A neurofunctional signature of romantic love predicts rewards on social media, effects of oxytocin and drug-cue reactivity
- 1The University of Hong Kong
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.
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BibTeX
@misc{wu2026neurofunctional,
title = {{A neurofunctional signature of romantic love predicts rewards on social media, effects of oxytocin and drug-cue reactivity}},
author = {Y. Wu and X. Gan and G. Jiao and R. Hurlemann and D. Scheele and X. Zhou and R. Zhang and F. Zhou and H. Jiang and K. Fu and J. Wang and Y. Teng and B. Becker},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.64898/2026.08.10.744060},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.10.744060v3},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A neurofunctional signature of romantic love predicts rewards on social media, effects of oxytocin and drug-cue reactivity
AU - Y. Wu
AU - X. Gan
AU - G. Jiao
AU - R. Hurlemann
AU - D. Scheele
AU - X. Zhou
AU - R. Zhang
AU - F. Zhou
AU - H. Jiang
AU - K. Fu
AU - J. Wang
AU - Y. Teng
AU - B. Becker
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/10
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.08.10.744060
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.10.744060v3
AB - 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.
ER -