Love on the brain

Biological anthropologist, Helen Fisher, has used evolutionary neurology to identify four broad personality styles that are linked to different chemical systems in the brain.

• Explorer = Risk taking and impulsive. Artisitic - Artisan temperament. Neurotransmitter – Dopamine (orange). Looking for a playmate. Loves exploring/ having adventures and needs someone to share it with.
• Builder = Cautious and loyal. Sensible - Guardian temperament. Neurotransmitter – Serotonin (gold). Looking for someone to help them. Help them build a home, a family, a social network.
• Negotiator = Imaginative and compassionate. Intuitive - Idealist temperament. Neurotransmitter – Oestrogen (blue). Looking for a soulmate. Wants to know how you think and feel and vica versa.
• Director = Analytical and decisive. Reasoning - Rational temperament. Neurotransmitter – Testosterone (green). Looking for a mind mate. Someone to share their ideas with.

I know what you’re thinking… it’s like those love quizzes that you come across in girly magazines like cosmopolitan etc. Yet Fisher has some serious data to back up her theory. By working with Match.com, she produced a questionnaire to assess people and their dating habits. 7 million people in 39 countries took the quiz and she found that the results followed a pattern. Explorers go for explorers, builders go for builders but the director goes for the negotiator and the negotiator goes for the director - regardless of whether they were male or female. Fisher also conducted other experiments such being able to tell whether a group of people were in love or not just by analysing their brain activity via a brain scanner.

Fisher states that Mother Nature has patterns for choosing a mate; the differences in brain make up lead to different partners. She also acknowledges that other factors such as intelligence, looks, religion, social background and so on also play a role in choosing a partner. Even though biology is the starting point, Fisher believes that understanding these patterns can also help with relationship psychology. People have slipped into clinical depression and have even killed themselves and others for love. Now there is a genuine biological basis to explain the extreme behavioural patterns of people. Love is a powerful mating system and this evolutionary theory is supported by literature. Poets have often stated how romantic love is truly an addiction and it seems that science has proved this to be true.

Sceptical me is not afraid to admit that I actually signed up to Match.com just to take the test and satisfy my curiosity... and I deactivated the account straight after, lol. I re- took the test a few times to see what the results would say but each time I put my myself into the mindset of friends that I know quite well. The results were interesting :) I wondered if that’s how people really see me. My problem now is that I want to compare everyone’s brain activity to see if this corresponds to Fisher’s theory. I guess that’s the problem with being a science person, lol.

By the way - my result – I was a negotiator :)

UPDATE:

I found this link on Twitter and I suppose it ties in with my blog post above. Fisher strikes again with a complex kiss.

The Science of luuurrrrve

Well what with it soon being Valentines’ day and all, I just couldn’t resist. Whilst doing some research for a uni assignment, I came across a website called Scientificmatch.com – a DNA dating service. It does exactly what it says on the tin – a service that allows you to find a partner by matching your DNA; like match.com but with science thrown into the mix. Some of the selling points include heightened chemistry between a couple i.e. body fragrance etc which would be a much better match and help to create a much more fulfilling and lasting relationship. I can only imagine how annoyed perfume shops would be if this takes off, lol. Another selling point was that if you and your new partner were to have children in the future they would be less disease prone and so forth.

Science has been used to develop numerous things such as improving the world’s food supply via GM foods, producing life saving treatments, IVF and so much more. And now we are able to choose partners that will have compatible DNA. Part of me thinks, great idea – less chance of complications in our children and in a way we would be looking out for a future generations by reducing the risk of illness. But part of me also thinks – oh my god, we’re getting way too ‘frankenstein’ about the whole thing and it is a bit frightening. Test tube babies for example - it feels like we’re interfering with God’s will. But leaving religion aside for a minute and thinking about it from a logical point of view. By interfering with the natural process; we may complicate things further i.e. mutations etc – the full extent of which we still don’t know yet. Also by eliminating disease, it would mean that people would live longer and wouldn’t that increase the burden on our already strained resources? Yet the opposite could also happen. By eliminating disease, we would no longer have a collection of antibodies to fight off disease and so it is possible that a majority of the species could be wiped out by one single illness/ bacterial infection/ virus.

Anyway back to the main point – DNA dating. Do people really buy into this stuff? I wondered how many similar services existed and if people actually used them. Using Google, I found numerous related links and some fantastic taglines that made me giggle. Yes I know… I have way too much time on my hands. But come on, admit it… you know you’ll be googling away as you read this post :)

25 things

Another product of Facebook. 25 random things about me...

1. I love my family and friends. I mean they can be trying at times but who isn’t.

2. My favourite flavours are mint and orange (separately)

3. I love cooking, especially baking as I find it relaxing... but not when it is panic induced. I’m quite good at domestic stuff... although my mum will never agree – we work in different ways :P

4. I can’t work in a messy environment and as a result I have developed a cleaning obsession similar to Monica (from Friends). Ok slight exaggeration perhaps?

5. I love medicine/ science and techy stuff – honest!

6. My all time favourite teacher (who kind of inspired my medical career choice) is my biology teacher – Mr Parkinson.

7. Ambitious and determined, I have many plans and goals that I hope to achieve (iA). Whether it’s in my fate that they work out or not is a different matter.

8. I’m a bit of a prankster at university

9. People describe me as cute even though I’m no longer in high school.

10. I see dead people. No, really I do! Regularly. In the hospital lab.

11. I love going on long drives as it gives me a chance to clear my mind. Which reminds me I almost killed a rabbit once. Rabbit survived, car died! ;(

12. I love travelling and have a huge list of place I would like to go and see.

13. I can be a little sensitive sometimes. People can say hurtful things, but I never respond. I just hate confronting people as I believe it’s nice to be nice.

14. Losing someone close to you is the most awful thing to go through and overtime I’ve realised you never really get over it.

15. Most people I meet tend to love my Yorkshire accent. I mean if it’s not from Yorkshire it’s _ _ _ _ (fill in your own choice word ;)

16. I can be a little sarcastic at times (!) – some may say that is an understatement!

17. I love to sing and dance (in private!)

18. I practise ju-jitsu... not telling you what belt though.

19. My favourite sports to play are volleyball and netball.

20. I’ve kept a diary since secondary school (about 10/11 years old) and now I can’t bear to throw them away as there are far too many memories in them. Also the first flower I ever received from a guy is dried and pressed between the pages of my first diary.

21. Apparently I have a ‘type’... or so my friends tell me. Personally I don’t believe them but I do look back and laugh at my choices.

22. Major Keanu Reeves fan :D Ok. So he can’t act as well as the others but so what? He’s pretty :) Also Shahid Kapoor is very pretty as well ;) Yes I know I’m a shallow person ;)

23. My favourite Hollywood movie is The Matrix (for obvious reasons). Bollywood it would have to be split between Veer-Zara/K3G (good family movies) and Jab we met (Shahid Kapoor). Lol.

24. I would like to have twins as it would help towards the optimum family number I have in my head. Also how cute would it be dress them identically, imagine the fun they would have?! (Ok, I’ll stop now)

25. My ultimate aim – a simple happy life, loving hubby, successful career, 4 kids (2 boys and 2 girls) and a fabulous house (ameen). Err, not asking for much then, eh?