This is Your Brain on Love.

Is it possible for one person to love more than another? In an attempt to find out, filmmaker Brent Hoff teamed with Stanford University neuroscientists to test lovers’ abilities, using an fMRI to monitor brain activity and measure whose adoration was the strongest.

It might be a funny way to try to find out, but still, it’s pretty damned cool.

The Love Competition from Brent Hoff on Vimeo.

But the couple married 50 years – wow. If they could sell what their secret was, we’d all be buying. My parents were like that, and I’m sadly witness to the only downside of a love like that in seeing my mother’s grief. Still, I’m sure she would say it was worth every second.

For me, at least, there’s this accompanying feeling that my eyes can see more, my senses are more alive, and I feel content in a way I don’t most of the time. It is amazing how the right arm around you, on the right day, at the right moment, can set the bar for what love feels like. It’s like that first flush, all over again, except it sustains itself in such a different way over time.