Vertebrate Physiology

Summer love is in the air.

When Bob went out to the beach, he couldn’t stop oogling Hilda in the yellow polka dot bikini. They were both attending a steamy neurobiology conference. With his heart beating rapidly, he decided to ask her out to a gourmet meal at Chipotle. Lucky for Bob, she was hungry after surfing all day so she said “sure-rritos.” Hilda’s puns only reinforced Bob’s initial attraction. “What a woman!” Bob thought. They walked to his car. She reached over to hold his hand, at which point his stomach flipped with nervousness. They both smiled.

He leaned over and whispered
“Hilda, it’s about time I let you know how I feel. You light up my ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, ventral pallidum and raphe nuclei.”
Hilda was so touched, she screamed out “I love you too Bob!”

Your brain has a circuit for snuggling with schnookums. You might have expected that being in love activates a reward pathway.

But here is one surprising detail: heartache is akin to “craving”…the kind of craving seen in drug addiction.