Different Feelings of Love in Different Parts of the Brain

The Signature Courses at the University of Texas at Austin are a form of required course for all undergraduate students on a variety of topics, giving first-year students an opportunity to closely interact with professors on a topic of expertise or interest to that faculty. My Signature Course, which I have been teaching for many years now, is titled "Love, Mating, and the Brain." The course provides students with an overview of the science of how the brain regulates emotions of love. As you might imagine, this is a popular course with students.

In as many years as I’ve been teaching the course, it was not until this last fall semester that I had a student ask me a question that is central to understanding how the brain regulates love. As the semester was coming to an end, a student who was finishing her class paper came to me and asked: "If there are different forms of love, why would just one brain system or area be responsible for different forms of love?"

In my many interactions with this student, I clearly failed to articulate a central tenet of love and the brain: Different brain regions are involved in different aspects of love and in the regulation of different forms of love. I owed it to this student to provide her with greater guidance as she navigated her class’s final paper. In doing so, we came across a recently published study: "Six types of loves differentially recruit reward and social cognition brain areas." [1]

In their research [1], Rinne and colleagues set out to understand how different types of love might activate the brain. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), they observed the brain activity of 55 participants as these participants listened to short narratives that evoked feelings of love. Each story described experiences tied to one of six forms of love: of romantic partners, of one's children, of friends, of strangers, of pets, and of nature. Participants were encouraged to imagine themselves in the described scenarios, immersing themselves in the feelings associated with each type of love.

The study found that while all forms of love activated brain regions associated with emotions and reward, different types of love engaged distinct neural networks. For example, romantic and parental love showed the most widespread activation, particularly in regions associated with reward, motivation, and social bonding. These included the striatum, amygdala, and thalamus, as well as areas involved in social cognition, such as the medial prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction. Parts of the brainstem were also strongly engaged, perhaps underscoring the evolutionary roots of pair bonding and caregiving.

Love for friends activated similar areas but with less intensity, highlighting the emotional support and empathy associated with these relationships. Compassionate love for strangers, on the other hand, was marked by activity in regions associated with altruism, such as the orbitofrontal cortex and anterior insula. This form of love was less tied to reward pathways, perhaps suggesting a more socially motivated and less emotionally intense connection.

When participants imagined love for their pets, brain activity mirrored patterns observed in interpersonal love. This was most robust among pet owners. Regions like the precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex were more active, suggesting that personal experiences with pets impact how the brain processes interspecies connections.

Love for nature stood apart, when compared to other forms of love, by primarily activating visual and spatial processing areas, such as the parahippocampal gyrus and precuneus region of the parietal lobe. Unlike social forms of love, love for nature only weakly engaged areas associated with empathy or social bonding, suggesting a different kind of emotional connection, one based in awe and appreciation rather than some form of attachment.

Together Rinne and colleagues showed what my student already suspected, and other studies have suggested, that love is not a single, unified emotion regulated by one brain system. Instead, it is a multifaceted experience influenced by the type of bond and the context of that bond. Romantic and parental love may be evolutionarily hardwired to support bonding and caregiving, while friendships rely on empathy and social connections (literal connections when it comes to the brain). Compassion for strangers underscores our capacity for altruism, and affection for pets mirrors interpersonal attachment, particularly in those who own pets. Meanwhile, love for nature taps into aesthetic appreciation and awe, showcasing a different kind of emotional engagement.

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These results help explain why different types of love feel different, and yet share common elements of warmth, connection, and care. They also offer insights into how our brains have evolved to support the variety of relationships that enrich us and those around us.

So, as I said to my student, who incidentally wrote a stellar paper and earned an A, the next time you feel a surge of emotions of love, whether for a partner, a friend, or even the Texas sunset, remember that your brain is lighting up in ways that science is only beginning to understand.