Neuroscientists have discovered that eye-to-eye contact unleashes a burst of activity in the reward center of the brain.

    Romantic novelists rarely fail to include in their oeuvre that special moment when two strangers look into each other's eyes across a crowded room and feel the tingle of desire.

    The Barbara Cartland school of writing has now been validated by science, for experts have discovered that eye-to-eye contact in fact unleashes a burst of activity in the reward center of the brain.

    Neuroscientists at University College London asked eight female and eight male volunteers to look at photos of the faces of 40 different people who were either looking at the camera or gazing to one side.

    While the volunteers looked at the pictures, they were given a scan with functional magnetic resonance imaging, which measures increased blood flows to the various parts of the brain and thus provides a "map" of cerebral activity.

    The guinea pigs were then asked to rate the attractiveness of each face, and their score was matched against the scan.

    The result: when volunteer had direct eye contact with the face, there was an increase of activity in the ventral striatum, a central part of the brain that anticipates reward or pleasure. But if the eyes did not meet, there was no activity in that brain area at all.

    The activity increase occurred regardless of the gender of the face in direct eye contact.

    However, there was a bigger-than-usual increase if the person giving the eye was found to be attractive. Activity in the ventral striatum surged, in an apparent sign of the sexual appetite being sharpened.

    But if the cute person gazed to one side, the ventral striatum remained dormant, apparently disappointed that the stranger was clearly not interested.

    Interestingly, the ventral striatum also perked up if a plug-ugly person gazed to one side, rather than looked at the volunteer right in the eyes. "Missing eye contact with an unattractive face may be a relief, and thus enhance activity," the researchers suggest.

    神經學科學家發現目光的交流可以引起大腦的反應中樞產生一系列的反應。

    浪漫主義小說家大多善于在作品中描寫這樣的場面：在一間擁擠的房間里，陌生男女隨著目光的交匯，怦然心動。

    被稱為英國浪漫主義小說女王的巴巴拉·卡特蘭學派作品現在已經被科學證實是符合事實的，因為專家們發現目光交流可以引起大腦反應中樞產生一系列的反應。

    在一項實驗中，倫敦大學的神經學科學家分別讓8名男志愿者和8名女志愿者觀察40個不同人的照片，照片上的人或者是眼睛盯著鏡頭或者是眼睛盯著一側。

    在這些實驗者看照片的時候，科學家用一種功能磁性共振成影儀器對他們大腦不同部位的血流量進行測量，得出了大腦活動的圖樣。

    然后，科學家讓實驗者給照片上每個人的容貌打分，分數的高低和大腦活動圖是相匹配的。

    結果是：如果實驗者和照片上的人有過直接的目光交流，他們的前部紋狀體活動頻率就會增加。前部紋狀體是大腦中產生成就感或者愉快情緒的重要部位。但是如果沒有目光的交流，則大腦中根本就不會有任何反應。

    不論與你進行目光交流的人是男還是女，只要進行直接的目光交流，大腦都會產生這種反應。

    然而，如果與你對視對象非常迷人，那么你大腦中的反應就會更大一些。前部紋狀體的活動迅速增強，這意味著性欲的加強。

    但是，如果這個漂亮的人眼睛望著別處，那么你的前部紋狀體就會處于休眠狀態，你會認為照片上的人對你不感興趣，而感到很失望。

    有趣的是，如果照片中是一個相貌很丑的人眼睛望著別處，而不是直視實驗者，那么前部紋狀體同樣會有明顯的反應。研究者說：“和一個丑陋的人避免進行目光交流可能是一種解脫，所以同樣會引起大腦的反應。”