"Watching New Love as It Sears the Brain," Vocabulary from the article

How do you know when you're in love? Scan this list to find out what neuroscientists have discovered.

Here is a link to The New York Times article by Benedict Carey: New Love
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. psychosis
    severe mental disorder in which contact with reality is lost
    New love can look for all the world like mental illness, a blend of mania, dementia and obsession that cuts people off from friends and family and prompts out-of-character behavior - compulsive phone calling, serenades, yelling from rooftops - that could almost be mistaken for psychosis.
    In Greek, "psykhe" means "soul, mind, spirit, breath, life." In Greek myth, Psyche is a beautiful princess whom Cupid (god of desire) falls in love with after accidentally scratching himself with his own arrow. In psychology, new love can seem as psychotic as mania ("an irrational but irresistible motive for a belief or action"), dementia ("mental deterioration of organic or functional origin"), and obsession ("an unhealthy and compulsive preoccupation with something").
  2. urge
    an instinctive motive
    In an analysis of the images appearing today in The Journal of Neurophysiology, researchers in New York and New Jersey argue that romantic love is a biological urge distinct from sexual arousal.
  3. craving
    an intense desire for some particular thing
    It is closer in its neural profile to drives like hunger, thirst or drug craving, the researchers assert, than to emotional states like excitement or affection.
    Compare with "urge"--both nouns, in addition to "drive" ("a physiological state corresponding to a strong desire"), are used as synonyms to describe the nature of new romantic love. The slight differences in intensity can be seen in their roots: from Latin, "urgere" means "to press hard, push forward" while from Old English, "drifan" means "to force, hunt, pursue, rush against" and "crafian" means "ask, demand by right."
  4. disparate
    fundamentally different or distinct in quality or kind
    The research helps explain why love produces such disparate emotions, from euphoria to anger to anxiety, and why it seems to become even more intense when it is withdrawn.
    Of the three disparate emotions mentioned, euphoria ("a feeling of great joy, pride, and optimism") can be the opposite of both anxiety ("a state of worry and nervousness") and anger. Anger (from Old Norse "angr" which means "distress, grief, sorrow" and Latin "angere" which means "to throttle, torment") can come after one realizes that the euphoria was not based in reality while the anxiety was.
  5. throes
    violent pangs of suffering
    "When you're in the throes of this romantic love it's overwhelming, you're out of control, you're irrational, you're going to the gym at 6 a.m. every day - why? Because she's there," said Dr. Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University and the co-author of the analysis.
  6. transcend
    go beyond the scope or limits of
    Brain imaging technology cannot read people's minds, experts caution, and a phenomenon as many sided and socially influenced as love transcends simple computer graphics, like those produced by the technique used in the study, called functional M.R.I.
  7. aversion
    a feeling of intense dislike
    "The findings fit nicely with a large, growing body of literature describing a generalized reward and aversion system in the brain, and put this intellectual construct of love directly onto the same axis as homeostatic rewards such as food, warmth, craving for drugs."
    Aversion can be the opposite of love, but as the example sentence suggests in its description of a system in the brain, aversion can also be the opposite of reward. This connects aversion to the "act of turning yourself or your gaze away" and to the body's need to balance the physical efforts and effects of aversion and reward in order to achieve homeostasis ("metabolic equilibrium maintained by biological mechanisms").
  8. anticipate
    regard something as probable or likely
    These areas are dense with cells that produce or receive a brain chemical called dopamine, which circulates actively when people desire or anticipate a reward.
  9. irrational
    not consistent with or using reason
    Yet falling in love is among the most irrational of human behaviors, not merely a matter of satisfying a simple pleasure, or winning a reward.
  10. passion
    a feeling of strong sexual desire
    This passion-related region was on the opposite side of the brain from another area that registers physical attractiveness, the researchers found, and appeared to be involved in longing, desire and the unexplainable tug that people feel toward one person, among many attractive alternative partners.
    Compare with the definition and example sentence of "throes" and consider that the Latin "pati" means "to suffer, endure." This could help explain the study's connection of new passionate and romantic love to an area of the brain that specializes in taking care of our basic biological urges. Thus, passion and sexual desire are related, but in disagreement with the chosen definition, the neuroscientists would argue that they are not the same.
  11. distinction
    a discrimination between things as different
    This distinction, between finding someone attractive and desiring him or her, between liking and wanting, "is all happening in an area of the mammalian brain that takes care of most basic functions, like eating, drinking, eye movements, all at an unconscious level, and I don't think anyone expected this part of the brain to be so specialized," Dr. Brown said.
  12. intoxication
    excitement and elation beyond the bounds of sobriety
    The intoxication of new love mellows with time, of course, and the brain scan findings reflect some evidence of this change, Dr. Fisher said.
  13. smitten
    marked by foolish or unreasoning fondness
    In the new study, the researchers also saw individual differences in their group of smitten lovers, based on how long the participants had been in the relationships.
  14. commitment
    the trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose
    Compared with the students who were in the first weeks of a new love, those who had been paired off for a year or more showed significantly more activity in an area of the brain linked to long-term commitment.
  15. requite
    make repayment for or return something
    One reason new love is so heart-stopping is the possibility, the ever-present fear, that the feeling may not be entirely requited, that the dream could suddenly end.
  16. heighten
    make more intense, stronger, or more marked
    "It seems to suggest what the psychological literature, poetry and people have long noticed: that being dumped actually does heighten romantic love, a phenomenon I call frustration-attraction," Dr. Fisher said in an e-mail message.
  17. internalize
    incorporate within oneself; make subjective or personal
    In a series of studies, researchers have found that, among other processes, new love involves psychologically internalizing a lover, absorbing elements of the other person's opinions, hobbies, expressions, character, as well as sharing one's own.
  18. exhilarating
    making lively and joyful
    "The expansion of the self happens very rapidly, it's one of the most exhilarating experiences there is, and short of threatening our survival it is one thing that most motivates us," said Dr. Aron, of SUNY, a co-author of the study.
  19. havoc
    violent and needless disturbance
    To lose all that, all at once, while still in love, plays havoc with the emotional, cognitive and deeper reward-driven areas of the brain.
  20. intact
    undamaged in any way
    And the circuits in the brain related to passion remain intact, the researchers say - intact and capable in time of flaring to life with someone new.
Created on Fri May 08 11:08:15 EDT 2015 (updated Mon May 11 18:51:18 EDT 2015)

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