Addicted to Desire

[Guest guest]

More proof that thoughts are THINGS, and that what you can THINK, you can BE.

Not least of all, is the fact, that love is the cure.

Because love is what we are becoming,

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I would rename this article, Addicted to Desire

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Signs of True Love Detected on Brain Scans

By Reaney

LONDON (Reuters) - For some people it's palpitations, a sense of euphoria

and breathlessness. Others say sweaty palms, light-headedness and a gut

feeling are sure signs of being truly, madly, deeply in love.

But scientists at University College London now have more concrete proof of

whether or not it's the real thing -- brain scans. They have shown that the

first flushes of true love produce visible changes in the brains of people

that can be seen with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

``We looked at the activity in their brain produced by a picture of the

person they love,'' Semir Zeki, a professor of neurobiology, said in a

telephone interview Wednesday.

``There are four small areas of the brain in which activity goes up and

that increase correlates with their viewing of the picture of the person

they are in love with.''

Zeki and his colleague s Bartels gave MRI scans to 16 volunteers who

said they were in love. Lie detector tests were also used as an objective

means of confirming their feelings.

Each volunteer was shown a picture of their beloved and a photograph of a

friend whom they had known for a similar period of time.

Whenever a picture of the loved one was shown it produced chemical changes

in the brain that were not active when they were shown pictures of friends.

The changes were clear-cut in each volunteer whenever they looked on the

image of the one they loved.

``The emotional state is generated by activity in these parts of the

brain,'' Zeki explained.

``These parts of the brain are also the parts which are active in euphoric

states generated by exogenous substances such as cocaine. Romantic love is

to for many people, at any rate, intoxicating.''

The scientists presented their findings at a conference of European

neuroscientists and have submitted the research for publication in a

peer-review journal.