[eBook Code] The Scientific American Book of Love, Sex and the Brain (eBook Code, 1st)

Acknowledgments xi

Preface: Who Do You Love? xiii

Introduction: What Is This Thing Called Love? 1

So What Is Love? 2

Love Is a Many Splendored Thing—and the Greeks Had a Word for All of the Types 4

The Basics of Your Brain in Love and Sex 6

I’ve Got You Under My Skull: Love in Your Brain 7

You Make Me Feel So Good: The Pleasure Center 8

The Very Thought of You 9

How Scientists Research Love and Sex in Your Brain 10

1 Born to Love: Why People Need People 15

Do You See What I See? How Mirror Neurons Connect Us 17

The Dangers of Involuntary Mind Merging 22

The Chemistry of Love 23

Love Is Everywhere: Where Love Grows in the Brain 26

A Brain Unable to Love: Inside the Brain of a Psychopath 27

Baby Face, You’ve Got the Cutest Little Baby Face 33

2 Learning to Love 35

How Your Parents Affect Your Love Life 36

Love at First Sight: The Earliest Lessons in Love 39

If You Could Read My Mind: Moms Do 42

A Mother’s Everlasting Love 43

How Parenting Primes Your Brain for Love 45

Parenting Rewires the Daddy Brain as Well 46

How Father Love Feeds Both Brains 47

Postpartum Depression: Misery for Mom and Baby 50

Loving the One Who Hurts You: Why Children Cling to Abusers 51

What If Things Went Wrong with That First Love? 52

In the End: Do Parents Matter? 54

3 His Brain, Her Brain, Gay Brain, and Other Brains 57

How Real Are the Differences? 58

The Five Genders of the Brain 60

His Brain, Her Brain: The Geography 61

So What Does This Have to Do with Love? 63

Our Changeable Brains 66

Some Myths About Male and Female Brains: True or False? 68

Toujours Gay: The Gay Brain Is Born That Way 72

Can Animals Be Gay? Better to Call It Bisexual 74

I Am What I Am 76

The Third Gender: When Gender and Sex Do Not Align 79

Are There Asexuals Among Us? On the Possibility of a Fourth Sexual Orientation 81

4 That Old Black Magic: Your Brain in Love 85

How Love and Sex Are Good for Your Brain 88

When Love Occupies Your Brain 90

Who Do You Love? And Who Loves Ya, Baby? 91

You’ve Got That Lovin’ Feelin’, But What Turns You On? 96

You Go to My Nose: The Power of Smell over Sex 96

A Kiss Is (More Than) Just a Kiss 102

You Light Up My Brain 104

What’s Love Got to Do with It? Plenty It Turns Out—for Women 108

Need Some Love Potion? Try a Bit of Oxytocin Spray 109

I’ll Have What She’s Having: What Makes a Better Female Orgasm? 110

Does the Penis Have a Brain of Its Own? 112

When Things Go Wrong: A Fine Romance 115

5 Friendship, Such a Perfect Blendship: Or, with a Little Help from My Friends 121

Is Friendship Declining? 123

Are You Lonesome Tonight? 60 Million Other Americans Are 125

You’ve Got a Friend—or You Should! 126

Widening the Social Circle 129

Imaginary Friends: TV Characters Can Ease Your Pain 130

Until the Real Thing Comes Along: Your Brain on Facebook 133

Work, the “Other Love” in Your Life 135

Can Animals Love? Yes, and More 136

How to Make Friends 139

6 Only You Can Make My Dreams Come True: Let’s Get Married 143

Grow Old Along with Me: The Marriage Benefits 144

You Make Me Feel So Good: Romance Lowers Stress 145

Finding That Special Someone: Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places? 146

Falling and Staying in Love 148

I’ve Grown Accustomed to Your Face 150

My One and Only Love: Are We Monogamous? 151

Granny’s Got to Have It 153

Your Hormones May Drive You Apart: A Tough Pill to Swallow 155

Making Love Last: I Get a Kick out of You 156

Can Pornography Help Your Love Life? 158

Love Will Keep Us Together: Lasting Romance Is Embossed in the Brain 159

Will You Still Need Me When I’m 64? 161

7 You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’: When Love Dies 165

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: How Rejection Affects Your Brain 166

The Jilted Brain 167

After the Love Is Gone—You Ache and Ache 169

Can’t Live If Living Is Without You: The Widowhood Effect 171

Achy Breaky Heart: Can You Die of a Broken Heart? 172

Ain’t No Cure for Love—But Acetaminophen Could Help 172

Every Time You Say Good-Bye, I Die a Little: Why It Hurts to Leave Your Lover 174

Broken Promises: Can the Brain Predict Betrayal? 176

Coping with a Breaking Heart 178

8 For the Love of God 181

Searching for God in Your Brain 182

Epilepsy, the Temporal Lobe, and God 182

Strokes of Insight: Brain Changes and Spiritual Awakening 184

Religious Ecstasy Is Like Romantic Love—in the Brain at Least 186

God on the Brain: What Brain Scans Show 188

Could Religion Shrink Your Brain? 190

The Evolutionary Roots of God Thought 191

God Neurons May Be Everywhere 192

9 Technology, Science, and the Future of Sex 195

The Wonderful World of Cybersex 196

Sex in Bits and Bytes: The Future of Virtual Sex Is Here 199

10 How Can Love Survive? 201

But What of Love? 204

Glossary 207

Sources 215

Illustration Credits 229

About the Author 231

Index 233