Explain the relationship between romantic love and the functional architecture of the brain.

One recent study examined the relationship between romantic love and the functional architecture of the brain. Individuals who were in love, who had recently ended a love relationship, or who had never been in love were compared as they rested in the fMRI machine while awake, instructed to think about nothing. The adults who were in love showed increased functional connectivity in several areas of the brain thought to be important in processing sensory and emotional information, reward, and motivational processes: the caudate nucleus, nucleus accumbens (NAC), and part of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The caudate nucleus is associated with reward detection, expectation, and representation of goals, and the NAC is rich in receptors for dopamine and oxytocin, neurotransmitters that are associated with rewards, suggesting that the participants who were in love experienced greater neurological rewards even while resting, thinking about nothing. In addition, the increased connectivity in the ACC, associated with cognitive control and the sense of self and other, suggests greater ability to monitor conflict and attend to one's own and other's emotions, activities central to successful social interactions. Finally, being in love was associated with greater connectivity among these regions and the amygdala, a part of the brain involved in emotion, suggesting an enhanced ability to understand and control emotion.