"Do you love me for real?" In the future it may be possible to verify the answer to this, the most frequently-asked question in a relationship, by scientific and technological means. A group of Chinese and American scientists have found that love can change the structure of the human brain and its performance.

Love me? Love me not?

The study found that several areas of the brain showed increased activity in those who were in love, including the parts of the brain linked to reward and motivation.

Scientists used the method of magnetic resonance imaging, using the procedure on a hundred volunteers - students of Southwest University in Chongqing, China. The participants were divided into three groups: those who were in love at the time of the study, those who had previously broken up with a partner, and those who had never been in love.

Participants were told not to think of anything while their brains were scanned, so that researchers could monitor the differences between the brains in three groups.

Those volunteers who were "in love" showed increased activity in several areas of the brain, including in parts that deal with reward, motivation, and emotion regulation, as well as in the social cognition network.

The amount of activity in some parts shows positive correlation with the time of love for the "in love" group.

For the "break-up" group, the longer they had been out of love, the lower the amount of activity detected in these areas of the brain.

The team, led by Prof Zhang Xiaochu of the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, noted that in the last century romantic love had become a topic of interest for scientists, in particular psychologists.

He said that until now it had not been known whether romantic love also affected the functional parts of the brain.

The results of the study, jointly compiled by scientists from Southwest University, the University of Science and Technology of China and from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, were published in the February edition of the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

Edited and translated from Chinese version of 《“你爱不爱我?”——中国科学家:扫描大脑可以作证》，source: Xinhua News Agency.