No pressure if you’re just keeping a relationship together to score a sweet present on Valentine’s Day, but according to the Wall Street Journal, neuroscientists in New York have been able to prove that you can love someone forever. While a group of pessimistic psychologists were trying to plot the decline of passion in couples over the course of two decades, they accidentally discovered a handful of couples who were still in love. Sure, the vast majority of their questionnaire subjects quickly slid into the standard less-sex comfort of a long-term relationship, but others were able to keep the promise of their “I do’s”. Those lucky couples were then taken to NYU (as if “Felicity” didn’t already set the romantic bar unrealistically high) for further testing. Brain scans showed that when they looked at their lover, blood would rush to the ventral tegmental — the same primitive center of the brain that reminds us of where our next meal is coming from. Touché. While potentially depressing if you’re sick of eating your man’s chicken and would like to have beef for a change, this is an important scientific link for psychologists and a dream for pharmaceutical companies who would do anything to develop a Love Potion #9. Although the drug is not yet in development, you can see the symptoms in this totally classic Sandra Bullock/Tate Donovan movie. [Business Week]
