9 curious side effects of falling in love

Discover the 9 curious side effects of falling in love, on a physiological and behavioral level.

The intense emotions and passion of falling in love often affect the mind and body, both in the way we express ourselves to the way we walk.

Love is a very complex emotion that intoxicates us and alters our way of seeing reality. Why do we fall in love and what happens to our body and mind when we feel this way? Many scientific studies have tried to shed light on this issue.

Side effects of falling in love: what are they?

In a previous article, the psychologist Jonathan García-Allen explained to us the chemical alterations that love produces.

The following list explores these strange effects in which you will find more than one curiosity. Are you ready to know some unknown facts about love and infatuation?

1. Love alters the concentration

Research has shown that people who are deeply in love have a more difficult time carrying out tasks that require attention and concentration.

“When a relationship begins, most people find that it is more difficult for them to keep their attention on tasks since they use a large proportion of cognitive resources to think about their lover,” says researcher Henk van Steenbergen in an article. , from the University of Leiden, the Netherlands.

2. Love fills you with euphoria

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) shows this. When we are in love, the same neural networks that are linked to psychotropic substances are activated in the brain, causing this state of euphoria and loss of the notion of time and reality.

“During infatuation, it is possible to feel an intense exaltation, similar to that experienced when using psychoactive substances,” says Lucy Brown, professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York.

3. Love makes you less sensitive to pain

“Some of the areas of the brain that are activated by an intense love emotion are the same regions that drugs activate to reduce the sensation of pain,” according to Arthur Aron, professor of psychology at Stony Brook University in New York.

Aron also maintains that the simple act of holding the hand of the person you love activates certain areas of the brain that mitigate pain.

4. Love slows you down

Men are affected in their gait rhythm when walking for love. Several investigations found that men adapt their pace when walking to adjust to the pace of their partner, a phenomenon that does not occur when the man walks with a friend.

5. The rhythm of the heartbeat matches those of the lover

Several investigations suggest that, in the company of the loved one, the heartbeat tends to synchronize between the two. It sounds like a cheesy metaphor, but it’s real.

6. The voice becomes higher

Women speak in a finer tone of voice when conversing with men who are attracted to them. The same investigation found evidence that lovers sometimes imitate their lover’s voice as an expression of affection and shared identity.

7. The blind infatuation

It has been shown that a person who has been thinking about his lover unconsciously turns his eyes away from other attractive people. This phenomenon is known as unconscious attention bias.

8. Dilate the pupils

We tend to believe that the face is the mirror of the soul, but the truth is that the eyes reflect our state of mind much better. Recent studies suggest that pupil dilation is associated with emotional states of great intensity, such as falling in love.

9. It makes you braver and reckless

The stories attest to a vast literature in which the male protagonists risk their lives to get their beloved. Certain studies have shown, in this regard, that men are more likely to take serious risks to their physical integrity to win their partner (or a potential lover).