love’s passion or tenderness (3) to copulate with (4) to like or desire actively or to take pleasure in (5) to thrive in and (6) to feel affection or experience desire (Webster 1).” For clarification sake, my research on love and mate selection mainly refers to that of the romantic nature.
Given the subjective quality of the topic, there are many theories about love and why we choose specific mates. Explanations for these beliefs range from a variety of sources and can include: biological reasoning, cultural practices, divine intervention, astrological alignment, psychological or evolutionary factors just to name a few. Some may view love and mate selection as the result of any number or combination of these reasons. Again, depending on whom you ask and the beliefs in which they subscribe, pinpointing one specific cause or reason for attraction may not be so cut and dried.
Mating can be a highly discriminating process while at other times selectiveness and rationale appear not to be a consideration at all…at least not on a conscious level. The field of human pheromone research is still relatively young and much work is to be done. According to an article on www.allsands.com, pheromones may function through a sensory tissue known as the Vomernasal organ (VNO), a small, concave membrane located near the Vomer bone in the nose. Although it was once believed that the VNO was no longer present in humans, in 1991 scientists discovered that it was still there and functioned well with receptors that performed similarly to olfactory receptors. The article added that scientist Luis Monti-Bloch from the University of Utah found a subtle human behavioral response to pheromones and “Men exposed to less than one millionth of a gram of a synthetic female pheromone became “laid back and relaxed. Their heart and breathing rates slowed, while the capillaries in the skin of their hands dilated, and electrical recordings of the brain found an increase in alpha-wave activity, classic signs of relaxation.” However there was no evidence that suggested pheromones present a person as being more or less attractive to the opposite sex. “Pheromones have little effect on who we find attractive and who finds us attractive. Humans have come to depend so much on other techniques of mate selection that pheromones are no longer necessary to identify a member of the opposite sex. The emotional relaxation that occurs in the presence of human pheromone, then, may simply be the result of associative learning. To sense a person’s pheromones, you must be very close. Even though you don’t consciously smell the pheromones, your brain associates their presence with pleasurable physical intimacy (Bloch 1).” With the wide use of personal hygiene products such as: colognes, anti-perspirants, perfumed lotions and hair care systems, one may begin to speculate the future effect fragrance may have on our olfactory systems.
An elusive topic, love’s abstract qualities and the ever evolving process of mate selection continue to puzzle researchers and make scientific explanations of human behavior somewhat challenging to illustrate. Yet studies regarding love and why we choose certain mates continue to generate some interesting concepts. This information makes for fascinating news and perhaps partly fueled by public interest, has prompted some members of the scientific community to take a closer look and conduct further research.
One such contributor is New York neuroscientist Dr. Bianca Acevedo, a researcher who focuses on the biology of romantic love. According to Acevedo, “Love’s source is in the head not the heart and can be traced through brain images, hormones and genetics. Acevedo notes: “In humans there are four tiny areas of the brain which form a circuit of love: 1. Ventral Tegmented Area (VTA) 2. The Nucleus Accumbens 3.The Ventral Pallidum and 4. The Raphe Nucleus. The VTA area is one of the main components of the brain’s reward system. When people newly in love were put in a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine and shown pictures of their beloved, the VTA lit up; the same for people still madly in love after 20 years (Acevedo 1).” In agreement with Dr. Acevedo is researcher Helen Fisher, a professor at Rutgers University who states: “These cells make dopamine and send it to different brain regions. This part of the system becomes activated because you’re trying to win life’s greatest prize—a mating partner (Fisher 1).”
Fellow researcher Dr. Larry Young asserts that “It (love) has a biological basis and we know some of the key players.” Conducting experiments at the Yerkes National Primate Research center in Atlanta, Young studies the brain of a monogamous rat to obtain a better understanding of what occurs in the minds of humans. The comparison of human behavior to mammal behavior has provided tremendous headway in the quest of discovering what motivates human love and mate selection.