Crazy With Love-7th blog posting

One of the things I read this week was an article called “I Love You! I Hate You! Study Finds Brain Draws Thin Line Between Love and Hate”, which I found on FOXNews.com. It discussed the way our brain is structured to respond to love and hate. The study showed that both the love and hate circuits in our brains have identical structures. Professor Semir Zeki, from the University College London, carried out the brain scan study that helped the researchers come to many conclusions about love and hate. Zeki’s team scanned 17 males and females brains as they looked at pictures of people they hated and people that they liked. In both situations, researchers found that zones within the cerebral cortex were deactivated. The cerebral cortex affects our memory, consciousness, attention, and thought, so this helps to explain why we sometimes act so weird during times of anger and love. The only difference in the results was that with love, a large portion of the cerebral cortex was deactivated, and with hate, only a small portion, located in the frontal cortex, became deactivated. I found this really interesting because I have always wondered why people sometimes don’t act like themselves when they are around a person they like or when they are in a frustrating situation. This may not be the answer to everyone’s weird ways, but it at least numbs the pain to know that the last time you said something really dumb to your crush, it may have been out of your control.