Tuesday 12 February 2019

What Is Love?

It was 1984 and Foreigner pondered in ballad form on the thought 'I want to know what love is'.
Not sure if anybody gave them a satisfactory answer, defining 'love' is tough enough without having the additional worry about neon green leg warmers and where your 'Choose Life' t-shirt was but the 80's always was a time fashion gave up on.
Poets and songwriters have had a go at explaining it without much success so maybe a neuroscientist is a better person to ask which is what i did, asking her 'What is Love?'

Apparently it's when the opiod system in the brain releases chemicals and hormones that produce feelings of pleasure, namely adrenaline, norepinephrine and dopamine.
Blood flow increases to the nucleus accumbens in the brain which lowers levels of the brain chemical serotonin and finally the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin permeate the brain and create feelings of well-being and security.

There you then Foreigner, that's exactly what love is so good luck finding something to rhyme with nucleus accumbens and oxytocin.

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