Hate in the Brain

  You’ve probably heard it said that there’s a fine line between love and hate. This would suggest that it’s extremely easy to move from one state to the other. However, is this true? As a matter of fact, neuroscientific advances in the study of love and hate indicate that certain cortical and subcortical structures that are activated for hate are also activated for love. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, neuroscientists Zeki and Romaya (2008) studied 17 people who professed hatred toward someone. The researchers observed that structures, such as the putamen and the insula were both activated for stimuli associated with…