TY  - JOUR
AU  - Rinne, Pärttyli
AU  - Lahnakoski, Juha M
AU  - Saarimäki, Heini
AU  - Tavast, Mikke
AU  - Sams, Mikko
AU  - Henriksson, Linda
TI  - Six types of loves differentially recruit reward and social cognition brain areas
JO  - Cerebral cortex
VL  - 34
IS  - 8
SN  - 1047-3211
CY  - Oxford
PB  - Oxford Univ. Press
M1  - FZJ-2024-05284
SP  - bhae331
PY  - 2024
AB  - Feelings of love are among the most significant human phenomena. Love informs the formation and maintenance of pair bonds, parent-offspring attachments, and influences relationships with others and even nature. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms of love beyond romantic and maternal types. Here, we characterize the brain areas involved in love for six different objects: romantic partner, one’s children, friends, strangers, pets, and nature. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity, while we induced feelings of love using short stories. Our results show that neural activity during a feeling of love depends on its object. Interpersonal love recruited social cognition brain areas in the temporoparietal junction and midline structures significantly more than love for pets or nature. In pet owners, love for pets activated these same regions significantly more than in participants without pets. Love in closer affiliative bonds was associated with significantly stronger and more widespread activation in the brain’s reward system than love for strangers, pets, or nature. We suggest that the experience of love is shaped by both biological and cultural factors, originating from fundamental neurobiological mechanisms of attachment.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - 39183646
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:001297278600001
DO  - DOI:10.1093/cercor/bhae331
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1030411
ER  -