FROM Shakespeare to The Beatles, artists throughout time have grappled with the idea of love. There’s something about matters of the heart that truly fascinates us.

But it’s not just artists who concern themselves with the four-lettered word; scientists too have got in on the action. Indeed, researchers at Oxford University’s Experimental Psychology department are at the forefront of studies into human relationships and bonding.

Whilst science may not have all the answers, modern research has provided some insights into the biology and neuroscience behind love. And one thing’s for sure: whilst it may feel effortless, sometimes unavoidable, there’s actually a lot of complex biology behind those butterflies.

So let’s take a look at the cold hard science behind love. First off, where does it come from? Some evolutionary psychologists believe that our tendency towards long-term relationships developed out of a need for protection. Having someone to take care of us when we’re sick, someone to watch over our children and shelter us from harm, that can be really handy for survival.

But other psychologists see love more in terms of the expression of self. This school of thought suggests that we fall in love in order to grow as a person and move beyond mere self-interest. Meanwhile, other theories suggest that sheer physical chemistry is the dominant factor behind how, where and why we fall in love.

And chemistry certainly plays a pivotal role in the love equation. Each stage of falling in love is accompanied by its own chemical activities in the brain. So let’s take a quick look at what’s going on up there whilst we’re falling head over heels.

The early stages of love are characterised by strong feelings of physical attraction and sexual desire. We can partly blame the sex hormones, testosterone and oestrogen, for this. They flood the brain when we first come across someone who tickles our fancy.

Once we get past the lust stage, we may move towards a more profound attraction. Here, we generally see dopamine – also known as the happy hormone – along with norepinephrine, Together, this pair can create feelings that border on addiction. We might feel this in the form of a pounding heart or a sense of desperate longing for our new partner. Serotonin levels also drop during this time, affecting our appetite, sleep cycle and mood.

Thankfully, this stage is short-lived. After a few months, we tend to settle in to a calmer, and perhaps more profound, form of love. At this stage, we might see more of the bonding hormones. Oxytocin has been called the cuddle hormone, because it’s released during intimate physical contact, and plays a part in the feelings of closeness and bonding that we experience in longer-term relationships.

So chemicals are clearly important when it comes to love, but of course, there’s much more to it than that. For instance, behavioural psychologists have found that sharing some sort of intense emotional situation fosters bonding between individuals. And on top of all that, environmental, contextual and personal factors also play an important role.

Ultimately, perhaps there is no one clear love formula. We’ve been able to uncover some of the fascinating science behind feelings of lust, attraction and attachment, but there’s a whole lot more we need to learn before we can definitively say whether love is, in fact, all you need.

Interested in learning more about the science of love? Pint of Science is running a public talk on the neurochemicals, genes, behaviour and psychology of love, on May 15 in St Aldate’s Tavern.