普及一下真爱知识# Piebridge - 鹊桥
d*g
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这篇我隔一年半载就贴一次，送给依然相信真爱的人。
SCIENTISTS have discovered true love. Brain scans have proved that a small
number of couples can respond with as much passion after 20 years as most
people exhibit only in the first flush of love.
The findings overturn the conventional view that love and sexual desire peak
at the start of a relationship and then decline as the years pass.
A team from Stony Brook University in New York scanned the brains of couples
who had been together for 20 years and compared them with those of new
lovers. They found that about one in 10 of the mature couples exhibited the
same chemical reactions when shown photographs of their loved ones as people
commonly do in the early stages of a relationship.
Previous research suggested that the first stages of romantic love, a
rollercoaster ride of mood swings and obsessions that psychologists call
limerence, start to fade within 15 months. After 10 years the chemical tide
has ebbed away.
The scans of some of the long-term couples, however, revealed that elements
of limerence mature, enabling them to enjoy what a new report calls “
intensive companionship and sexual liveliness”.
The researchers nicknamed the couples “swans” because they have similar
mental “love maps” to animals that mate for life such as swans, voles and
grey foxes.
The reactions of the swans to pictures of their beloved were identified on
MRI brain scans as a burst of pleasure-producing dopamine more commonly seen
in couples who are gripped in the first flush of lust.
“The findings go against the traditional view of romance – that it drops
off sharply in the first decade – but we are sure it’s real,” said Arthur
Aron, a psychologist at Stony Brook.
Previous research had laid out the “fracture points” in relationships as
12-15 months, three years and the infamous seven-year itch.
Aron said when he first interviewed people claiming they were still in love
after an average of 21 years he thought they were fooling themselves: “But
this is what the brain scans tell us and people can’t fake that.”
One pair of Aron’s swans are Billy and Michelle Jordon who, 18 years after
they met, still make their friends envious. The couple, who live in Newport
Beach, California, hold hands all the time. “It comes very naturally,”
said Michelle, 59.
Lisa Baber, 40, and her husband David, 46, from Bristol, say they still feel
the same frisson as when they got together 17 years ago.
“He was crazy and so exciting, he whisked me off my feet,” said Lisa. “
That excitement is very much alive. We make sure our lives are always
changing.”
Other couples who have kept their passion include Tony and Cherie Blair and
Michael and Shakira Caine. Michael Howard, the former Tory leader, and his
wife Sandra have been together for more than 30 years.
Aron said he and his wife Elaine, both 64, have a strong relationship but
were a little jealous of the swans. “Their relationships are intense and
sexually active, too, without many of the downsides of first love,” he said
last week.
SCIENTISTS have discovered true love. Brain scans have proved that a small
number of couples can respond with as much passion after 20 years as most
people exhibit only in the first flush of love.
The findings overturn the conventional view that love and sexual desire peak
at the start of a relationship and then decline as the years pass.
A team from Stony Brook University in New York scanned the brains of couples
who had been together for 20 years and compared them with those of new
lovers. They found that about one in 10 of the mature couples exhibited the
same chemical reactions when shown photographs of their loved ones as people
commonly do in the early stages of a relationship.
Previous research suggested that the first stages of romantic love, a
rollercoaster ride of mood swings and obsessions that psychologists call
limerence, start to fade within 15 months. After 10 years the chemical tide
has ebbed away.
The scans of some of the long-term couples, however, revealed that elements
of limerence mature, enabling them to enjoy what a new report calls “
intensive companionship and sexual liveliness”.
The researchers nicknamed the couples “swans” because they have similar
mental “love maps” to animals that mate for life such as swans, voles and
grey foxes.
The reactions of the swans to pictures of their beloved were identified on
MRI brain scans as a burst of pleasure-producing dopamine more commonly seen
in couples who are gripped in the first flush of lust.
“The findings go against the traditional view of romance – that it drops
off sharply in the first decade – but we are sure it’s real,” said Arthur
Aron, a psychologist at Stony Brook.
Previous research had laid out the “fracture points” in relationships as
12-15 months, three years and the infamous seven-year itch.
Aron said when he first interviewed people claiming they were still in love
after an average of 21 years he thought they were fooling themselves: “But
this is what the brain scans tell us and people can’t fake that.”
One pair of Aron’s swans are Billy and Michelle Jordon who, 18 years after
they met, still make their friends envious. The couple, who live in Newport
Beach, California, hold hands all the time. “It comes very naturally,”
said Michelle, 59.
Lisa Baber, 40, and her husband David, 46, from Bristol, say they still feel
the same frisson as when they got together 17 years ago.
“He was crazy and so exciting, he whisked me off my feet,” said Lisa. “
That excitement is very much alive. We make sure our lives are always
changing.”
Other couples who have kept their passion include Tony and Cherie Blair and
Michael and Shakira Caine. Michael Howard, the former Tory leader, and his
wife Sandra have been together for more than 30 years.
Aron said he and his wife Elaine, both 64, have a strong relationship but
were a little jealous of the swans. “Their relationships are intense and
sexually active, too, without many of the downsides of first love,” he said
last week.
