Shakespeare dedicated whole sonnets and plays to it, and more recently, US songstress Ke$ha has been cashing in on the phrase "your love is my drug" in her hit song of the same name. But are these artistic portrayals of love best left at that? According to a recent study on the subject of falling in love, these two artists may well be on to something.

According to the study, the first flush of love stimulates at least 12 different parts of the brain which release all kinds of feel-good hormones like dopamine, adrenaline and oxytocin.

Conducted by Professor Stephanie Ortigue from Syracuse University in New York, the study also found that falling in love takes only one fifth of a second.

Quoted by the Telegraph, Professor Ortigue said, "These findings confirm love has a scientific basis. But they beg the question: 'Does the heart fall in love, or the brain?'"

She goes on to answer her own question by stating that though the scientific evidence is undeniable, the heart plays its role in a decidedly complex relationship between brain and heart, or what she calls "bottom-up and top-down processes from the brain to the heart and vice versa."

Researchers on the study also found that different types of love — such as the love of a mother or the love of material goods — stimulate different parts of the brain. This may enable scientists to better understand the mysterious "love-sickness" in which someone pines for the love of another. According to Ortigue, 40 percent of those rejected by a lover experience depression.

Ortigue calls love one of the most important concepts in our society. Quoted by Syracuse University student newspaper, Daily Orange, she explained that the study of love can help us to understand its mental impact.