Neural correlates of long-term intense romantic love

TLDR

The study investigated the neural correlates of long‑term intense romantic love using fMRI. fMRI was performed on 17 long‑married participants who viewed images of their partner and of control faces (acquaintance, friend, stranger). Partner‑specific activation was observed in reward‑related regions (VTA, dorsal striatum) and attachment‑related areas (globus pallidus, substantia nigra, Raphe, thalamus, insula, ACC, PCC), with activity correlating with love, friendship, sexual frequency, and obsession scores, indicating that long‑term intense love engages both reward and attachment networks.

Abstract

The present study examined the neural correlates of long-term intense romantic love using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Ten women and 7 men married an average of 21.4 years underwent fMRI while viewing facial images of their partner. Control images included a highly familiar acquaintance; a close, long-term friend; and a low-familiar person. Effects specific to the intensely loved, long-term partner were found in: (i) areas of the dopamine-rich reward and basal ganglia system, such as the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and dorsal striatum, consistent with results from early-stage romantic love studies; and (ii) several regions implicated in maternal attachment, such as the globus pallidus (GP), substantia nigra, Raphe nucleus, thalamus, insular cortex, anterior cingulate and posterior cingulate. Correlations of neural activity in regions of interest with widely used questionnaires showed: (i) VTA and caudate responses correlated with romantic love scores and inclusion of other in the self; (ii) GP responses correlated with friendship-based love scores; (iii) hypothalamus and posterior hippocampus responses correlated with sexual frequency; and (iv) caudate, septum/fornix, posterior cingulate and posterior hippocampus responses correlated with obsession. Overall, results suggest that for some individuals the reward-value associated with a long-term partner may be sustained, similar to new love, but also involves brain systems implicated in attachment and pair-bonding.