When you fall in loveyou think With heart or head? We’ve all asked ourselves this question at some point. We also often talk about thinking with another part of the body much lower down, but usually the heart and brain are the two organs most associated with processing love feelings. Now the same thing is happening to everyone types of love? Do we treat them all the same?
These questions are being asked by members of a research team from Aalto University, In Finland. In a study they just published, they wanted to measure love from psychological and philosophical point of viewto see how and where people feel it. For this reason, they recruited more than 800 volunteers who had to answer three surveys about love. Although only a little over 550 people responded to everything.
They included 27 different types of love, which ranged from passionate love to love for strangers. With a wide range in between, which includes, for example, love for children, siblings or animals. These surveys asked participants to quantify each type of love in three different ways and, in addition, to identify where on the body they felt it. Thus, it was possible to develop map It’s very interesting that for the first time he locates butterflies when we love in every way.
Three surveys that will help you find love in your body
In the first online survey, participants had to human body outline coloring book in those parts in which they felt each of the types of love offered to them. In addition, the number of clicks for each area was taken into account.
On the other hand, they were asked so beautiful and strong These were the feelings for every type of love. And finally they were asked compare some types with others.
In total they had to do more than 500 tests with which they answered these questions. This allowed us to test something interesting. And let’s start with the fact that love is always in the brain. The type and intensity don’t matter. At least, the participants always insisted on perceiving it in their heads. No one is guided solely by the heart, as romantic films sometimes insist.
What is love?
Describing love is not easy. If we stick definition of RAEcan be thought of as a feeling of “a keen attachment and inclination towards a person or thing to whom one wishes well” or “a strong emotional and sexual attraction to a person with whom one wishes to share a life together.”
Chemists will define it as cocktail of substances which are secreted by the body, causing temporary sensations that change over time. Biologists can refer to Nerve impulses and brain reward systems. To mathematicians, it would be more like an event that occurs when two people meet with mutual attraction and whose the likelihood that everything will be fine increases as common interests increase. Psychologists view this as complex emotion it includes all kinds of sensations.
Philosophers also talked a lot about love. Its perception varies greatly depending on each person’s train of thought. But, generally speaking, philosophically this can be perceived as significant boost associated with the desire to seek the knowledge and happiness of another person. Finally, for the rest of us mortals, love can vary depending on our experiences. There will be those who believe it is the most wonderful feeling, and those who believe it is the most destructive, destabilizing and at the same time addictive feeling one can experience.
In short, what no one can disagree with is that to love is to be alive. Sometimes we love it and sometimes it scares us, but we can’t get away from it because it’s part of life.
This is not a universal card
Love is not just an emotion experienced by two people with sexual attraction and a desire to spend their lives together. Love can be of different types: love for knowledge, for God, for neighbor…
This is exactly what the participants in this study had to evaluate, the results of which can be seen in the graph below. It is important to remember that most of the volunteers were Finnish and had a very similar culture. The authors of the study themselves admit that if surveys were conducted, for example, among a larger number of religious groups, love of God It would be much more. It all depends on the prism from which you look; because, as we have already seen, there is a way to understand love for each of the human beings that exist in the world.
Where are the butterflies?
For the Finnish participants, love was more or less perceived by the brain. Some types were more visceral and also crossed the stomach. And yes, the most passionate ones also go down to the genitals.
What does this have to do with famous people? butterflies in the stomach with all this? It’s important to note that when we talk about butterflies in the stomach, we should stick to a more biological definition of love.
This concept refers to the palpable tingling sensation we feel when we are in love, as well as when we are nervous or anxious for other reasons. After all, love usually gives birth to us nervousnessbut in the early stages it is almost always good nervousness.
This tingling sensation is primarily due to the fact that in our gut we have what some call a second brain. ABOUT 100 million neurons They are also responsible for sending signals and facilitating the release of substances associated with our emotions.
A little myth about love
It is not true that the gut is a second brain. The real brain has many more neurons, about 85 billion, and they are organized very differently. But leaving that aside, it is true that they interfere with how we process our emotions. Additionally, when we are nervous for any reason, there is an increase in blood flow to parts of the body that may need it more, such as the limbs, to escape if necessary. Or genitals, for obvious reasons, when we are talking about passionate love.
All this reduces blood flow the stomach, whose neurons send a signal to the brain that is transmitted by a kind of tingling sensation. It was as if there really were millions of butterflies fluttering inside.
In this study of the location of love in the body, only the abdominal area was colored by love for other people with whom we unite. emotional connections. Especially if it was romantic love. And no matter how much we love knowledge, it shouldn’t give us butterflies in our stomachs. We may feel them before an exam, but not out of love for the knowledge gained. Out of fear of those we may not have been able to correct. That’s how multifaceted love is. It can’t be summed up in one universal card, but perhaps that’s what makes it so great.
Source: Hiper Textual
