In one study researchers scanned the brains of a group of young heterosexual men using the fMRI brain scanner. The men were shown three types of videos: some were erotic, some relaxing, some related to sports.11 Each volunteer wore a custom-built pneumatic pressure cuff around his penis to record firmness. The pattern of brain activity was quite different from the one we found among the love-sick subjects in our brain scanning project. Lust and romantic love are not the same.
