What actually drives people to offer unconditional love has been one of the most mysterious emotions since the dawn of humanity. Now, a new study claims to have finally unravelled the mystery.
Scientists have traced unconditional love to human mind — in fact, the emotion, experienced as a desire to care for another person without any thought of reward, emerges from “a complex interplay between brain’s seven separate areas”.
“Unconditional love, extended to others without exception, is considered to be one of the highest expressions of spirituality. However, nothing has been known regarding its neural underpinnings until now,” lead author Mario Beauregard of Montreal University was quoted by the Times as saying.
To reach the conclusion, the scientists recruited subjects with a
proven ability to feel strong unconditional love — low-paid assistants looking after people with learning difficulties.
They asked them to evoke feelings of unconditional love and hold them in their minds while they had a magnetic resonance imaging scan. Of the seen brain areas that became active, three were similar to those of romantic love. The others were different, suggesting a separate kind of love.
The findings showed that some of the areas activated when experiencing unconditional love were also involved in releasing dopamine — a chemical deeply involved in sensing pleasure, with rising levels strongly linked to feelings of reward and even euphoria.
“The rewarding nature of unconditional love facilitates the creation of strong emotional links. Such robust bonds may critically contribute to the survival of the human species,” Beauregard said.
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