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Bode A. Romantic love evolved by co-opting mother-infant bonding. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1176067. [PMID: 37915523 PMCID: PMC10616966 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1176067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2023] [Accepted: 09/18/2023] [Indexed: 11/03/2023] Open
Abstract
For 25 years, the predominant evolutionary theory of romantic love has been Fisher's theory of independent emotion systems. That theory suggests that sex drive, romantic attraction (romantic love), and attachment are associated with distinct neurobiological and endocrinological systems which evolved independently of each other. Psychological and neurobiological evidence, however, suggest that a competing theory requires attention. A theory of co-opting mother-infant bonding sometime in the recent evolutionary history of humans may partially account for the evolution of romantic love. I present a case for this theory and a new approach to the science of romantic love drawing on human psychological, neurobiological, and (neuro)endocrinological studies as well as animal studies. The hope is that this theoretical review, along with other publications, will generate debate in the literature about the merits of the theory of co-opting mother-infant bonding and a new evolutionary approach to the science of romantic love.
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Bode A, Kowal M. Toward consistent reporting of sample characteristics in studies investigating the biological mechanisms of romantic love. Front Psychol 2023; 14:983419. [PMID: 37213378 PMCID: PMC10192910 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.983419] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2022] [Accepted: 04/06/2023] [Indexed: 05/23/2023] Open
Abstract
In this non-systematic review, we consider the sample reporting practices of 42 studies up to and including 2021 investigating the biological mechanisms of romantic love (i.e., 31 neuroimaging studies, nine endocrinological studies, one genetics study, and one combined neuroimaging and genetics study). We searched scientific databases using key terms and drew on our and other authors' knowledge to identify studies that investigated the mechanisms associated with romantic love using neuroimaging, endocrinological, and genetic methods. Only studies with a group or entire sample experiencing romantic love were included. The aim was to collate all relevant studies and determine the comparability of studies and ability to assess the generalizability of findings. We summarize how these studies report sex/gender, age, romantic love, relationship duration/time in love, and sample descriptors. We then outline the case for promoting comparability and the ability to determine generalizability in future studies. The findings indicate a limited ability to compare studies' samples or make an assessment of the generalizability of findings. Existing studies are not representative of the general population in a particular country or globally. We conclude by presenting ideas about how best to report sex, age, romantic love characteristics, relationship status, time in love, relationship duration, relationship satisfaction, type of unrequited love, sexual activity, cultural characteristics, socio-economic status, student status, and method-relevant descriptors. If our ideas are adopted, in part or in whole, we expect the comparability of studies to increase. Adopting our ideas will also make it easier to make an assessment of the generalizability of findings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam Bode
- School of Archaeology and Anthropology, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Marta Kowal
- IDN Being Human Lab, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland
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Bode A, Kuula L. Romantic Love and Sleep Variations: Potential Proximate Mechanisms and Evolutionary Functions. BIOLOGY 2021; 10:923. [PMID: 34571801 PMCID: PMC8468029 DOI: 10.3390/biology10090923] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2021] [Revised: 09/07/2021] [Accepted: 09/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
This article provides a narrative review of what is known about romantic love and sleep variations and provides possible explanations for the association. Romantic love and sleep are described using a comprehensive, unifying framework advocated by Tinbergen. We summarise the findings of studies investigating the relationship between romantic love and sleep. Sleep variations are associated with romantic love in adolescents and young adults. We then detail some proximate mechanisms that may contribute to sleep variations in people experiencing romantic love before considering potential evolutionary functions of sleep variations in people experiencing romantic love. The relationship between symptoms of psychopathology and sleep variations in people experiencing romantic love is described. With the current state of knowledge, it is not possible to determine whether sleep variations associated with romantic love are adaptations or by-products of romantic love. We conclude by proposing areas for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam Bode
- School of Archaeology and Anthropology, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia
| | - Liisa Kuula
- SleepWell Research Program, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
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Bode A, Kushnick G. Proximate and Ultimate Perspectives on Romantic Love. Front Psychol 2021; 12:573123. [PMID: 33912094 PMCID: PMC8074860 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.573123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2020] [Accepted: 03/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Romantic love is a phenomenon of immense interest to the general public as well as to scholars in several disciplines. It is known to be present in almost all human societies and has been studied from a number of perspectives. In this integrative review, we bring together what is known about romantic love using Tinbergen’s “four questions” framework originating from evolutionary biology. Under the first question, related to mechanisms, we show that it is caused by social, psychological mate choice, genetic, neural, and endocrine mechanisms. The mechanisms regulating psychopathology, cognitive biases, and animal models provide further insights into the mechanisms that regulate romantic love. Under the second question, related to development, we show that romantic love exists across the human lifespan in both sexes. We summarize what is known about its development and the internal and external factors that influence it. We consider cross-cultural perspectives and raise the issue of evolutionary mismatch. Under the third question, related to function, we discuss the fitness-relevant benefits and costs of romantic love with reference to mate choice, courtship, sex, and pair-bonding. We outline three possible selective pressures and contend that romantic love is a suite of adaptions and by-products. Under the fourth question, related to phylogeny, we summarize theories of romantic love’s evolutionary history and show that romantic love probably evolved in concert with pair-bonds in our recent ancestors. We describe the mammalian antecedents to romantic love and the contribution of genes and culture to the expression of modern romantic love. We advance four potential scenarios for the evolution of romantic love. We conclude by summarizing what Tinbergen’s four questions tell us, highlighting outstanding questions as avenues of potential future research, and suggesting a novel ethologically informed working definition to accommodate the multi-faceted understanding of romantic love advanced in this review.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam Bode
- Human Behavioural Ecology Research Group, School of Archaeology and Anthropology, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Geoff Kushnick
- Human Behavioural Ecology Research Group, School of Archaeology and Anthropology, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
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Marazziti D, Barberi FM, Mucci F, Maglio A, Dell'Oste V, Dell'Osso L. The Emerging Role of Atrial Natriuretic Peptide in Psychiatry. Curr Med Chem 2021; 28:69-79. [PMID: 32072888 DOI: 10.2174/0929867327666200219091102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2019] [Revised: 11/08/2019] [Accepted: 12/16/2019] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), composed by 28 amino-acids, is well known to modulate fluid and electrolyte homeostasis, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity and the immune system. Since ANP is produced in both heart and in the central nervous system (CNS), in the last years, increasing attention has been devoted to its possible role in neuropsychiatric disorders. Indeed, scattered data would indicate its possible role in anxiety, major depression, addictive behaviors, post-traumatic stress disorder and other stress-related disorders. Further, ANP has been hypothesized to represent one of the factors linking depression to cardiovascular health and the immune system. AIMS Given the paucity of available information, the aim of this paper was to review the current literature on the role of ANP in the CNS and in the pathophysiology of different neuropsychiatric and stress-related conditions. DISCUSSION Supporting data on ANP in psychiatric disorders are still limited to animal studies, or to a few "real" findings in patients gathered some decades ago that should be replicated in larger clinical samples. CONCLUSION Further studies are necessary to understand the possible implications of ANP in neuropsychiatry, because potentially it might represent a new way for innovative psychopharmacological treatments in different conditions, all underlaid by hyperactive HPA axis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Donatella Marazziti
- Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Section of Psychiatry, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Filippo Maria Barberi
- Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Section of Psychiatry, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Federico Mucci
- Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Section of Psychiatry, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Alessandra Maglio
- Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Section of Psychiatry, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Valerio Dell'Oste
- Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Section of Psychiatry, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Liliana Dell'Osso
- Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Section of Psychiatry, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
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Burunat E. Love is a physiological motivation (like hunger, thirst, sleep or sex). Med Hypotheses 2019; 129:109225. [PMID: 31371074 DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2019.05.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2018] [Revised: 04/17/2019] [Accepted: 05/12/2019] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
The multitude of terms associated with love has given rise to a false perception of love. In this paper, only maternal and romantic love are considered. Love is usually regarded as a feeling, motivation, addiction, passion, and, above all, an emotion. This confusion has consequences in the lives of human beings, leading not only to divorces, suicides, femicides but possibly also to a number of mental illnesses and suffering. Therefore, it is crucial to first clarify what is meant by emotion, motivation and love. This work aims to finally place love within the category of physiological motivations, such as hunger, thirst, sleep, or sex, on the basis that love is also essential for human survival, especially in childhood. Love is presented from an evolutionary perspective. Some other similarities between love and other physiological motivations are pointed out, such as its importance for appropriate human development, both its ontogeny and its permanence, and the long-lasting consequences of abuse and neglect. There are summarized reasons that account for this, such as the fact that physiological motivations are essential for survival and that love is an essential motivation for the survival of human offspring. Other reasons are that minimum changes in the quantity and quality of love alters development, that there can be a variety of neurophysiological and behavioural states within a motivation, and that motivations (also love) appear and change throughout development. Also, motivations and love sometimes may lead to an addictive behaviour. Finally, it is recognized that once physiological motivations (and love) appear, they become permanent. In a third section, some potential social, cultural, clinical and scientific consequences of the proposed consideration of love as a motivation are discussed. Accordingly, love's recognition as a motivation in the clinical field would imply a better understanding of its disorders and its inclusion in classifications manuals such as The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), or in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Considering love as a motivation rather than an emotion could also impact the results of scientific research (an example is included). A comprehensive understanding of these questions could potentially allow for a new therapeutic approach in the treatment of mental illness, while offering an all-inclusive evolutionary explanation of cultural phenomena such as the origin and diffusion of both language and art. Love should be understood as a physiological motivation, like hunger, sleep or sex, and not as an emotion as it is commonly considered.
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Affiliation(s)
- Enrique Burunat
- School of Health Sciences/School of Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology, Psychobiology and Methodology, University of La Laguna, P.O. Box 456, 38200 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
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Bellucci G, Münte TF, Park SQ. Resting-state dynamics as a neuromarker of dopamine administration in healthy female adults. J Psychopharmacol 2019; 33:955-964. [PMID: 31246145 DOI: 10.1177/0269881119855983] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Different neuromarkers of people's emotions, personality traits and behavioural performance have recently been identified. However, not much attention has been devoted to neuromarkers of neural responsiveness to drug administration. AIMS We investigated the predictive neuromarkers of acute dopamine (DA) administration. METHODS In a double-blind, within-subject study, we administrated a DA agonist (pramipexole) or placebo to 27 healthy female subjects. Using multivariate classification and prediction analyses, we examined whether dopaminergic modulations of task-free resting-state brain dynamics predict individual differences in pramipexole's modulation of facial attractiveness evaluations. RESULTS Our results demonstrate that pramipexole's effects on brain dynamics could be successfully discriminated from resting-state functional connectivity (accuracy: 78.9%; p < 0.0001). On the behavioural level, pramipexole increased facial attractiveness evaluations (t(39) = 4.44; p < 0.0001). In particular, pramipexole administration enhanced connectivity strength of the cinguloopercular network (t(23) = 3.29; p = 0.003) and increased brain signal variability in subcortical and prefrontal brain areas (t(13) = 3.05, p = 0.009). Importantly, multivariate predictive models reveal that pramipexole-dependent modulation of resting-state dynamics predicted the increase of facial attractiveness evaluations after pramipexole (connectivity strength: standardized mean squared error, smse = 0.65; p = 0.0007; brain signal variability: smse = 0.94, p = 0.015). CONCLUSION These results demonstrate that modulations of resting-state brain dynamics induced by a DA agonist predict drug-related effects on evaluation processes, providing a neuromarker of the neural responsiveness of specific brain networks to DA administration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriele Bellucci
- 1 Department of Psychology I, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.,2 Decision Neuroscience and Nutrition, German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE), Nuthetal, Germany
| | - Thomas F Münte
- 3 Department of Neurology, Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein, Lübeck, Germany.,4 Department of Psychology II, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| | - Soyoung Q Park
- 1 Department of Psychology I, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.,2 Decision Neuroscience and Nutrition, German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE), Nuthetal, Germany.,5 Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Neuroscience Research Center, Berlin, Germany
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Quintard V, Jouffre S, Croizet JC, Bouquet CA. The influence of passionate love on self-other discrimination during joint action. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2018; 84:51-61. [PMID: 29340772 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-018-0981-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2017] [Accepted: 01/11/2018] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Prior research on romantic relationships suggests that being in love involves a blurring of self-other cognitive boundaries. However, this research has focused so far on conceptual self-representation, related to the individual's traits or interests. The present study tested the hypothesis that passionate love involves a reduced discrimination between the self and the romantic partner at a bodily level, as indexed by an increased Joint Simon effect (JSE), and we further examined whether this self-other discrimination correlated with the passion felt for the partner. As predicted, we found an increased JSE when participants performed the Joint Simon Task with their romantic partner compared with a friend of the opposite sex. Providing support for the self-expansion model of love (Aron and Aron in Pers Relatsh 3(1):45-58, 1996), this result indicates that romantic relationships blur the boundaries between the self and the romantic partner at a bodily level. Furthermore, the strength of romantic feelings was positively correlated with the magnitude of the JSE when sharing the task with the romantic partner.
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Affiliation(s)
- Virginie Quintard
- University of Poitiers, CNRS, Poitiers, France. .,Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l'Apprentissage (CeRCA)-UMR CNRS 7295, MSHS, 5 Rue Théodore Lefebvre, TSA 21103, 86073, Poitiers Cedex 9, France.
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