I'm just as much a fan of romantic cliches as any other cynic. All those fairytale romances are so gushy and overblown it makes me sick. Don't get me wrong, I think true love exists. But does it have to be so drawn out and poorly acted. Give me something real. Thanks to science, all the realists out there have substantial proof that true love does exist.
You may have heard that physical attraction is supposed to die after two years, and that love starts to fade after five. Using brain scans, scientists at Stony Brook University in New York have discovered that a few couples, who have been together over 20 years, respond to each other with as much passion as those in a newly forged romance.
Researchers scanned the brains of the mature couples and then compared the images of new lovers' brains.
The study showed that about 10 percent of the older couples had the same chemical reactions as the young lovers when shown pictures of their paramour.
"The findings go against the traditional view of romance - that it drops off sharply in the first decade - but we are sure it's real," said Arthur Aron, a psychologist at Stony Brook.
