The neural basis of unconditional love
Abstract
Functional neuroimaging studies have shown that romantic love and maternal love are mediated by regions specific to each, as well as overlapping regions in the brain's reward system. Nothing is known yet regarding the neural underpinnings of unconditional love. The main goal of this functional magnetic resonance imaging study was to identify the brain regions supporting this form of love. Participants were scanned during a control condition and an experimental condition. In the control condition, participants were instructed to simply look at a series of pictures depicting individuals with intellectual disabilities. In the experimental condition, participants were instructed to feel unconditional love towards the individuals depicted in a series of similar pictures. Significant loci of activation were found, in the experimental condition compared with the control condition, in the middle insula, superior parietal lobule, right periaqueductal gray, right globus pallidus (medial), right caudate nucleus (dorsal head), left ventral tegmental area and left rostro-dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. These results suggest that unconditional love is mediated by a distinct neural network relative to that mediating other emotions. This network contains cerebral structures known to be involved in romantic love or maternal love. Some of these structures represent key components of the brain's reward system.
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Compassion is accompanied by activations in regions typically associated with reward, love and affiliation.
“several cross-sectional studies (Lutz et al., 2008;Beauregard et al., 2009;Immordino-Yang et al., 2009;Kim et al., 2009) and one short-term longitudinal study performed by our group (Klimecki et al., 2012) suggest that compassion is accompanied by activations in regions typically associated with reward, love and affiliation.”
From Differential pattern of functional brain plasticity after compassion and empathy training (2014) · cites this paper as Beauregard et al., 2009
These findings extend previous functional imaging findings on compassion in cross-sectional studies and one short-term intervention study from our group.
“These findings extend previous functional imaging findings on compassion in cross-sectional studies (Beauregard et al., 2009;Kim et al., 2009) and one short-term intervention study from our group (Klimecki et al., 2012).”
From Differential pattern of functional brain plasticity after compassion and empathy training (2014) · cites this paper as Beauregard et al., 2009
Activations in the head of caudate and VTA occurred when participants applied unconditional love toward pictures of intellectually disabled individuals.
“In addition, activations in the head of caudate and VTA occurred when participants applied unconditional love toward pictures of intellectually disabled individuals (Beauregard et al., 2009).”
From Differential pattern of functional brain plasticity after compassion and empathy training (2014) · cites this paper as Beauregard et al., 2009
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- Authors
- Beauregard, M., Courtemanche, J., Paquette, V., & St-Pierre, É. L.
- Affiliations
- Université de Montréal (CA)
- Venue
- Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2009-05
- Volume
- 172
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 93-98
- ISSN
- 0925-4927 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2164127435
- Semantic Scholar
- 4ca8d2fcca8b7af1d8fe92e355a4b404808c89d1
- Cited by
- 106
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 17
- FWCI
- 15.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Fetzer Institute
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- unconditional love, romantic love, maternal love, reward systems, superior parietal lobule, periaqueductal gray, globus pallidus, caudate nucleus, ventral tegmental area, anterior cingulate cortex, intellectual disability
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain, Brain Mapping, Emotions, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Functional Laterality, Love, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Motivation, Neural Pathways, Oxygen, Reward
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