Falling in Love: Chemically Explained
Falling in love is one of the greatest gifts to humankind and also it is one of the strongest feeling that human can have. This feeling also quite interesting because every person would have different answer why they are attracted to somebody else. However, science can explain the key features when somebody is falling in love and surprisingly it is not related to heart, as many people thought, but it is related to brain activity.
When somebody meet "the special one" for the first time, occasionally they will act awkwardly. So, the big question is why this is happened?
There are 3 main molecules that responsible for this activity, they are: adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin.
When we bump to someone else we love, our heartbeat increases and also we start to sweat. This is due to the release of adrenaline by the brain as a stress response. This is the way of the body to prepare a fight-or-flight situation or scary situation. This properties of adrenaline are also used for severe allergic treatment, asthma and restoring the heartbeat from cardiac arrest.
Then, a euphoric feeling comes when we meet "the special one" and this time serotonin is released. The release of serotonin is also accompanied by the release of dopamine which is a natural feel-good substance. Dopamine is part of the reward molecule and it makes us to repeat something that makes us happy. However, high concentration of dopamine in the body can cause loss of appetite, difficulty to concentrate and sleeping difficulty. Remember these things when you fall in love? Understanding the biochemistry of dopamine and serotonin can also be used to treat Parkinson's disease and also to treat depression.
These three molecules are called neurotransmitter which is the molecules that carry out a signal from one neuron to another neuron. During this transmission, the molecules have to pass a small gap between neurons which is called synaptic cleft. These molecules act like a lock-and-key as only the correct molecule can pass the signals from neuron to neuron. The discovery of the role of dopamine in the cell transmissions by Arvid Carlsson from Sweden was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 2000.
If we examine closely, the structure of adrenaline and dopamine is quite similar and in fact adrenaline and dopamine are biosynthesised from the same molecule which is amino acid L-tyrosine.
Meanwhile, serotonin is biosynthesised from amino acid L-tryptophan and it has shorter metabolic pathway than dopamine and adrenaline. This pathway only consists of 2 enzymes which are TPH and DDC.
From all those things above, we learn that love is much more related to the reaction of the body from receiving the signals that transmitted by three neurotransmitter molecules. So, falling in love is much more related to the brain activity rather than heart and it seems chemistry involves a lot in the feeling of fallen in love. However, it still cannot explain the biggest mystery why somebody can be attracted to another person.
When somebody meet "the special one" for the first time, occasionally they will act awkwardly. So, the big question is why this is happened?
There are 3 main molecules that responsible for this activity, they are: adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin.
These three molecules are called neurotransmitter which is the molecules that carry out a signal from one neuron to another neuron. During this transmission, the molecules have to pass a small gap between neurons which is called synaptic cleft. These molecules act like a lock-and-key as only the correct molecule can pass the signals from neuron to neuron. The discovery of the role of dopamine in the cell transmissions by Arvid Carlsson from Sweden was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 2000.
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| Arvid Carlsson |
If we examine closely, the structure of adrenaline and dopamine is quite similar and in fact adrenaline and dopamine are biosynthesised from the same molecule which is amino acid L-tyrosine.
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| Metabolic pathway of adrenaline and dopamine |
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| Metabolic pathway of serotonin |
From all those things above, we learn that love is much more related to the reaction of the body from receiving the signals that transmitted by three neurotransmitter molecules. So, falling in love is much more related to the brain activity rather than heart and it seems chemistry involves a lot in the feeling of fallen in love. However, it still cannot explain the biggest mystery why somebody can be attracted to another person.
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