When you're in love your eyes and your face light up. And so do four tiny portions of your brain. ?Falling in love? is a brain condition!

Neurobiologists Andreas Bartels and Semir Zeki of University College in London used fMRI brain scans to peer into the brains of college students in the throes of that crazed, ?can't-think-of-anything-else? stage of early romantic love.

When the subjects were shown photographs of their sweethearts, the fMRI images showed that four parts of their brains 'lit up.?

The researchers compared the MRI images to brain scans taken from people in different emotional states, including sexual arousal, feelings of happiness and cocaine-induced euphoria. But the pattern for romantic love was unique.

Interestingly, looking at a picture of their loved one also reduced activity in three portions of the brain active when one is upset or depressed.

Some neuroscientists theorize that folks who jump from one new relationship to another are biochemically ?hooked? on sample tubes Manufacturers the intoxication of falling in love.

But interestingly, in the case of enduring romance, the presence of one's partner stimulates the production of endorphins. Endorphins are the ?feel good? biochemicals that also generate ?runner's high.? They are also natural pain-killers.

The biology of romance helps account for why we might travel cross-country for a single kiss, and plunge into hopeless despair if our beloved turns from us. It's the drive for romance that enables us to focus on one particular person, although we often can't explain why.

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