title: Modulatory effect of romantic love on value estimation and its neural mechanism.
abstract: Any decision that is based upon personal preferences utilizes subjective values; however, for objectively equivalent items, whether romantic love modulates subjective value as well as the neural mechanism of this process remains unknown. In this functional MRI study, 30 items with equivalent value were first selected and assigned into three groups, and participants were trained to associate each group of items with their lover, a familiar person, or an unfamiliar person. Thereafter, the participant rated the values of the items during functional MRI scanning, after which they performed a post-test of memory of the associations. Behavioral results demonstrated that, although the items were well remembered, the items that were associated with the lover were rated significantly higher than the other images. Furthermore, we found higher activation related to the items associated with the lover than for those associated with a familiar person or an unfamiliar person in the striatum and the medial prefrontal cortex (related to cognitive control process). Finally, a morphometric analysis demonstrated that gray matter thickness in the striatum was positively associated with gray matter thickness in the medial prefrontal cortex but negatively correlated with the activation that was elicited by the items that were associated with the lover in the same brain area. Our results suggest that the romantic love-related brain region (the striatum) may modulate subjective value through the striatal-prefrontal pathway, further suggesting a potential bottom-up (control impulsivity) process.
authors: aChinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, School of Life Sciences bSchool of Humanities and Social Science cCenters for Biomedical Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China dProvincial Hospital Affiliated to Anhui Medical University eCenter of Medical Physics and Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, CAS, Hefei, Anhui, China.
authors: Ying
authors: Y
authors: Wang
authors: Yuting
authors: Y
authors: Zhang
authors: Ying
authors: Y
authors: Chen
authors: Fang
authors: F
authors: Jing
authors: Zhenni
authors: Z
authors: Wang
authors: Yaru
authors: Y
authors: Hao
authors: Lizhuang
authors: L
authors: Yang
authors: Ying
authors: Y
authors: Liu
authors: Yifeng
authors: Y
authors: Zhou
authors: Xiaochu
authors: X
authors: Zhang
mesh_terms: D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008149:Love; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult