Dr Ordent in a report published in The Guardian, London says, however, a key factor in encouraging that loving feeling is creation of an oxytocin-friendly environment. Bright lights and high-tech machinery are an anathema to the flowering of love as they inhibit the release of the hormone because such conditions arouse the stress hormones originating from the rational part of the brain, the neo-cortex, and prevent oxytocin from flowing, he says.

The hormone, oxytocin, released most commonly during sex and childbirth, is involved in thefeeling of caring and warmth sparked off by all sorts of interactions.

According to Dr Obent, varying levels of oxytocin are released in case of every loving touch or positive feeling for another human being, whether it involves exchanging smiles with a stranger, sharing food, hygging one's kids or even one's dogs.

Oxytocin does not work alone but is released alongside other prolactin to create bonding between mother and child.

During a man-woman interaction, it works with the opiate-like brain chemicals, endorphins, to produce the sweet and pleasurable feeling, described by poets as ``being in love.''

The discovery may enable medical scientists to better understand the conditions which lead some people to suffer from social developmental disorders such as autism, suicidal tendencies, self abuse, drug addiction and even workaholiism.

It could also help them understand why such people as well as those who follow an unduly rational or logical approach, as opposed to an emotional one, find itdifficult to love those close to them.

Research by Dr Odent shows that persons suffering from autism are unable to release oxytocin as easily as others as is the case with those prone to suicidal tendencies, self abusers, drug addicts and workaholics.

Dr Odent says that being overtly rational or logical results in the educated part of the brain, the neo-cortex, dominating over the part of the brain where oxytocin flourishes, causing a major inhibition for triggering off love between human beings.

That is probably why, Dr Odent says, men and women who take pleasure in family, friends, food and relaxation are less likely to join the one in three persons currently said to be in need of viagra. He believes that low levels of oxytocin are a major cause of impotence.

It may also explain why an increasing number of modern working women, who often work in an environment which sublimes the emotional part of the brain, undergo a stressful existence are far more likely to require obstetrics treatment.

Theimportance of oxytocin was recognised in 1979. Tests carried out on virgin male rats revealed that when injected with the hormone, they began to display maternal behaviour.

Since then hundreds of research studies have been carried out and have shed light on the hormone's role in the early stages of sexual passion and in the process of bonding beyond birth.

Although most of the studies have been on animals, they are enabling scientists to determine it's role in everyday human interaction, thus opening up possibilities for ``harnessing the energy of love.''