Haddaway isn't the only one who wants to know. Of all the questions that the 1.5 billion people on the Internet ask every day, one of the most frequently occurring is simple and oh-so philosophical: What is love? The video above offers up a pretty objective (and to-the-point) response, which we greet with a warm welcome — especially when we stop and remember how vaguely this was all explained to us as children.
The SciShow folks helpfully break down how we experience different kinds of love on chemical and anatomical levels. While it may sound obvious, scans show that different regions of the brain are activated depending on what type of affection has triggered a reaction; consider the difference between the love a mother has for her child versus the overwhelming infatuation that led you to play footsy with your moody deskmate in 9th grade science lab.
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As you might have also guessed, hormones have a huge role to play in processing such an intense emotion as love. One less-than-shocking finding equates the hormonal imbalances in the brain in the first stages of a new romantic relationship with those of a brain that's high on cocaine. Euphoric, excited beyond reason, probably a little sweaty? Check, check, and check.
This video is certainly informative in terms of how love works, but it suggests even more about how we confront love in the first place. Although love is upheld as something intangible, precious, yet somehow universal, when we are looking to the great Internet for advice, we still want a definite answer as to what love actually is.
Watch the video above for more facts about how love works on a neurological level — and to learn why, exactly, prairie voles are usually the romantic animal of choice for scientific research.
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