Is it really that easy to fall in love at first sight, like in the movies?
Today, many scientists agree that love is more of a biological concept than a cultural one. What’s more is that neuroscientists believe that it is actually very easy to fall in love, it's staying that way which is the hard part. Here’s the science on love at first sight as explained by a neuroscientist...
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/07...
Researchers say that people can make decisions very quickly when it comes to romantic relationships. According to a study, people who love to spend the first few minutes together are likely to establish a close relationship after nine weeks.
Having spent a long time researching love, neuro psychotherapist Dr. Trisha Stratford says she does think love at first sight exists.
When we first meet someone we like, we have a chemical reaction which, actually helps to bring us closer together.
"In my Ph.D. research, I actually showed that when we are in a relationship with someone or chatting with them, the space between us is alive. The sixth sense exists. I proved we can impact each other's brain and body, even if we have just met.” Stratford adds.
Those chemicals create a connection and then we start to impact each other's brain and body.
What happens is basically that if we’re attracted to someone and they return our gaze, we connect.
Stratford says that one of the most important factors behind kicking those adaptive oscillators into gear is 'the gaze' and whether or not it's returned by our potential partner.
"It isn't activated if it's one-sided. If they don't return your gaze, you will actually look for someone else. I'm talking about the instance of meeting someone for the first time, not if you have a history with them."
"When you look into another person's eyes, your adaptive oscillators, which are part of the pre-frontal cortex, which is the orbital frontal complex, these lock between you and your partner and it forms this loop," Stratford says.
So it’s actually all about chemicals.
"In a partner, you are looking for an immune system which is compatible with yours but also different, so you have healthy offspring," Stratford says.
“... in terms of what keeps us in love, it depends on what our attachment needs are and our attachment pattern,” Stratford says.
“What we want, how much money we want, what we have been brought up to believe love should be like, the social aspects of a relationship, all of these start to kick in then, and that's when it starts to get challenging."
