Details

<p>Acknowledgments xi</p> <p>Preface: Who Do You Love? xiii</p> <p><b>Introduction: </b><b>What Is This Thing Called Love? 1</b></p> <p>So What Is Love? 2</p> <p>Love Is a Many Splendored Thing—and the Greeks Had a Word for All of the Types 4</p> <p>The Basics of Your Brain in Love and Sex 6</p> <p>I’ve Got You Under My Skull: Love in Your Brain 7</p> <p>You Make Me Feel So Good: The Pleasure Center 8</p> <p>The Very Thought of You 9</p> <p>How Scientists Research Love and Sex in Your Brain 10</p> <p><b>1 Born to Love: </b><b>Why People Need People 15</b></p> <p>Do You See What I See? How Mirror Neurons Connect Us 17</p> <p>The Dangers of Involuntary Mind Merging 22</p> <p>The Chemistry of Love 23</p> <p>Love Is Everywhere: Where Love Grows in the Brain 26</p> <p>A Brain Unable to Love: Inside the Brain of a Psychopath 27</p> <p>Baby Face, You’ve Got the Cutest Little Baby Face 33</p> <p><b>2 Learning to Love 35</b></p> <p>How Your Parents Affect Your Love Life 36</p> <p>Love at First Sight: The Earliest Lessons in Love 39</p> <p>If You Could Read My Mind: Moms Do 42</p> <p>A Mother’s Everlasting Love 43</p> <p>How Parenting Primes Your Brain for Love 45</p> <p>Parenting Rewires the Daddy Brain as Well 46</p> <p>How Father Love Feeds Both Brains 47</p> <p>Postpartum Depression: Misery for Mom and Baby 50</p> <p>Loving the One Who Hurts You: Why Children Cling to Abusers 51</p> <p>What If Things Went Wrong with That First Love? 52</p> <p>In the End: Do Parents Matter? 54</p> <p><b>3 His Brain, Her Brain, Gay Brain, and Other Brains 57</b></p> <p>How Real Are the Differences? 58</p> <p>The Five Genders of the Brain 60</p> <p>His Brain, Her Brain: The Geography 61</p> <p>So What Does This Have to Do with Love? 63</p> <p>Our Changeable Brains 66</p> <p>Some Myths About Male and Female Brains: True or False? 68</p> <p>Toujours Gay: The Gay Brain Is Born That Way 72</p> <p>Can Animals Be Gay? Better to Call It Bisexual 74</p> <p>I Am What I Am 76</p> <p>The Third Gender: When Gender and Sex Do Not Align 79</p> <p>Are There Asexuals Among Us? On the Possibility of a Fourth Sexual Orientation 81</p> <p><b>4 That Old Black Magic: </b><b>Your Brain in Love 85</b></p> <p>How Love and Sex Are Good for Your Brain 88</p> <p>When Love Occupies Your Brain 90</p> <p>Who Do You Love? And Who Loves Ya, Baby? 91</p> <p>You’ve Got That Lovin’ Feelin’, But What Turns You On? 96</p> <p>You Go to My Nose: The Power of Smell over Sex 96</p> <p>A Kiss Is (More Than) Just a Kiss 102</p> <p>You Light Up My Brain 104</p> <p>What’s Love Got to Do with It? Plenty It Turns Out—for Women 108</p> <p>Need Some Love Potion? Try a Bit of Oxytocin Spray 109</p> <p>I’ll Have What She’s Having: What Makes a Better Female Orgasm? 110</p> <p>Does the Penis Have a Brain of Its Own? 112</p> <p>When Things Go Wrong: A Fine Romance 115</p> <p><b>5 Friendship, Such a Perfect Blendship: </b><b>Or, with a Little Help from My Friends 121</b></p> <p>Is Friendship Declining? 123</p> <p>Are You Lonesome Tonight? 60 Million Other Americans Are 125</p> <p>You’ve Got a Friend—or You Should! 126</p> <p>Widening the Social Circle 129</p> <p>Imaginary Friends: TV Characters Can Ease Your Pain 130</p> <p>Until the Real Thing Comes Along: Your Brain on Facebook 133</p> <p>Work, the “Other Love” in Your Life 135</p> <p>Can Animals Love? Yes, and More 136</p> <p>How to Make Friends 139</p> <p><b>6 Only You Can Make My Dreams Come True: </b><b>Let’s Get Married 143</b></p> <p>Grow Old Along with Me: The Marriage Benefits 144</p> <p>You Make Me Feel So Good: Romance Lowers Stress 145</p> <p>Finding That Special Someone: Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places? 146</p> <p>Falling and Staying in Love 148</p> <p>I’ve Grown Accustomed to Your Face 150</p> <p>My One and Only Love: Are We Monogamous? 151</p> <p>Granny’s Got to Have It 153</p> <p>Your Hormones May Drive You Apart: A Tough Pill to Swallow 155</p> <p>Making Love Last: I Get a Kick out of You 156</p> <p>Can Pornography Help Your Love Life? 158</p> <p>Love Will Keep Us Together: Lasting Romance Is Embossed in the Brain 159</p> <p>Will You Still Need Me When I’m 64? 161</p> <p><b>7 You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’: </b><b>When Love Dies 165</b></p> <p>Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: How Rejection Affects Your Brain 166</p> <p>The Jilted Brain 167</p> <p>After the Love Is Gone—You Ache and Ache 169</p> <p>Can’t Live If Living Is Without You: The Widowhood Effect 171</p> <p>Achy Breaky Heart: Can You Die of a Broken Heart? 172</p> <p>Ain’t No Cure for Love—But Acetaminophen Could Help 172</p> <p>Every Time You Say Good-Bye, I Die a Little: Why It Hurts to Leave Your Lover 174</p> <p>Broken Promises: Can the Brain Predict Betrayal? 176</p> <p>Coping with a Breaking Heart 178</p> <p><b>8 For the Love of God 181</b></p> <p>Searching for God in Your Brain 182</p> <p>Epilepsy, the Temporal Lobe, and God 182</p> <p>Strokes of Insight: Brain Changes and Spiritual Awakening 184</p> <p>Religious Ecstasy Is Like Romantic Love—in the Brain at Least 186</p> <p>God on the Brain: What Brain Scans Show 188</p> <p>Could Religion Shrink Your Brain? 190</p> <p>The Evolutionary Roots of God Thought 191</p> <p>God Neurons May Be Everywhere 192</p> <p><b>9 Technology, Science, and the Future of Sex 195</b></p> <p>The Wonderful World of Cybersex 196</p> <p>Sex in Bits and Bytes: The Future of Virtual Sex Is Here 199</p> <p><b>10 How Can Love Survive? 201</b></p> <p>But What of Love? 204</p> <p>Glossary 207</p> <p>Sources 215</p> <p>Illustration Credits 229</p> <p>About the Author 231</p> <p>Index 233</p>

"This basic introduction to the neuroscience of love and sex is a good starting place for readers new to the subject...one hopes it will whet readers' appetites for more nuanced explorations of this area of research." (<i>Library Journal</i>, April 2012)

<p><b>Judith Horstman</b> is the author of <i>The</i> Scientific American <i>Day in the Life of Your Brain</i> and <i>The</i> Scientific American <i>Brave New Brain</i>, copublished with <i>Scientific American</i>. She's an award-winning science journalist whose work has been widely published and is the author of four other books.

<p><b>The Scientific American</b></br> <b>BOOK <small>OF</small> LOVE, SEX, <small>AND THE </small>BRAIN</b> <p><b>Who do we love? Who loves us? And why? Is love really a mystery, or can neuroscience offer some answers to these age-old questions?</b> <p>In her third enthralling book about the brain, Judith Horstman takes us on a lively tour of our most important sex and love organ and the whole smorgasbord of our many kinds of love—from the bonding of parent and child to the passion of erotic love, the affectionate love of companionship, the role of animals in our lives, and the love of God. <p>Drawing on the latest neuroscience, she explores why and how we are born to love—how we're hardwired to crave the companionship of others and how very badly things can go without love. Among the findings: parental love makes our brain bigger, sex and orgasm make it healthier, social isolation makes it miserable—and although the craving for romantic love can be described as an addiction, friendship may actually be the most important loving relationship of your life. <p>Based on recent studies and articles culled from the prestigious <i>Scientific American and Scientific American Mind</i> magazines, The Scientific American <i>Book of Love, Sex, and the Brain</i> offers a fascinating look at how the brain controls our loving relationships, most intimate moments, and our deep and basic need for connection.

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