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Stony Brook Researchers Conduct 'Love Study'

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Jan 6, 2009 7:03 pm US/Eastern

Stony Brook Researchers Conduct 'Love Study'

Results Show That MRIs Of Young Couples, Older Married Couples, Match

Reporting
Jennifer McLogan
STONY BROOK, N.Y. (CBS) ― Do you want to keep the romance burning in your relationship? A new "love study" took a closer look at the brains of older married couples.

Carole and Walter Wozniak of Seaford met at a dance when they were teens and still feel that same spark. "Our specialty is the lindy" they said.

"There was a chemical reaction when I met Walter 52 years ago at a dance. I took one look at him and that was it," Carole, 71, said.

"We have been married 50 years and enjoyed every single minute of it. There's a lot of passion" Walter, 80, said.

Now new research supports their claim.

"Could the phenomenon that existed in dating partners where they reported this intense love and looked and their brains, would there be a similar type of brain activity in older people?" asked Professor Daniel O'Leary from Stony Brook University

O'Leary was on the dissertation committee of the University's "love study." Looking at brains of long term spouses still claiming to be intensely in love, researchers found their MRI's matched brain activity of those newly-smitten.

"So when we found that 35-38 percent of these people reported they were intensely in love, we clearly surprised," O'Leary said.

Stony Brook students were intrigued by the findings. "It seems weird because they are old, but it is human nature right there, to want to have sex," Christopher Lu said.

Chaired by Professor Arthur Arons, the study reports reasons why: no external stress, good communication, enjoy challenges, celebrate success, not depressed or anxious.

The Wolzniaks agree that together they feel the passion.

More than a third of married senior citizens report they are intensely in love and that thinking of their partner in a positive way makes them feel sexy.

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