Bianca Acevedo

Last updated
Bianca Acevedo
Education New York University (BA)
Stony Brook University (PhD)
Known for
Scientific career
Institutions University of California, Santa Barbara
Website www.biancaacevedo.com

Bianca Acevedo is an American research scientist who studies romantic love and sensory processing sensitivity. [1] [2] [3] Acevedo performed the first neuroimaging study of long-term intense romantic love, couples who were still "madly" in love but had been married for 21 years on average. [4] [5] [6] [2] She is a researcher at Northwell Health, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. [1] [7]

Contents

Career

Acevedo received a BA in psychology from New York University, and a PhD in social/health psychology from Stony Brook University. [1]

As a postdoctoral researcher, she conducted a study with Arthur Aron (published in 2009) which found that romantic love can last inside relationships much longer than people generally assume. About 13% of people reported high levels of romantic love in their long-term relationships. [8] [9] In 2011, their brain scan experiment using fMRI was published, of long-term intense romantic lovers who had been in relationships for 10 years or more. These participants showed brain activations in dopamine-rich areas of the reward system (like the ventral tegmental area) when viewing a photograph of their loved one, similar to people in the early stage of romantic love, but also showed lower levels of anxiety compared to early-stage lovers. [6] [2] The early stage of intense romantic love (also called passionate love) has an obsessive element, but people experiencing romantic love in longer-term relationships show lower levels of obsession. [8] [9]

Acevedo has written two books on sensory processing sensitivity, related to the concept of a highly sensitive person: [1] [3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "About - Bianca Acevedo, PhD Author - Speaker - Scientist". BiancaAcevedo.com. Archived from the original on 5 August 2025. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 Acevedo, Bianca; Aron, Arthur; Fisher, Helen; Brown, Lucy (5 January 2011). "Neural correlates of long-term intense romantic love". Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience . 7 (2): 145–159. doi:10.1093/scan/nsq092. PMC   3277362 . PMID   21208991.
  3. 1 2 Estrada, Andrea (30 October 2024). "Neuroscientist Bianca Acevedo examines the impact and challenges of sensory processing sensitivity". The Current (UC Santa Barbara) . Archived from the original on 21 June 2025. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
  4. ↑ Admin (2011-01-07). "Love Can Last: SBU Imaging Study Shows Brain Activity Of Those In Love Long Term Similar To Those Newly In Love - SBU News" . Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  5. ↑ Parker-Pope, Tara (4 June 2010). "What Brain Scans Can Tell Us About Marriage". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 13 February 2025. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
  6. 1 2 Staff, TIME (11 January 2011). "What Your Brain Looks Like After 20 Years of Marriage". TIME . Archived from the original on 5 August 2025. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
  7. ↑ "Bianca Acevedo Ph.D." Psychology Today . Archived from the original on 28 December 2025. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
  8. 1 2 "Sweet science! Love lasts longer than thought". NBC News . 20 March 2009. Archived from the original on 1 July 2022. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
  9. 1 2 Acevedo, Bianca; Aron, Arthur (1 March 2009). "Does a Long-Term Relationship Kill Romantic Love?" . Review of General Psychology . 13 (1): 59–65. doi:10.1037/a0014226.
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