2012.07.09
While conventional wisdom tells us that "good girls" never do sex on the first date (no matter how much they want to) because that would make them look slutty, turns out that this practice to determine if it's lust or real love might be for naught.
According to the findings of a new study, there's not much difference when to how the brain tackles love and lust. Using brain mapping, researchers were able to scan areas of the brain stimulated by feelings of love and by feelings of sexual arousal. They found that both feelings tended to light up the same areas of the brain (via Body Odd):
But if you're really hell bent on achieving the purest and best love, try making him wait 80 years and then finally have sex on your deathbed just before you slip away into nothingness. Because if he's really worth it, he'll wait.
According to the findings of a new study, there's not much difference when to how the brain tackles love and lust. Using brain mapping, researchers were able to scan areas of the brain stimulated by feelings of love and by feelings of sexual arousal. They found that both feelings tended to light up the same areas of the brain (via Body Odd):
What they discovered was a bit surprising — love and sexual desire both activate the striatum, showing a continuum from sexual desire to love. Each feeling impacts a different area of the striatum.
Sexual desire activates the ventral striatum, the brain's reward system. When someone enjoys a great dessert or an orgasm, it's the ventral striatum that flickers with life. Love sparks activity in the dorsal striatum, which is associated with drug addiction.
...The areas of overlap indicate that sexual desire transitions into love in many cases, and the feelings aren't separate.
"Even love at first sight, can it happen? Of course it can happen," says Pfaus. "And when it does happen, do you want to play Scrabble with each other? When it happens, you normally want to consummate it."
If there's anything to learn from all this is that waiting it out is not
a guarantee that you're going to find true love, because your brain
knows better. So if both consensual adults are willing to deal with the consequences of bumping their private parts together, then we say go for it!Sexual desire activates the ventral striatum, the brain's reward system. When someone enjoys a great dessert or an orgasm, it's the ventral striatum that flickers with life. Love sparks activity in the dorsal striatum, which is associated with drug addiction.
...The areas of overlap indicate that sexual desire transitions into love in many cases, and the feelings aren't separate.
"Even love at first sight, can it happen? Of course it can happen," says Pfaus. "And when it does happen, do you want to play Scrabble with each other? When it happens, you normally want to consummate it."
But if you're really hell bent on achieving the purest and best love, try making him wait 80 years and then finally have sex on your deathbed just before you slip away into nothingness. Because if he's really worth it, he'll wait.
