Bianca Acevedo

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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 . Retrieved 5 August 2025.
  7. ↑ "Bianca Acevedo Ph.D." Psychology Today . 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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