Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex, and Relationships

( 2 )

Overview

Why does love make us so crazy? This is a lively and funny examination of the big questions about love and sex from the perspective of the latest brain science.

Philosophers, theologians, artists, and boy bands have waxed poetic about the nature of love for centuries. But what does the brain have to say about the way we carry our hearts? As technology advances to allow us more focused examination of the intricate dance our brains do with our environment, we can use science to ...

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Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex, and Relationships

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More About This Book

Overview

Why does love make us so crazy? This is a lively and funny examination of the big questions about love and sex from the perspective of the latest brain science.

Philosophers, theologians, artists, and boy bands have waxed poetic about the nature of love for centuries. But what does the brain have to say about the way we carry our hearts? As technology advances to allow us more focused examination of the intricate dance our brains do with our environment, we can use science to shed new light on humanity’s oldest question, “What is this thing called love?”

In each chapter of this lively, edgy adventure through the romantic brain, Kayt Sukel dives into the latest neuroscientific research concerning love and sex (even getting her brain scanned while having an orgasm) and what it really means for the way we approach our relationships. Dirty Minds asks age-old questions such as: What parts of the brain are involved with love? Is there really a “seven-year itch”? Why do good girls like bad boys? Is monogamy practical? How thin is that line between love and hate? Do mothers have a stronger bond with children than their fathers do? How do our childhood experiences affect our emotional control and who is at risk for love addiction? Yet this book offers an entirely fresh approach, explaining all the ways the brain can make or break us in love.

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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Is love addictive? What roles do oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin, and testosterone play in our lives? What does the brain tell us about homosexuality? What parts of the brain control attraction, parental love, and faithfulness in relationships? Sukel leaves no stone unturned as she delves into the complex, cerebral world of relationships. Frequently citing both human MRI studies and animal research on dogs, monkeys, and monogamous prairie voles, Sukel has thoroughly researched this fascinating subject, examining even the most delicate topics-such as her own experience as a subject in an MRI clinical study of orgasm-with a frank, clinical tone, peppered with anecdotal stories and occasional humor. Although "there is no clever playbook for navigating love's messier situations," readers may find that science can explain some of their own experiences in attraction, parenting, and even heartbreak. Sukel's background in psychology allows her to discuss highly technical topics in a way that will be accessible to a broad audience, including armchair scientists and sociology buffs. Agent: David Black Agency
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
From the Publisher
"A serious, informative and highly entertaining survey of the neurobiology of sexual attraction.”

“A fun and insightful read [that] manages to evoke the feel of both a wine-laden conversation with an old friend and a great neuroscience lecture from your favorite college professor."

"It was the cotton-top tamarin monkeys that did it for me...Sukel's book fairly bristles with such causes to reflect on our erotic complexity."

"With humor and flair, Sukel takes us through the whole human drama — loving, hating, cheating, losing, orgasming, parenting, punishment, and reward — and at the end we realize something truly startling: it's all in our minds."

"Kayt Sukel's [Dirty Minds] merges the bracing realities of science with the mysterious thrill of love and attraction. Provocative, well-researched, and compulsively readable, this book opens the mind (dirty or otherwise) and stirs the soul."

"Love and sex are two of the eternal mysteries of the human experience—but in her compelling new book . . . Kayt Sukel lifts the curtain to give us a fresh and fascinating look at our intimate lives. Sukel shows us how neuroscientists are venturing into the realm once reserved for poets and songwriters, and returning with bold new knowledge about the brain in love and in the throes of pleasure. After reading this seductively interesting book, you'll never think about a date or a kiss or a breakup the same way again."

Kirkus Reviews
A neuroscience writer with a failed marriage checks out the latest research on the brain, searching for an answer to the big question: What exactly is love? In her debut, travelsavvymom.com partner Sukel chronicles her "quest to better understand the scientific nature of love." She begins with her amazement at a quip made by British researcher Nicolas Read at a symposium: "If we realized how sexy babies are they would have been banned." It seemed to speak to her own experience after the birth of her son, which coincided with the implosion of her marriage. She checks in with a number of neuropsychologists and even volunteers as a subject for a study of how the brain responds to sexual stimulation. While it has been established that the sex drive is located in the hypothalamus, romance and love are not only or even chiefly about sex. Sukel tracks down scientists who are trying to discover the interrelationship between hormones such as estrogen and testosterone and the neurochemicals dopamine, oxytocin and vasopressin (thought to induce pleasure). Not only are these neurochemicals connected to the brain's reward system, but they appear to play a role in the development of the brain by selectively causing certain genes to be expressed while suppressing others. The author's account of her experience inducing an orgasm while hooked up to an fMRI scanner adds spice to her quest, but the science she reports, though still inconclusive, is fascinating in its own right.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781451611557
  • Publisher: Free Press
  • Publication date: 1/3/2012
  • Pages: 288
  • Product dimensions: 6.30 (w) x 9.10 (h) x 1.30 (d)

Meet the Author

Kayt Sukel’s work has appeared in myriad publications, including Atlantic Monthly, USA TODAY, The Washington Post, National Geographic Traveler, Continental, American Baby, and Cerebrum. She is a partner in the renowned family travel website, TravelSavvyMom.com, blogs about international eating for UpTake.com, and is also a frequent contributor to the Dana Foundation’s many science publications.

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Table of Contents

A Note about Illustrations ix

Introduction xiii

Chapter 1 The Neuroscience of Love: A History (Theirs and Mine) 1

Chapter 2 The Ever-Loving Brain 9

Chapter 3 The Chemicals between Us 24

Chapter 4 Epigenetics (or It Is All My Mother's Fault) 40

Chapter 5 Our Primates, Ourselves (or Why We Are Not Slaves to Our Hormones) 55

Chapter 6 His and Her Brains 70

Chapter 7 The Neurobiology of Attraction 83

Chapter 8 Making Love Last 103

Chapter 9 Mommy (and Daddy) Brain 119

Chapter 10 Might as Well Face It, You're Addicted to Love 137

Chapter 11 Your Cheating Mind 151

Chapter 12 My Adventures with the O-Team 168

Chapter 13 A Question of Orientation 188

Chapter 14 Stupid Is as Stupid Loves 205

Chapter 15 There's a Thin Line between Love and Hate 219

Chapter 16 The Greatest Love of All 228

Conclusion: A Brave New World of Love 236

Acknowledgments 247

Notes 249

Index 259

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
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Sort by: Showing all of 2 Customer Reviews

  • Posted March 9, 2012

    Well researched interesting read.

    The author has done very thorough research which makes this book so fascinating, in-depth, and incredibly interesting.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted January 16, 2012

    A journey to seek the science behind love.. In plain English.

    I'm still in the middle of this book, but it's captured my attention and imagination. We join the author as she tries to discover what love is, from a scientific standpoint. Can the science of the brain help explain her failed marriage? Her addiction to her child? How to find love, or why we love?...
    The scientific studies in the brain's role in love, lust, and attachment are still rather few and far between, and the technology available to to study the brain still has limitations. The answers she finds fall far short of giving black and white answers about how to attract and maintain true love.. But nonetheless, this journey into fact is pretty fascinating, humanized by the author's own anecdotes and experiences along her journey, bringing the science into the perspective of real daily life, and turning this book, that could have ben a rather dry scientific epistle, into a great first person account of the process, and not just the results, that is often endearing and even laugh-out-loud funny.
    This would be a great read for a book club, a great gift for valentine's day, and just plain a great read for the nonfiction buff. ( fans of Mary Roach, Bill Bryson... Definitely should pick up this book!)

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
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