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. 2015 Feb 13:9:71.
doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00071. eCollection 2015.

Love-related changes in the brain: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Hongwen Song  1 , Zhiling Zou  1 , Juan Kou  1 , Yang Liu  1 , Lizhuang Yang  2 , Anna Zilverstand  3 , Federico d'Oleire Uquillas  3 , Xiaochu Zhang  4
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing China.
  • 2 CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function & Disease, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui China.
  • 3 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY USA.
  • 4 CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function & Disease, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui China ; CAS Center of Medical Physics and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui China ; School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui China.

Love-related changes in the brain: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Hongwen Song et al. Front Hum Neurosci. .
. 2015 Feb 13:9:71.
doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00071. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Hongwen Song  1 , Zhiling Zou  1 , Juan Kou  1 , Yang Liu  1 , Lizhuang Yang  2 , Anna Zilverstand  3 , Federico d'Oleire Uquillas  3 , Xiaochu Zhang  4

Affiliations

  • 1 Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing China.
  • 2 CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function & Disease, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui China.
  • 3 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY USA.
  • 4 CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function & Disease, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui China ; CAS Center of Medical Physics and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui China ; School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui China.

Abstract

Romantic love is a motivational state associated with a desire to enter or maintain a close relationship with a specific other person. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have found activation increases in brain regions involved in the processing of reward, motivation and emotion regulation, when romantic lovers view photographs of their partners. However, not much is known about whether romantic love affects the brain's functional architecture during rest. In the present study, resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) data was collected to compare the regional homogeneity (ReHo) and functional connectivity (FC) across an "in-love" group (LG, N = 34, currently intensely in love), an "ended-love" group (ELG, N = 34, ended romantic relationship recently), and a "single" group (SG, N = 32, never fallen in love). Results show that: (1) ReHo of the left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) was significantly increased in the LG (in comparison to the ELG and the SG); (2) ReHo of the left dACC was positively correlated with length of time in love in the LG, and negatively correlated with the lovelorn duration since breakup in the ELG; (3) FC within the reward, motivation, and emotion regulation network (dACC, insula, caudate, amygdala, and nucleus accumbens) as well as FC in the social cognition network [temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), inferior parietal, precuneus, and temporal lobe] was significantly increased in the LG (in comparison to the ELG and SG); (4) in most regions within both networks FC was positively correlated with the duration of love in the LG but negatively correlated with the lovelorn duration of time since breakup in the ELG. This study provides first empirical evidence of love-related alterations in brain functional architecture. Furthermore, the results shed light on the underlying neural mechanisms of romantic love, and demonstrate the possibility of applying a resting-state fMRI approach for investigating romantic love.

Keywords: dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC); functional connectivity (FC); nucleus accumbens; posterior cingulate cortex (PCC); regional homogeneity (ReHo); resting state fMRI (rsfMRI); romantic love; temporo-parietal junction (TPJ).

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Figures

FIGURE 1

FIGURE 1

Brain areas with altered ReHo…

FIGURE 1

Brain areas with altered ReHo the in-love group (LG) and ended-love group (ELG). …
FIGURE 1
Brain areas with altered ReHo the in-love group (LG) and ended-love group (ELG). Significantly increased regional homogeneity (ReHo) was found in the left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC; -6,18,33) in the LG (LG > SG), but reduced ReHo was found in the left caudate nucleus [ELG < SG, (-15,9,21); ELG < LG, (-18,9,24)] and the right caudate nucleus [ELG < SG, (18,9,2); ELG < LG, (18,12,18)] in the ELG. All resultants were corrected by FDR correction (P < 0.05). *Coordinates in MNI space.
FIGURE 2

FIGURE 2

Altered functional connectivity (FC) pattern…

FIGURE 2

Altered functional connectivity (FC) pattern in comparison across the three groups. Images of…
FIGURE 2
Altered functional connectivity (FC) pattern in comparison across the three groups. Images of FC demonstrates differences in resting-state FC between groups (A) LG > SG, (B) ELG > SG, (C) LG > ELG (see Tables 3–5 for complete results). For each comparison, the top row shows the FC pattern of the left hemisphere and the bottom row shows the right hemisphere. L, left; R, right. All resultants were corrected by FDR correction (P < 0.05). *Coordinates in MNI space.
FIGURE 3

FIGURE 3

Correlation between ReHo and the…

FIGURE 3

Correlation between ReHo and the length of time in-love (in LG) or the…
FIGURE 3
Correlation between ReHo and the length of time in-love (in LG) or the lovelorn duration since the breakup of romantic relationship (in ELG). (A) depicts ReHo in the left caudate nucleus (–18, 9, 24), which was significantly positively correlated with the length of time since the romantic relationship breakup in ELG; (B) shows ReHo in left dACC (–6,18,33), which was significantly negatively correlated with the length of time in love of LG; (C) demonstrates ReHo in the right caudate nucleus (18,12,18), which was significantly positively correlated with the length of time since the romantic relationship breakup in ELG; (D) shows ReHo of left dACC (–6,18,30), which was significantly positively correlated with the length of time since the romantic relationship breakup of ELG. *Coordinates in MNI space.
FIGURE 4

FIGURE 4

Correlation between FC and length…

FIGURE 4

Correlation between FC and length of time in-love (in LG) and the lovelorn…
FIGURE 4
Correlation between FC and length of time in-love (in LG) and the lovelorn duration since breakup of romantic relationship (in ELG). (A) depicts the significant positive correlation between FC and the length of time in-love in LG; (B) shows the significant negative correlation between FC and the lovelorn duration since the breakup of romantic relationship in ELG. Intensity of FC was extracted from ROIs (small sphere of 6 mm radius, the center coordinates are listed in Table 3) based on the results of the FC comparison between the LG and SG (FDR, P < 0.05). The absolute value of the correlation coefficient increases gradually from the center to the circumference. Numbers represent the correlation coefficient, and the colors represent the corresponding brain regions. These are only the results of the right hemisphere. All correlations shown were significant (P < 0.05).
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