Monday, August 30, 2004
After reading zhen's website.. :P thot i'll bring the subject of love and the brain a little further
LOve is a Many splendid things... or is it just a hell lot of neurotransmitters?
I 've had this debate before with CG . Is love really just a bunch of neurotransmitters and neurons firing? I think so. CG thot it was pure blasphemy to reduce love to a bunch of chemicals but I beg to differ.
Love is a sacred thing to humans. We sing songs about it, write tales about it, dream about it. Our whole life seems to revolve around it. Love for our family, love for our spouses, our partners and our friends. But then again, aren't all our feelings just manifestations of our brain at work? Our little amygdalas, hippocampi, limbic systems are responsible for this feelings ofwe get when when we are with someone whom we love.
What is love anyway? It's this warm fuzzy feeling we get, or maybe that tingling of excitement when you're aroudn that special someone. A feeling eh? So it can be grouped under a heading with other emotions such as anger, happiness, blah blah.. which again, leads back to the brain and it whole mirad of neurons and neurotransmitters. We're coined this word :love" simply to describe a form of interaction between fellow homo sapiens . However, social interactions are performed by the orbitofrontal cortex, and emotions by the limbic system. It's jus pure, energetic firing of neurons.
Don't get me wrong, i'm not taking away the importance of this emotion. we definietly need it to function. What would life be without love? It is after all a hallmark that we are human. I'ts proof that we have higher cognition and functioning. we have one BIG , F A T , cerebral cortex. And besides, we need love so that we can get ahead with life. Consider it a form of bridging capital perhaps. We need it so we can meet a suitable mate, procreate, bring up teh kids in the right environment, and to make sure they don't screw up their lives .
It's enjoyable, there's no doubt about. I think why we make it appear so sacred its because we're in awe of the surges of feelings ( or neurotransmitters) it brings to us. But then again, if our bodies are made up of atoms and molecules, wat's to stop us from scrutinising and reducing it to bits of molecules and atoms. Or even worst, we could just say love is some psychological process that can be explained by a neuro-psych model ( David andrewes might be able to draw one up.. heh)
I'm not anti-love, or bitter. I love my family, I love my friends, I love my guitar. I love that feeling of love when i'm around all of the above. But when I scrutinise love and lay it out on the dissecting table, i realise that's why it is about. Just atoms and molecules.
That's love for me. So shoot me if i'm taking this emotion off its sacred pedestral, but with the scans of brains lighting up in specific places ( more particularly, that of sex and visual stimuli in the male species), i'm more and more convinced that love is just a manifestation of a neuro psych/ molecular level. At least it's more solid that way.
LOve is a Many splendid things... or is it just a hell lot of neurotransmitters?
I 've had this debate before with CG . Is love really just a bunch of neurotransmitters and neurons firing? I think so. CG thot it was pure blasphemy to reduce love to a bunch of chemicals but I beg to differ.
Love is a sacred thing to humans. We sing songs about it, write tales about it, dream about it. Our whole life seems to revolve around it. Love for our family, love for our spouses, our partners and our friends. But then again, aren't all our feelings just manifestations of our brain at work? Our little amygdalas, hippocampi, limbic systems are responsible for this feelings ofwe get when when we are with someone whom we love.
What is love anyway? It's this warm fuzzy feeling we get, or maybe that tingling of excitement when you're aroudn that special someone. A feeling eh? So it can be grouped under a heading with other emotions such as anger, happiness, blah blah.. which again, leads back to the brain and it whole mirad of neurons and neurotransmitters. We're coined this word :love" simply to describe a form of interaction between fellow homo sapiens . However, social interactions are performed by the orbitofrontal cortex, and emotions by the limbic system. It's jus pure, energetic firing of neurons.
Don't get me wrong, i'm not taking away the importance of this emotion. we definietly need it to function. What would life be without love? It is after all a hallmark that we are human. I'ts proof that we have higher cognition and functioning. we have one BIG , F A T , cerebral cortex. And besides, we need love so that we can get ahead with life. Consider it a form of bridging capital perhaps. We need it so we can meet a suitable mate, procreate, bring up teh kids in the right environment, and to make sure they don't screw up their lives .
It's enjoyable, there's no doubt about. I think why we make it appear so sacred its because we're in awe of the surges of feelings ( or neurotransmitters) it brings to us. But then again, if our bodies are made up of atoms and molecules, wat's to stop us from scrutinising and reducing it to bits of molecules and atoms. Or even worst, we could just say love is some psychological process that can be explained by a neuro-psych model ( David andrewes might be able to draw one up.. heh)
I'm not anti-love, or bitter. I love my family, I love my friends, I love my guitar. I love that feeling of love when i'm around all of the above. But when I scrutinise love and lay it out on the dissecting table, i realise that's why it is about. Just atoms and molecules.
That's love for me. So shoot me if i'm taking this emotion off its sacred pedestral, but with the scans of brains lighting up in specific places ( more particularly, that of sex and visual stimuli in the male species), i'm more and more convinced that love is just a manifestation of a neuro psych/ molecular level. At least it's more solid that way.
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