Final Project

Chemicals Are In the Air

            As the tall, slender woman with engaging brown eyes walks into the coffee shop, she takes her place in line and resumes her afternoon just like any other day.  She glances over her shoulder and cannot resist meeting eyes with the attractive man sitting just a few tables away.  At first this is just a coincidental glance.  It’s innocent.  It’s naïve.  But with the second look, added to her irresistible smile, there seems to be something more.  Paying for her drink and walking to take a seat, his deep blue eyes maintain their keen leer and ask her for the pleasure of her company.  Her heart beat quickens.  Her stomach gets butterflies.  She’s certain that she’s felt this before, but for some reason the sensation feels new.  Despite its repetition, it feels novel. Weeks pass, and then months.  The brief periods they spend apart cease to mean anything as their time together seems to have spanned lifetimes.  Was it love at first sight?  Could it be real? Could it be that the sudden moment

that their eyes first met led to a union that could simultaneously lead to a beneficial change in both their lives? Scientists are beginning to conclude that this magical spark is nothing to goggle over. Humans are predisposed to this feeling of attachment and these intense thoughts of love and lust are all within the chemical makeup, brain activity and biology of the individual.

            "Even complex emotions like love are really just the result of a complex series of biochemical events in the brain, neurons communicating in some way," said Larry J. Young, a professor of psychiatry at Emory University's School of Medicine and a researcher at Yerkes National Primate Center.  Throughout Larry Young’s research he has found that the strong connection between each couple depends greatly on the levels of oxytocin and vasopressin that flow through the body at any given time.  Oxytocin is more commonly associated with new mothers and the connection to their young.  When found in high levels in mothers, oxytocin is strong enough to lower blood pressure, increase pain thresholds, decrease stress and bind a mother to her new born child (Brownlee). This knowledge led to the idea that maybe oxytocin could be an important factor on the topic of love and relationship outside of the mother child bonding. In studies done by Dr. Young, prairie vole’s oxytocin levels were compared to those of the meadow voles and remarkable results were discovered. 

Prairie Voles

Meadow Vole

The prairie voles are known for their companionship while the meadow vole have been found to be quite asocial. Within the two creatures, the levels of oxytocin were found to be on opposite ends of the spectrum, but vasopressin, too, was found to affect a great deal in the psychological manifestations of the creatures’ physiological makeup (Corwin). "I think that these molecules are really helping us tune into other people, into the people around us, and take in the social information, and if you have a certain variant, you process that social information differently," Dr. Young said. "I think it contributes to the natural variation that we see among people that we meet every day and how social they are, how socially attuned they are. Some people just don't get it; they're just socially inept. I think that this may contribute to that." From meeting a new friend to falling in love the chemical levels inside ones head makes a huge difference on our experiences with one another. Although research is nearing a conclusion regarding the chemical background and reasons for love, the biological and natural actions between two people are a large part of relationships that could be relayed as an uncontrollable variable in the equation of love.

Still abiding by the notion that love and lust could possibly only be a magical part of human imagination, it’s possible to conclude that the body is simply follow its instinctual actions. “Essentially what happens is that someone walks along who fits that notion we have of attractiveness, and, well, ka-pow,” stated Dr. Liebowitz, a psychiatric researcher, within his article entitled Chemical Connections: Pathways of Love.  Both men and women have tendencies that lead to a flirtation and attraction that some may mistake as love or intimacy. Scientists have pondered whether the usual flirtation tactics are innate and have evolved eons ago, making them what they are today and successfully signaling sexual interest (Brownlee).  Men also have these tendencies to display power and woo the opposite sex, some more victorious than others, but this is not a learned skill or talent- humans have these traits imbedded form decades of evolutionary advancements.

As these tactics of seduction seem to be intentional and well thought-out, they are all a part of human natural impulse and chemical makeup that determines who each individual is and what their prearranged relationship status will be.  “The more receptors you have in your brain the more pleasure you receive from monogamous activity.  The fewer vasopressin receptors you have the more your tendencies sway towards promiscuity” (Toxin). The full circle of hormonal channeling through the body and natural instinct will continue to inspire scientists to keep pursuing the topic of chemical love, but in the end, the hopeful romantics will always go with their fluttering butterfly-filled stomach and say that they have found the one.

Works Cited

Brownlee, Shannon. Can’t Do Without Love. US News and World Report. 17 Feb. 1997.

CBSNEWS Tech. Web. 28 Nov. 2010. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/11/tech/main4793772.shtml

Collins, Glen. “Chemical Connections: Pathways of Love.” New York Times. 14 Feb 1983. Web. 28 Nov. 2010. http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/pqdweb?index=0&did=112316482&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1290991963&clientId=5557

Corwin, Tom. “Scientist Pinpoint- Chemicals of Love.” Augusta Chronicle. 14 Feb. 2009. Web. 28 Nov. 2010. http://infoweb.newsbank.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_product=AWNB&p_theme=aggregated5&p_action=doc&p_docid=12673E0CB922A1F8&d_place=AGCB&f_issue=2009-02-14&f_publisher=

Flirtation (Victoria’s Secret, Secret 55 type) Web. 28 Nov. 2010. http://www.foryournose.com/shopping/fragrance_descriptions/flirtation.htm

Nicholson, Marjorie and Wood, Kelsey. Mechanism. High Fidelity. Web. 28 Nov 2010. http://academic.reed.edu/biology/professors/srenn/pages/teaching/web_2007/kwmn_site/mechanism.html

Toxin. The Genetics of Monogomy! Guys? Girls? You better read this. Web. 28 Nov. 2010. http://natchem.wordpress.com/