A joint research group including the Director of the OCU Center for Health Science Innovation Yasuyoshi Watanabe, members of the OCU Graduate School of Medicine Department of Systems Neuroscience and Department of Neurosurgery, RIKEN and the University College London, has identified the part of the brain where the dopaminergic system is activated when people look at photos of their romantic partners. The related brain regions are the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) and medial prefrontal cortex. The PET study showed an especially strong involvement of the medial orbitofrontal cortex.

The research results were published in the online edition of the scientific journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (9 April 2015): 
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00191/abstract