What does love actually have to do with the human heart, what is the hearts role. In fact it doesn't really have a role, perhaps at times our heart beats faster due to emotional arousal that is caused by love but fear and pain can do this too. The heart also pumps blood to the brain where we think about love, but the heart also pumps blood everywhere else in the body and this generally has nothing to do with love. So where is love and had our ancestors known where to look what shape would the love heart have actually taken.
Research has shown that emotions are embedded in the brain, we all know that. Fear is housed in a region of the brain known as the amygdala, dopamine is produced in the brain to produce feels of euphoria and joy, and chemical imbalances in the brain can lead to depression. So what about romantic love? Research has shown that there indeed are areas of the brain involved with romantic love process, for example the ventral tegmental area of the brain, located in the midbrain. Interestingly, this area of the brain is associated with motivation and reward circuitry both naturally induced reward and drug induced reward. Plato referred to love as a need and it is little wonder that love neural mechanisms have been located in areas of the brain associated with needs and wants. This overall area of the brain is actually known as the reptilian brain or core, it is one of the oldest areas of the brain and has been passed down through evolution since the time of the dinosaurs lived. This is not to say that dinosaurs experienced romantic love. Our complex volt which contains different flavours of love is molded by our higher cognitive functions.
However, that is enough neuroanatomy and neuropsychology, let's now return to the idea of a symbol. Now let us go back in time maybe two to three-hundred years ago. In the morgue a budding physiologist is working on a cadaver. The cadaver in question was a man who could not love, trying to deduce if there was any observable cause for this in the man's heart the physiologist dissected the mans heart. It was normal a perfect specimen. He then put the heart to one side and began to dissect the rest of his body, as he examined the man's brain he noticed many strange abnormalities, could these abberations have had something to do with this man's incapacity to have the capacity for love. This pioneering physiologist changed the shape of medicine, biology and psychology forever. Furthermore Valentine's day was changed before the love heart began to beat for this first time.
Happy Valentine's day, I had an MRI scan of my brain done for you I hope you like it!!
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