Scientists have shown that there is a degree of truth in the old adage that love is blind.

They have found that feelings of love lead to a suppression of activity in the areas of the brain controlling critical thought.

It seems that once we get close to a person, the brain decides the need to assess their character and personality is reduced.

The study, by University College London, is published in NeuroImage.

The researchers found that both romantic love and maternal love produce the same effect on the brain.

They suppress neural activity associated with critical social assessment of other people and negative emotions.

The UCL team scanned the brains of 20 young mothers while they viewed pictures of their own children, children they were acquainted with, and adult friends.

The team found that the patterns of brain activity were very similar to those identified in an earlier study looking at the effects of romantic love.

Both studies recorded increased activity in parts of the brain's "reward system".

When these areas are stimulated - as they can be by food and drink, or even monetary gain - they produce feelings of euphoria.

But perhaps more surprisingly, both studies also showed reduced levels of activity in the systems necessary for making negative judgements.

Lead researcher Dr Andreas Bartels said it was crucial that both romantic and maternal love were viewed by the brain in a highly positive way - because both were crucial to the perpetuation of the species.

他们发现爱的感觉会抑制大脑控制批判性思维区域的活跃性。

似乎我们一旦接近一个人，大脑就会决定降低对他性格特征的评判需求。

伦敦大学学院的这项研究发表在《神经成像》期刊上。

研究者们发现无论是浪漫的爱情还是母爱对大脑产生的影响是相同的。

它们会抑制神经中枢中与对他人进行批判性社会评价和消极情绪有关的活动。

当20位年轻母亲在看自己孩子，熟识的孩子和成年朋友的照片时，伦敦大学学院的研究小组对他们的大脑进行了扫描。

研究小组发现这种大脑活动的模式与他们先前研究爱情的作用时确定的模式非常相似。

这两项研究都记录了大脑“回报机制”部分活跃性增强。

这些区域受到刺激时会产生愉悦的感觉，食物、饮料、甚至金钱利润都会刺激这些区域。

但更令人惊讶的或许是，这两项研究也显示，用于做出消极判断的系统的活跃性水平降低。

主任研究员安德里亚·巴特尔博士说，至关重要的是，大脑用一种非常积极的方式来看待浪漫的爱情和母爱，因为它们都对物种的永久延续十分重要。

adage: 格言，谚语
critical thought: 批判性思维
maternal love: 母爱
neural: 神经中枢的
euphoria: 精神欢快，兴高采烈