The Biology of Love - How Love Actually Works

00:05:45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSi6U4N289M

Resumen

TLDRThe video delves into the biology of love, explaining how chemical profiles, hormones, and genes affect attraction and relationships. It discusses the initial attraction phase, where differing chemical profiles draw people together, and the role of dopamine in creating feelings of pleasure. As relationships progress, oxytocin and vasopressin become significant in forming emotional bonds. The video emphasizes the complexity of love from a biological perspective, highlighting the interplay of various hormones and brain activity throughout different stages of love.

Para llevar

  • 💖 Love is influenced by chemical profiles and hormones.
  • 🧬 MHC affects partner attraction through body odor.
  • 🧠 Dopamine creates feelings of pleasure in love.
  • 🤗 Oxytocin is crucial for emotional bonding.
  • 🔄 Positive experiences enhance feelings through hormone release.
  • 📉 Brain activity changes as love matures.
  • 💑 Long-term relationships involve oxytocin and vasopressin.
  • 💡 Love is a complex biological phenomenon.

Cronología

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:45

    The video introduces the concept of love from a biological perspective, highlighting the excitement surrounding Valentine's Day. It discusses how attraction is influenced by individual chemical profiles, particularly hormones like estrogen and testosterone, and how people are often drawn to partners with complementary profiles. The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is introduced, explaining its role in body odor and attraction, particularly in women being more responsive to men with differing MHC profiles. The initial attraction phase is followed by falling in love, which triggers the release of pleasure-inducing chemicals like dopamine, creating feelings of euphoria. As relationships progress, the brain's reward centers become less active, while areas related to emotion become more engaged, with oxytocin and vasopressin playing crucial roles in long-term bonding and attachment. The video concludes by acknowledging the complexity of love and the ongoing exploration of its biological underpinnings.

Mapa mental

Vídeo de preguntas y respuestas

  • What hormones are involved in attraction?

    Hormones like estrogen, testosterone, dopamine, and serotonin influence attraction.

  • What is the major histocompatibility complex (MHC)?

    MHC is a set of genes involved in the immune system that influences body odor and partner attraction.

  • How does dopamine affect love?

    Dopamine is released during love, creating feelings of pleasure and euphoria.

  • What is oxytocin known for?

    Oxytocin is known as the cuddle hormone and plays a role in emotional bonding.

  • How do hormones influence long-term relationships?

    Oxytocin and vasopressin help form social bonds and attachment in long-term relationships.

  • What happens to the brain when in love?

    Brain regions associated with motivation and reward light up when seeing a loved one.

  • Does love change over time?

    Yes, the brain's reward activity decreases over time, shifting to areas related to emotion.

  • What is the positive feedback loop in love?

    Positive experiences release hormones that enhance pleasure, creating a cycle of bonding.

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Desplazamiento automático:
  • 00:00:00
    love is a word that comes and goes but
  • 00:00:02
    do people really know what it means to
  • 00:00:05
    love somebody I mean from a biological
  • 00:00:08
    perspective in this video we're going to
  • 00:00:10
    be looking at the biology of love so
  • 00:00:13
    let's get it on
  • 00:00:15
    [Music]
  • 00:00:19
    let's see Samuel here from interactive
  • 00:00:21
    biology where we're making biology fun
  • 00:00:24
    and I'm posting this in the month of
  • 00:00:26
    February and you know what that means
  • 00:00:28
    Valentine's Day is coming up and people
  • 00:00:30
    all over the world are getting excited
  • 00:00:33
    spending a ton of money on flowers and
  • 00:00:36
    chocolate and saying I love you to that
  • 00:00:39
    special someone and while love is a
  • 00:00:42
    beautiful and sometimes scary ordeal I'm
  • 00:00:45
    not here to talk to you about how to
  • 00:00:46
    choose the right mate or any of those
  • 00:00:48
    other valuable topics I'm a biology nerd
  • 00:00:51
    so let's dissect This Thing Called Love
  • 00:00:54
    first of all let's talk about what
  • 00:00:55
    happens before the love attraction you
  • 00:00:58
    see that guy or that gal across the room
  • 00:01:01
    and there's something in them that
  • 00:01:03
    appeals to you and yes I literally mean
  • 00:01:06
    in them that appeals to you did you know
  • 00:01:09
    that each of us have a certain chemical
  • 00:01:10
    profile when it comes to hormones like
  • 00:01:13
    estrogen testosterone dopamine and
  • 00:01:16
    serotonin and interestingly enough
  • 00:01:18
    Studies have shown that we tend to be
  • 00:01:19
    more more attracted to people whose
  • 00:01:22
    chemical profiles are different from our
  • 00:01:25
    own chemical profile but in a way that
  • 00:01:27
    complements it here's an example these
  • 00:01:29
    studies suggest that people who tend to
  • 00:01:31
    have high levels of testosterone tend to
  • 00:01:34
    be more attracted to people who tend to
  • 00:01:36
    have higher levels of estrogen isn't
  • 00:01:38
    that interesting but let's go a little
  • 00:01:40
    deeper like genes deeper there are a set
  • 00:01:43
    of genes that are involved in the immune
  • 00:01:45
    system called the major
  • 00:01:47
    histocompatibility complex now if that
  • 00:01:50
    sounds complicated you can just remember
  • 00:01:52
    MHC now what's interesting is that your
  • 00:01:54
    MHC profile influences your body odor
  • 00:01:57
    and research has shown that you're more
  • 00:01:59
    likely to seek out a partner who has a
  • 00:02:01
    very different MHC profile and thus a
  • 00:02:04
    different body odor than yourself not
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    only that but if a woman is in a
  • 00:02:09
    relationship with a man who has a very
  • 00:02:11
    different MHC profile they tend to be
  • 00:02:14
    more sexually responsive to that man and
  • 00:02:16
    if a woman is with a man whose MHC
  • 00:02:19
    profile is very similar to her own not
  • 00:02:22
    only is she more likely to be less
  • 00:02:24
    sexually responsive to him she's also
  • 00:02:26
    more likely to be attracted to other men
  • 00:02:28
    man that's a messed up biology right
  • 00:02:31
    there okay let's say we get past this
  • 00:02:33
    initial attraction phase and you
  • 00:02:36
    actually fall in love with someone
  • 00:02:37
    what's happening there you know how they
  • 00:02:39
    say love is complicated well the biology
  • 00:02:42
    of Love is pretty complicated too but
  • 00:02:44
    let's try to make it simple when we
  • 00:02:46
    first fall in love our brains release a
  • 00:02:48
    bunch of chemicals and these chemicals
  • 00:02:50
    create feelings of pleasure and Euphoria
  • 00:02:53
    one of the key chemicals involved is
  • 00:02:56
    dopamine this is often referred to as
  • 00:02:58
    the feel-good chemical or the pleasure
  • 00:03:01
    chemical it's the same chemical that's
  • 00:03:03
    released when we eat something amazing
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    when you win a game and even during sex
  • 00:03:08
    it's also involved in addiction so when
  • 00:03:11
    they say you're addicted to love I guess
  • 00:03:14
    it's kind of true but for real though
  • 00:03:16
    the release of this and other chemicals
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    like nor or epinephrine this happens in
  • 00:03:21
    brain regions called the ventral
  • 00:03:23
    tegmental area and the cardate nucleus
  • 00:03:26
    and what we've seen is that if you do a
  • 00:03:28
    brain scan in people that are in love
  • 00:03:31
    while showing them pictures of the
  • 00:03:33
    person that they're in love with man
  • 00:03:34
    those two regions are just gonna light
  • 00:03:37
    up and it makes sense because these are
  • 00:03:38
    the regions that are associated with
  • 00:03:40
    motivation and reward it's like love is
  • 00:03:44
    in itself its own reward okay let's move
  • 00:03:48
    on you're in the relationship for a
  • 00:03:50
    while now and you're still in love
  • 00:03:52
    Studies have shown that over time the
  • 00:03:55
    activity in the ventral tegmental area
  • 00:03:57
    and cardiac nucleus those reward centers
  • 00:04:00
    it's going to start to decrease and we
  • 00:04:02
    see more activity in areas in the brain
  • 00:04:05
    that are related to emotion two hormones
  • 00:04:07
    that are involved here are oxytocin and
  • 00:04:10
    vasopressin let's look at oxytocin
  • 00:04:12
    oxytocin is known as the cuddle hormone
  • 00:04:15
    it's one that's produced in the
  • 00:04:17
    hypothalamus and released into the
  • 00:04:19
    bloodstream via the pituitary gland the
  • 00:04:21
    release of oxytocin is involved when a
  • 00:04:24
    woman is trying to push that baby out
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    during childbirth and it also plays a
  • 00:04:29
    significant role in the emotional
  • 00:04:31
    bonding that can happen with that cute
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    little human and we know that oxytocin
  • 00:04:35
    and vasopressin work together in some
  • 00:04:38
    way to help the kind of bonding
  • 00:04:40
    behaviors and feelings that are
  • 00:04:42
    characteristic of what we experience in
  • 00:04:45
    these longer term loving relationships
  • 00:04:47
    they play key roles in formation of
  • 00:04:50
    social bonds and attachment and forming
  • 00:04:53
    those loving memories that keep
  • 00:04:55
    relationships going strong and what's
  • 00:04:57
    very interesting is that they help to
  • 00:04:59
    create a positive feedback loop you have
  • 00:05:01
    a positive experience with your partner
  • 00:05:04
    these hormones get released which
  • 00:05:07
    increases the feelings of pleasure which
  • 00:05:09
    releases more hormones which increases
  • 00:05:12
    the pleasure even more and and just
  • 00:05:15
    saying that out loud right now makes me
  • 00:05:17
    feel some serious feelings for my wife
  • 00:05:20
    man I wish I could do like a brain scan
  • 00:05:23
    right now to see what's going on in this
  • 00:05:25
    brain of mine anyways this just
  • 00:05:27
    scratches the surface of the biology of
  • 00:05:29
    love the truth is while we know much
  • 00:05:31
    more than we've ever known on the topic
  • 00:05:33
    there's still so much we don't know all
  • 00:05:36
    I know is that love is amazing biology
  • 00:05:40
    is amazing and um
  • 00:05:43
    I love my wife
Etiquetas
  • love
  • biology
  • hormones
  • attraction
  • dopamine
  • oxytocin
  • relationships
  • MHC
  • emotional bonding
  • reward system