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Last week was a really interesting discussion on the science of love and romance. We not only talked about the psychological and behavioral acts of love, but we also talked about some possible biological acts/definitions for love; as a biology major, I can definitely appreciate that!

Stemming off this idea that being in love is as much a biological happening as it is a behavioral happening, can we also explain "falling out of love" as in biological concepts as well? I thought that this was quite interesting to talk about last week. It has been suggested that falling in love is a biological/chemical process within the brain and involves having just the right amount of receptors for adequate transduction by this biological/chemical process. Do we then use this same model to talk about people falling out of love? Do the receptors decrease in number, and thus give us scientists a biological reason that coincides with the behavioral act of falling out of love? I was wondering that. It was suggested by last week’s visiting professor that falling out of love is a result of the parties involved becoming bored with the relationship, that the parties involved found each other and stuck with each other because each one found something unique and novel about the other person and after some time, the novelty goes away, boredom arises, and falling out of love becomes inevitable. Although this explanation makes much sense to me, I still wondered what the varying degrees of brain activity over this course of time would tell us about a biological reasoning for falling out of love.

I also found it extremely interesting to talk about the different sections of the brain that were both activated and deactivated when one sees his/her loved one. Most interestingly to me, both the amygdala and the pre-frontal cortex region are deactivated. The amygdala is the sub-cortical region of the brain that controls our sense of fear and perhaps sadness as well. This does make sense; when I see someone that I am in love with, I do not approach him with fear. The pre-frontal cortex, on the other hand, controls a lot of our planning, decision-making, and basic overall rational thinking. This is deactivated?! Wow, no wonder I made so many idiotic decisions in some of my past relationships! This explains it all; and now when my mom pokes fun at me and tells about my past puppy love situations, I can quickly come back with "But my pre-frontal cortex was deactivated, it wasn’t my fault!"

Speaking of this, have there been any court cases in the past, or present, that have used this biological model as a means for a defendant pleading not guilty by reason of insanity in a murder trial? I wonder.  

Jayme E. Hopkins, '08