• Fisher Et al conducted a study that investigated the impact of DOPAMINE on Romantic Love
• Dopamine is an EXCITATORY neurotransmitter, which means that it activates a neuron to it’s action potential, and motivates us to get things done
• Ten men and seven women (Total of 17 participants) noted being “intensely in love” although not with eachother lol
• They were recruited through the study through both WORD OF MOUTH AND FLYERS (Convenience and Self Selected Sampling)
• They were all around 21, and the average duration of them “being in love” was 7 months
• A Standardised procedure that utilised an fMRI scanner was used

1. For 30 seconds, each participant looked at a picture of the person they loved while in the scanner
2. Participants were then given a 40 second filler activity, which was to count back from a given number
3. They were then shown a picture of a neutral acquaintance, who they noted they didn’t feel much for
4. They then were asked to perform the same filler task with a different given number

• The fMRI results showed a specific pattern of activation in the brains of participants in response to their loved ones - DOPAMINE rich neural systems that form the dopaminergenic pathway observed EXTREMELY HIGH levels of activation - Dopaminergenic activity is associated with dopamine levels, and feelings of motivation and pleasure