Love has inspired timeless songs and sonnets — not to mention a few less-than-timeless romantic comedies.
Here’s a video that explains how feel-good neurotransmitters like dopamine and oxytocin fuel lifelong pair bonds in prairie voles, which — along with humans — are the mammalian kingdom’s leading monogamists.
In the video, Abigail Marsh, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Georgetown University explains that addictive drugs affect the brain in ways similar to love — which helps explain the painful, withdrawal-like symptoms of heartbreak.
“People who excite romantic feelings in us also probably trigger increases in oxytocin, which results in an increase in dopamine, and then we find that person someone we want to stick with.”
Watch The Chemistry of Love video below.