A molecule of passionate love?

<body leftmargin="0" bgcolor="#000060" text="#FFFFFF" link="#FFFF00" vlink="#FF9900"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%" height="1"> <tr> <center> <td valign="top" width="33%" height="33"> <b> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="5">A molecule of passionate love?</font></p> </b> <p class="MsoNormal"><font size="1" face="Arial">Nov. 18</font><font face="Arial"><font size="1">, 2005<br> Special to World Science <b> <br> </b> </font> <b> <br> </b> </font><b><font face="Arial" size="2">Scientists say they have identified a molecule linked to the first flames of romantic love. <br> <br> The molecule becomes more concentrated in the bloodstream during the early stages of romance, the researchers said. The concentrations die down to normal by about one year later.<br> <br> The scientists, with the Universityo of Pavia in Pavia, Italy, published their findings in the Nov. 9 issue of the research journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.<br> <br> “In view of the complexity of a sentiment like love, it would not be surprising that a diversity of biochemical mechanisms are involved,” the researchers wrote.<br> <br> But one of them, they said, appears to be this molecule, called nerve growth factor, or NGF.<br> <br> In a study with 58 participants, they found that its level was significantly higher in the subjects in the early phases of love than in either the subjects with a long-lasting relationship or the subjects with no relationship, they wrote.<br> <br> “In 39 subjects in love who—after 12-24 months—maintained the same relationship but were no longer in the same mental state to which they had referred during the initial evaluation, plasma NGF levels decreased and became indistinguishable from those of the control groups,” they wrote.<br> <br> “Taken together, these findings suggest that some behavioural and/or psychological features associated with falling in love could be related to raised NGF levels in the bloodstream.”</font></b> <b> <font size="2" face="Arial"><br> <br> </font></b> </center> <b> <font face="Arial" size="2">* * *</font> </p> </b> <p align="left"><b><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#FFFFFF">Send us a <a href="mailto:editor@world-science.net">comment</a> on this story, or <a href="mailto:?Body=http://www.world-science.net/othernews/051130_lovefrm.htm">send it to a friend</a></font></b> </p> <center> <p> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </body>