Join KCL Neuroscience Society in discovering the Neuroscience of love! Our esteemed speakers are Dr Machin and Dr Katherine Bejanyan. There will also be a chance for you to ask questions in a Q+A session after the talk.
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This is a NeuroTalk: if you attend 3, you will get a certificate!
TICKETS FOR THIS EVENT ARE FREE! Please sign up - this event is open to the public. Attendees MUST have a ticket if they do not have a valid KCL ID.
Please click here to register.
This event is a fundraiser for Alzheimer's Society; a charity that provides funding for Dementia care and Dementia research. Please bring whatever change you can to be collected by our fundraising officers at the event!
Date: 6th February
Time: 6pm - 8pm
Location: Lecture Theatre 1, New Hunts House, Guy's Campus
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Dr Anna Machin is an evolutionary anthropologist and visiting academic at Oxford University.
Love’s been around a long time. As an evolutionary anthropologist Dr Machin is fascinated by what makes us fall in love and what keeps us there. In this talk she will use the results of cutting edge research in the fields of neuroscience, genetics, evolutionary theory and psychology to explain what happens in our brains when we fall in love and how this affects how we feel and behave when we are in love.
Why do we need love in our lives? How can love be a source of such intense euphoria but at the same time be so incredibly painful? Why are some people better at staying in relationships than others? And is it really the case that love is addictive?
She will explain how a wonderful cocktail of chemicals motivates us to form relationships, how a complex mix of our genetics and psychology combine to influence how we feel when we are in love and what all this new scientific knowledge means for the way we will love in the future.
Dr Kathrine Bejanyan is a relationship expert , with an academic background in counselling and social psychology.
We’ve been taught that as long as two people really love each other, things will work out - the important part is finding love, the rest will fall into place. Over and over again movies, songs and stories reminds us of the importance of finding that special person who will transform our life with true love. Disney films end with ‘happily ever after’ when the two protagonists finally find each other and come together.
But is love only about finding the right person? And is a great relationship merely built on finding true love? And if this is the case, then why are divorce rates ever growing? Did those marriages never truly have love or is there something more to love that we don’t realise? Most people forget love is a feeling and like any other feeling – happiness, sadness, excitement – it can be transient; just because you have it, doesn’t mean it’ll always stay that way.
So if you’re solely building your “forever” relationship on the feeling of love, you’re taking a big chance. Long term love and success in a relationship requires more than finding the right partner. Too much of our culture focuses on the quest for love without considering its substance. The truth is, falling in love and sustaining it are two different things and confusing the two can lead to heartache. In this talk we will focus on the what love is, why we need it, and how to make it a success in your relationship over the long run.