Towards a neuroscience of love: olfaction, attention and a model of neurohypophysial hormone action

odor recognition of partners. There was also no similar correlation between their passionate love score and identifi cation of female friends, indicating a sex-specifi c effect. Lundström and Jones-Gotman argue that this specifi c reduction in recognition of opposite-sex friends supports the defl ection theory for the psychological mechanism of romantic love. The defl ection theory proposes that love is accompanied by a decrease in attention toward opposite-sex individuals, in contrast with an alternative idea which postulates intensifi ed attention toward the romantic partner (although, a