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Love-related changes in the brain: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Overview of attention for article published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, February 2015
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Among the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#46 of 7,733)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (99th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
25 news outlets
blogs
5 blogs
twitter
176 X users
weibo
2 weibo users
facebook
26 Facebook pages
googleplus
2 Google+ users
video
1 YouTube creator

Citations

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40 Dimensions

Readers on

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218 Mendeley
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Title
Love-related changes in the brain: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study
Published in
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, February 2015
DOI 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00071
Pubmed ID
Authors

Hongwen Song, Zhiling Zou, Juan Kou, Yang Liu, Lizhuang Yang, Anna Zilverstand, Federico d’Oleire Uquillas, Xiaochu Zhang

Abstract

Romantic love is a motivational state associated with a desire to enter or maintain a close relationship with a specific other person. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have found activation increases in brain regions involved in the processing of reward, motivation and emotion regulation, when romantic lovers view photographs of their partners. However, not much is known about whether romantic love affects the brain's functional architecture during rest. In the present study, resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) data was collected to compare the regional homogeneity (ReHo) and functional connectivity (FC) across an "in-love" group (LG, N = 34, currently intensely in love), an "ended-love" group (ELG, N = 34, ended romantic relationship recently), and a "single" group (SG, N = 32, never fallen in love). Results show that: (1) ReHo of the left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) was significantly increased in the LG (in comparison to the ELG and the SG); (2) ReHo of the left dACC was positively correlated with length of time in love in the LG, and negatively correlated with the lovelorn duration since breakup in the ELG; (3) FC within the reward, motivation, and emotion regulation network (dACC, insula, caudate, amygdala, and nucleus accumbens) as well as FC in the social cognition network [temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), inferior parietal, precuneus, and temporal lobe] was significantly increased in the LG (in comparison to the ELG and SG); (4) in most regions within both networks FC was positively correlated with the duration of love in the LG but negatively correlated with the lovelorn duration of time since breakup in the ELG. This study provides first empirical evidence of love-related alterations in brain functional architecture. Furthermore, the results shed light on the underlying neural mechanisms of romantic love, and demonstrate the possibility of applying a resting-state fMRI approach for investigating romantic love.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 176 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 218 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Hungary 1 <1%
Switzerland 1 <1%
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Spain 1 <1%
Japan 1 <1%
United States 1 <1%
Unknown 212 97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 37 17%
Student > Ph. D. Student 30 14%
Student > Master 30 14%
Researcher 17 8%
Student > Doctoral Student 11 5%
Other 37 17%
Unknown 56 26%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 60 28%
Neuroscience 26 12%
Medicine and Dentistry 23 11%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 15 7%
Social Sciences 8 4%
Other 24 11%
Unknown 62 28%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 378. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 12 February 2024.
All research outputs
#83,139
of 25,591,967 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
#46
of 7,733 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#883
of 369,439 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
#1
of 187 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,591,967 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 7,733 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.0. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 369,439 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 187 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.