Love is just the outcome of chemical reactions in the brain responding to environmental cues, but that doesn’t make for a very good pop song. These studies describe regions of the brain that are activated in conjunction with feelings of love.
Differences and similarities on neuronal activities of people being happily and unhappily in love: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. (Link)
Neural correlates of giving support to a loved one. (Link)
Neural correlates of long-term intense romantic love. (Link)
Regional brain activity in women grieving a romantic relationship breakup. (Link)
Reward and motivation systems: a brain mapping study of early-stage intense romantic love in Chinese participants. (Link)
Reward, addiction, and emotion regulation systems associated with rejection in love. (Link)
Reward, motivation, and emotion systems associated with early-stage intense romantic love. (Link)
Romantic love: an fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice. (Link)
The brain reaction to viewing faces of opposite- and same-sex romantic partners. (Link)
The neural basis of love as a subliminal prime: an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study. (Link)
The neural correlates of maternal and romantic love. (Link)
