Fascinating Brain Imaging Study

Brain imag­ing study sheds light on the neur­al mech­a­nisms under­ly­ing roman­tic rela­tion­ship maintenance

“Hav­ing an inti­mate roman­tic rela­tion­ship is an impor­tant aspect of life for most peo­ple,” Ueda told Psy­Post. “Our study has pro­vid­ed empir­i­cal evi­dence to reveal the neur­al mech­a­nisms under­ly­ing rela­tion­ship main­te­nance: the brain’s cen­ter of plea­sure and addic­tion, the nucle­us accum­bens, encodes a rela­tion­ship part­ner in a dis­tinc­tive way from unfa­mil­iar non­part­ners. We think that the unique neur­al rep­re­sen­ta­tions of a rela­tion­ship part­ner might be asso­ci­at­ed with sin­gle-mind­ed roman­tic relationships.”