AN EARLY VALENTINE.

AN EARLY VALENTINE. This is a report on a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. The study used MRI’s to measure brain activity of 17 couples who had been married over 20 years and who had said that they were still in love. Their brain activity when shown pictures of their beloved was the same as the activity of 17 people who had just fallen in love. (The activity was in the regions of the brain activated by the use of cocaine and not the areas associated with sexual arousal). The results may not seem remarkable to you. They don’t seem remarkable to me. But one of the scientists says that “It’s always been assumed that passionate love inevitably declines over time.” This assumption has apparently continued despite the fact that, as the article reports, studies and surveys have shown the contrary. And despite the fact that the assumption is contrary to common experience.