Love Neurons

Curious Cases

• Episode: Love Neurons
• Website: Curious Cases
• Feed URL: http://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/b07dx75g.rss
• Duration: 00:28:37
• Published: 2025-05-02 10:30

What happens in your brain when Cupid’s arrow strikes? As a teenager, Alison developed an intense crush on George Harrison from the Beatles. But, she wants to know, why do we develop these feelings for pop stars we’ve never actually met? And what potent swirl of neurochemistry drives those fierce emotions?

With neuroscientist Dr. Dean Burnett and evolutionary anthropologist Dr. Anna Machin as their guides, Hannah and Dara investigate everything from the brain’s chemical fireworks during a crush to the evolutionary perks of love and bonding. Along the way, they dissect teenage infatuations, lifelong love affairs with football teams, and why love can feel as addictive as heroin.

There’s even a guest appearance from two cute rodents: the monogamous prairie voles and their more, shall we say, commitment-phobic cousins, the montane voles, who gave us early clues about the role of the ‘cuddle’ hormone oxytocin.

Whether you're a hopeless romantic or a hard-nosed skeptic, prepare to fall head over heels for the science of love.

Contributors:

Dr Anna Machin - evolutionary anthropologist and author of Why We Love Dr Dean Burnett - honorary research fellow at Cardiff Psychology School, author of The Idiot Brain and The Happy Brain. Carmine Pariante - Professor of Biological Psychiatry at King’s College London

Producer: Ilan Goodman Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem A BBC Studios Audio Production