Romantic love: an fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Small cross-sectional neuroimaging study (n=17) and narrative review.
PubMed 16255001 · doi:10.1002/cne.20772
What was done
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was conducted on 17 individuals reporting intense romantic love to measure brain activation when viewing their beloved, interpreted alongside a comparative evolutionary review of mammalian mate choice and reward circuitry.
What was found
Activation specific to the beloved was localized to the right ventral tegmental area and the right caudate nucleus, dopamine-rich regions involved in reward and motivation. The abstract provides no quantitative activation values, effect sizes, or statistical significance metrics.
Why it matters
The study frames romantic love as a specialized, dopamine-mediated motivational system designed for mate selection rather than simply an emotional state.
Limits
The sample size is very small (n = 17). The abstract provides no quantitative data, control conditions, or demographic details, and fMRI correlation cannot establish whether dopaminergic activation causes romantic attachment.
Cited by
- supports The feeling of being in love is accompanied by a massive surge or flood of dopamine in the brain.