Don’t Know What the Angular Gyrus Is? Your Heart Does

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/style/modern-love-neuroscience.html?_r=0

Summary: In this article, neuroscientist Stephanie Cacioppo, has devoted much of her time to examining the dynamics and correlation between romantic love and the brain. Dr. Cacioppo used neuroimaging to collect data that “could suggest that this kind of love activates in both the emotional brain and regions that are involved in higher-level intellectual activities and cognition.” (Hayman, Stephen. 2017) This could show how love is more than just a basic emotion and that it can have a positive effect on our behavior. Dr. Cacioppo believes that being in love can improve your mental and physical health by “helping you to think faster, to better anticipate other people’s thoughts and behavior, or to bounce back more quickly from an illness.” (Hayman, Stephen. 2017).
            Dr. Cacioppo conducted a series of experiments using the subjects’ images and names of people, their significant others, along with random strangers and “neutral friends” and used functional M.R.I. scanning techniques to see what sections of the brain lit up in response.” (Hayman, Stephen. 2017) She used the data she retrieved from these experiments to sort out romantic love from other types of love (maternal, or unconditional) and other basic emotions (happiness). She then identified 12 specific brain regions that were systematically activated by romantic love. She also attached electrodes to the heads of her subjects to observe how quickly these 12 brain regions were activated when subjects saw their loved one. The results showed that it took subjects less than a half a second to activate these brain regions and display the love emotion. Dr. Cacioppo pinpointed a specific area of the brain, the angular gyrus. She discovered that the “more a participant reported feeling passionately in love, the more this region shifted into overdrive.” (Hayman, Stephen. 2017) Dr. Cacioppo hopes that her research on love will help debunk the widely-known theory that being in love can be mentally distracting when in fact, being in love can enhance mental performance.
Connection: I think that this article relates to the emotion topic that we discussed in biopsychology. The angular gyrus is connected to creativity and abstract thought. This could be an example of how a positive emotion (like love) can elicit a positive behavior. In the article, the Dr. Cacioppo describes that brain’s mirror neuron system is responsible for predicting your partner’s behaviors and even basic physical contact like holding hands can increase levels of oxytocin, which is a neuropeptide. Oxytocin can increase feelings of empathy and trust. Mirror neurons can also be responsible for the telepathic-like feeling between romantic partners.

  
Heyman, S. (2017, November 08). Don’t Know What the Angular Gyrus Is? Your Heart Does. Retrieved November 16, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/style/modern-love-neuroscience.html?_r=0

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 16, 2017 at 6:28 PM

    I agree with you and the article about how love is more than just an emotion. It is more of an experience than an emotion. It is something that takes over your body and affects your behavior, apparently in a positive way. In class, we talked about how it is hard to define an emotion. I feel like this is a similar concept. It is hard to define what love really is. I found it interesting how the angular gyrus was the region of the brain that lit up when someone said they felt passionate love. It made me want to research the functions of the angular gyrus in order to determine how they relate to love. I found that it is involved in memory retrieval. This means that when someone sees their loved one, the memories related to that person are brought up through the angular gyrus. The positive and love-filled memories cause the person to feel the emotion of love. Additionally, the angular gyrus is involved in the control of motor skills. It retrieves memories in order to perform actions they have done before. When someone sees their loved one, they may want to hug or kiss them. The memory of them performing this action before comes into their awareness causing them to feel the emotion of love. The angular gyrus has many different functions which can be linked to love.

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