Videos are often catered to a certain group of people based on the platform they are presented on and the length of time in which they are shown. A shorter video on a platform like YouTube tends to cater to the general population who may stumble upon it while longer videos, such as a TED talk, tend to have viewers who may find an interest in a particular subject and seek out an interesting video from a familiar name. Both these outlets, however, cater to the general public and those who may not know a lot about science. They can also take two similar ideas and topics and present them in very different ways.
One science channel on YouTube is the popular ASAPScience. This channel uploads a video about once a week and is created by two guys who love science. Their videos are very interesting to watch, mostly because it contains a lot of illustrations. The narrator and artist of the channel, Mitch, draws out everything he says using a dry erase board, mini cutouts of different things, and a lot video editing. Using these tools, he creates a fun way to listen to and view science without making things seem too serious. His simple drawings make a seemingly complex subject seem easy to understand.
One of their videos, titled “The Science of Love,” stays away from the emotional descriptions of what love is and tackles the feeling from a biological perspective. One of the points they make is that the sensation of love does not come from your heart, even though everyone often associates love with the heart. They instead illustrate how love is actually something that comes from the brain. When in love, the brain often looks like a brain on cocaine. According to the video, cocaine lowers the threshold of pleasure centers, leading to a happy or “high” sensation. Anything experienced while in love or on cocaine will then make one feel happier quicker and are less likely to be annoyed at one’s surroundings.
When on cocaine, there is a release of dopamine that travels between neurons to generate good emotion. This increase in dopamine as well as norepinephrine comes from the ventral tegmental area (VTA), which is a group of neurons in the middle of the brain. Being in love is a “drive from the motor of the mind” and brings an overall feeling of pleasure while making one more focused. These pleasurable sensations are a part of the mesolimbic dopamine system, which when aroused, can make activities like learning seem easier because of the already good and rewarding response from the brain. When in love, there is also an increase in oxytocin and decrease in serotonin in one’s brain, showing the immense biological processes that take place when one is in love.
Helen Fisher, in her TED talk, displayed her information on “The Brain in Love” with a presentation. Most of the video was of her standing on a stage speaking with few breaks for pictures. She also found that the most effective way to captivate her audience was to intertwine quotes from famous authors and philosophers and little historical anecdotes with the scientific information she was presenting. Personally, I enjoyed most of the quotes and stories, but it seemed a bit much and would have preferred her to replace some of the quotes with more in depth information about her research.
Fisher sought to discover what happens to the brain when one is in love. With the help of several other colleagues, she put 37 people who have experienced love into an MRI machine and observed the activity in their brains. Some were in newer love, some were in love after 20 years of marriage, and some were just recently dumped. Fisher spoke about the importance of love in every human life. She mentioned how anthropologists have studied over 170 different societies and every single society has some instance of romantic love.
But what biological processes are involved in love? Fisher touched many points that Mitch and Greg spoke about regarding the brain activity. She spoke about how when in love, there is activity in the VTA where there are A10 cells, which make dopamine and release it into other regions in the brain. The reward system in the reason for the sensation felt when in love and is also associated with wanting, motivation, craving, and focus, similar to when one is on cocaine, which was addressed in Mitch and Greg’s video as well. Animals also love and have similar regions of the brain activated when they sense an instant attraction to another.
Fisher also worked with Lucy Brown to observe those who were just dumped. They found that there was activity in the brain regions associated with romantic love, calculating gains and losses, risk, and deep attachment to another individual. The findings show how difficult it is to truly “get over” someone they loved. Fisher also categorized love as an addiction, showing how it has all the characteristics of addiction including tolerance, withdrawal, and relapse.
Both videos addressed the same topic, but presented their information in extremely different ways. The first video was more concise, colorful, and fun while the second was slightly lengthier and focused more on the verbal presentation of information rather than illustrations. The ways each video grabbed the attention of the viewer was also very different. The first achieved this through Mitch’s cute and simple drawings while in the second, Fisher chose to use quotes and anecdotes to hold the viewer. I truly did enjoy both videos and found that they each displayed essentially the same information in two distinct and effective ways and were very successful in achieving their task of educating their viewer. I would definitely continue to watch TED talks and videos on AsapScience’s channel, despite the two platforms being very different.
Sources:
“The Science of Love”- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDMwpVUhxAo
“The Brain in Love”- https://www.ted.com/talks/helen_fisher_studies_the_brain_in_love#t-929257
Information on VTA- http://karg.cbi.pku.edu.cn/brain-info.php
