Meditation helps pinpoint neurological differences between two types of love

These findings won't appear on any Hallmark card, but romantic love tends to activate the same reward areas of the brain as cocaine, research has shown.

ow Yale School of Medicine researchers studying meditators have found that a more selfless variety of love—a deep and genuine wish for the happiness of others without expectation of reward—actually turns off the same reward areas that light up when lovers see each other.

"When we truly, selflessly wish for the well-being of others, we're not getting that same rush of excitement that comes with, say, a tweet from our romantic love interest, because it's not about us at all," said Judson Brewer, adjunct professor of psychiatry at Yale now at the University of Massachusetts.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-02-meditation-neurological-differences.html

Full article in Brain and Behavior: BOLD signal and functional connectivity associated with loving kindness meditation