Science shows couples still madly in love after decades

William Atkins
Thursday, 11 December 2008 23:20

Science - Biology

The researchers found that the VTA parta of the brain within both the decades-long married couples and the months-long married couples were similar when partners were shown pictures of each other.

However, the researchers also found that the people in long-term relationships had higher levels of activity in another part of the brain that shows calmness and helps to minimize pain and suffering within the body.

On the other hand, people in short-term relationships had increased activities in still another brain area that is associated with feelings of anxiety, stress, and obsession.

The researchers contend that early marriages contain more obsessions, anxieties, and other such feelings, but that those feelings are (sometimes) replaced after many years with feelings of calm.

At least, they are replaced in those couples that feel they are still on their honeymoon.

Co-author Helen Fisher (anthropologist at Rutgers University, New Brunswick (campus), New Jersey) stated, “The difference is that in long-term love, the obsession, the mania, the anxiety has been replaced with calm.” [Science News: “Still love-struck after 20 years,” December 6, 2008, page 17]

The results of the study were presented on Sunday, December 7, 2008, at a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, which was held in Washington, D.C.

Additional information on the study appears in the ABC News article “Proof's in the Brain Scan: Romance Doesn't Have to Fade, which states that this study "counters popular wisdom that romance ends within 12 to 15 months).”