{
  "abstract": "Romantic love is a selective motivational state supporting pair bonding, yet its neural representation and relation to other affiliative-rewarding experiences remain unclear. Across eight fMRI studies (n=420) spanning naturalistic affiliative-reward, pharmacological and addiction-relevant experiments, we developed and evaluated multivariate whole-brain decoders of romantic love and friendship. Both signatures engaged mesocorticolimbic reward systems and the precuneus, yet were dissociable at the whole-brain level and in their recruitment of social-cognitive systems. The love signature generalized to reward on social media, was specific to positive valence, and did not track sweet-taste or monetary reward, indicating a distinct social-affiliative reward representation. Oxytocin selectively increased love - but not friendship - signature reactivity to the romantic partner. In an independent drug-cue-reactivity dataset, the love signature specifically identified heavy cannabis users. These findings establish a dissociable neurofunctional signature of romantic love in conserved bonding circuits that extend to digital affiliation and are co-opted in addiction.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "The University of Hong Kong"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 13,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Y. Wu"
    },
    {
      "name": "X. Gan"
    },
    {
      "name": "G. Jiao"
    },
    {
      "name": "R. Hurlemann"
    },
    {
      "name": "D. Scheele"
    },
    {
      "name": "X. Zhou"
    },
    {
      "name": "R. Zhang"
    },
    {
      "name": "F. Zhou"
    },
    {
      "name": "H. Jiang"
    },
    {
      "name": "K. Fu"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. Wang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Y. Teng"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "B. Becker"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/7nfdkbek17txp.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.08.10.744060",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.10.744060v3.full",
  "id": "7nfdkbek17txp",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.10.744060v3",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3207|Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7203623515",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.10.744060v3.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-08-10",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/7nfdkbek17txp.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:23:35Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.08.10.744060",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.10.744060v3"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "A neurofunctional signature of romantic love predicts rewards on social media, effects of oxytocin and drug-cue reactivity",
  "title_text": "A neurofunctional signature of romantic love predicts rewards on social media, effects of oxytocin and drug-cue reactivity",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:23:35Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/7nfdkbek17txp",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}