Body In matters of love, the heart has always been considered to be a willing participant but nothing can be further from the truth.

According to a new meta-analysis study known as the “The Neuroimaging of Love” conducted by a Syracruse University Neurology Professor, Stephanie Ortigue, not only does it take one-fifths of a second to fall in love but the feelings of euphoria is similar to when one uses cocaine with its effects reaching intellectual areas of the brain.

While the age-old question has been whether the brain or the heart falls in love, Ortigue admits that it is a tricky question but also reveals that, according to her research, the brain is the “guilty party”. In addition, she has found that the bottom-up and top-down processes between the heart and the brain and vice-versa are a large part of how the complex emotion of love is formed, and thus concludes that both the heart and the brain are a part of this ‘complex process’ of falling in love.

The results of this love study (that has been published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine) also reveal that 12 areas of the brain work together to produce euphoria- inducing chemicals such as vasopression, adrenaline, oxytocin and dopamine while also effecting complex cognitive functions such as metaphors, body image, mental representation as well as the increase of blood levels of the nerve growth factor (NGF) that plays an important role in the social chemistry of humans.

And the reason why this study is getting so much attention from around the world is because these findings can play a major role in curing people who are suffering from depression and emotional stress especially in the situation when love doesn’t work out. And while most people (as a part of conventional thinking) do not necessarily link science with love, this study has verified the fact that love definitely has a scientific basis.