Love Reasoning

Falling in love is 'more scientific than you think,' according to a new study

A new meta-analysis study conducted by Syracuse University Professor Stephanie Ortigue is getting attention around the world. The groundbreaking study, "The Neuroimaging of Love," reveals falling in love can elicit not only the same euphoric feeling as using cocaine, but also affects intellectual areas of the brain.

Researchers also found falling in love only takes about a fifth of a second!!

Ortigue is an assistant professor of psychology and an adjunct assistant professor of neurology, both in The College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University.

Results from Ortigue's team revealed when a person falls in love, 12 areas of the brain work in tandem to release euphoria-inducing chemicals such as dopamine, oxytocin, adrenaline and vasopression. The love feeling also affects sophisticated cognitive functions, such as mental representation, metaphors and body image.

The findings beg the question, "Does the heart fall in love, or the brain?"

"That's a tricky question always," says Ortigue. "I would say the brain, but the heart is also related because the complex concept of love is formed by both bottom-up and top-down processes from the brain to the heart and vice versa. For instance, activation in some parts of the brain can generate stimulations to the heart, butterflies in the stomach. Some symptoms we sometimes feel as a manifestation of the heart may sometimes be coming from the brain."

Other researchers also found blood levels of nerve growth factor, or NGF, also increased. Those levels were significantly higher in couples who had just fallen in love. This molecule involved plays an important role in the social chemistry of humans, or the phenomenon 'love at first sight.' "These results confirm love has a scientific basis," says Ortigue.

Effect of Drug on Beautiful Britney

A Microsoft's fact

Microsoft's Windows 7 has sold a record-breaking 240 million copies since its launch a year ago and its Office suite of applications, which debuted this spring, is off to a strong start.

"The reports of the death of Windows and Office are premature -- the company is still a cash flow machine," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial. "People are buying about $10 billion worth of Windows and Office this quarter. The twin engines of Microsoft are still firing."

Between them, the Windows and Office units accounted for more than 60 percent of sales and more than 80 percent of profit, factoring out nonoperating losses.

Wall Street generally expects Windows and Office sales to track sales of PCs, suggesting growth of about 7 percent in the current quarter.

$2 million fantasy bra

Supermodel Adriana Lima reveals the $2 million bombshell fantasy bra designed by Damiani exclusively for Victoria's Secret at Victoria's Secret, SoHo in New York City. The bra, which had been designed in collaboration with Italian jeweller Damiani, contained more than 3,000 jewels, and it took six craftsmen 1,500 hours of work to complete. The Salvador-born beauty is the second highest paid underwear model in the world thanks to her mega bucks contract with Victoria's Secret, coming behind former fellow Victoria's Secret model Heidi Klum.