# @science on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DNEriCHTPhi
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/33641045-science-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/5eef419170.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-08-08T00:00:22.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Science 🧬 (@science) — https://gondola.cc/science

## Caption

💓 When we are falling in love, chemicals associated with the reward circuit flood our brain, producing a variety of physical and emotional responses—racing hearts, sweaty palms, flushed cheeks, feelings of passion and anxiety. Levels of the stress hormone cortisol increase during the initial phase of romantic love, marshaling our bodies to cope with the “crisis” at hand. As cortisol levels rise, levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin become depleted. Low levels of serotonin precipitate what Richard ⁠
Schwartz, a Harvard Medical School (HMS) professor, described the “intrusive, maddeningly preoccupying thoughts, hopes, terrors of early love”—the obsessive-compulsive behaviors associated with infatuation.⁠
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Being love-struck also releases high levels of dopamine, a chemical that “gets the reward system going,” said Jacqueline⁠
Olds, also a Harvard Medical School (HMS) professor. Dopamine activates the reward circuit, helping to make love a pleasurable experience similar to the euphoria associated with the use of cocaine or alcohol. Scientific evidence for this similarity can be found in many studies, including one conducted at the University of California, San Francisco, and published in 2012 in Science. That study reported that male fruit flies that were sexually rejected drank four times as much alcohol as fruit flies that mated with female fruit flies. “Same reward center,” said Schwartz, “different way to get there.”⁠
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🔗 Source: Harvard Medical School.⁠
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#fallinginlove #inlove #love #science #biology #chemistry⁠

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## Tags

fallinginlove, science, love, inlove, chemistry, biology

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