Philematology The Science of Kissing

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ByElizabeth Landau
CNN


(CNN) -- When your lips gentlybrush against the mouth of your beloved this Valentine's Day, it may feelmagically romantic, or sloppily slobbery, or blissfully gentle, or perhaps toorough and toothy.
 Thescience of kissing even has a name: philematology. Researchers areinvestigating the mechanisms involved.

Regardless, the practice ofkissing is nearly universal. It is practiced in at least 90 percent of culturesamong sexual or romantic partners, experts say. Now, scientists areinvestigating the biological factors underlying that ubiquitous expression oflove.
The science of kissing evenhas a name: philematology. Research on the subject was presented at the annualmeeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicagoon Friday.
"Kissing is not justkissing. It is a major escalation or de-escalation point in a powerful processof mate choice," said Helen Fisher, professor at Rutgers University andauthor of the book "Why Him, Why Her: Finding Real Love by UnderstandingYour Personality Type." Visit CNNhealth, your connection for better living
A study by Gordon GallupJr., professor of psychology at the University of Albany, showed that 59percent of men and 66 percent of women reported that after feeling attracted toanother person initially, the attraction ended after the first kiss, Fisher said.
Looking at a sample of morethan 1,000 college students, Gallup and colleagues found that women also tendto emphasize kissing more than men, and are much more likely to insist onkissing before a sexual encounter.
A person receivesinformation about the person he or she is smooching by locking lips, Fishersaid. A kiss transmits smells, tastes, sound and tactile signals that allaffect how the individuals perceive each other and, ultimately, whether theywill want to kiss again.
Women tend to be attractedto male partners with a different immune system makeup from their own, Fishersaid. They subconsciously detect information about a partner's immune systemthrough smell during kissing, she said.
Research led by Wendy Hill,professor of neuroscience at Lafayette College, looked at how kissing affectsthe hormones oxytocin, sometimes called the "love hormone," which isassociated with social bonding, and cortisol, a measure of stress.
The first experiment, whichtook place in a student health center, looked at college students age 18 to 22,and examined hormone levels in 15 heterosexual couples. In the control group,participants held hands and talked with their partner while music played. Inthe experimental group, participants were told to open-mouth kiss their partnerfor the length of the music -- 16 minutes.
The results showed thatoxytocin levels in the women decreased after the session, but increased in themen. Researchers had expected those levels to go up in both genders; thedecrease for women may have resulted from the artificial setting of the studenthealth center, researchers theorize.
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A second experiment in amore romantic setting -- a secluded room with jazz music, flowers and electriccandles -- looked at nine heterosexual couples and three lesbian couples.
Researchers found that thelonger the relationship of a couple, the more the cortisol levels declined inboth partners. The heterosexual women, moreover, said they felt greaterintimacy with their partners than the heterosexual men or the homosexual womendid, while all groups expressed equal satisfaction in kissing their partners.The researchers are in the process of analyzing oxytocin levels in thisexperiment.
On the basis of brainimaging, Fisher proposes that there are three distinct brain systems involvedin mating and reproduction: sex drive, romantic love, and attachment. Sex drivecompels us to seek partners, romantic love tells us to commit to one, andattachment helps us "tolerate this person at least long enough" tohave a child, she said. Kissing evolved to stimulate all three of thesesystems, she said.
Kissing "can reallyeither escalate a relationship or really kill it," Fisher said.
We feel such sensitivity tokissing partially because of the way our brain is structured, Fisher said. Thesomatosensory cortex, which extends from one side of the brain to the other, hasa large portion devoted to picking up signals from the lips, tongue, nose andcheek areas around the mouth.
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"You can really getpoked in the back and not feel it very much, but just a feather around yourlips and you really do feel it," she said. As for the origins ofkissing, one theory is that kissing evolved as an extension of the way mothersused to feed their children. Early humans, who lacked jars of manufactured baby

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.