[Anjae]

And yet, deep brain stimulation can, and has, great effects in many. As with everything, the results will vary from person to person and, probably, because of severity of the matter and several other factors.

Scientists have found that an hormone may be related to hypersexuality/sexual addiction (the hormone is oxytocin): https://neurosciencenews.com/hypersexual-disorder-hormone-14962/

Who is to say, hormones, or other chemicals and/or brain functions aren't behind MLC?

Is it unbalanced oxytocin that is responsible for the hypersexuality some MLCers have? For bipolar and bordeline people hypersexuality? I don't know, and, so far, nor do scientists.

[Anjae]

A different way of seeing the affair, a simple explanation of the main brain/neurobiolgical process during an affair:

This article explains a bit the neurobiology of the affair: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-fantasy-and-reality-of-an-affair_b_10417310?guccounter=1

Lots of food for thought.

"Because that part of your brain - your limbic system - hijacks any sensibility and rational thought when you are knee deep in the throws of an affair."

" Two primary parts of the brain are at work during an affair that extend to opposite ends of the spectrum and, unfortunately, don't work in unison. The limbic part of our brain holds all the emotions and functions outside of morality and good decision making that the neocortex - or the most developed part of our brain for working memory, impulsivity, executive functioning -- handles"

"An affair charges up your dopamine (neurotransmitter) to your reward system. It makes you feel alive and charged up! All you can see is this person."

"Soon you will find yourself breaking all of your rules and devaluing your 'values' that, at one time, felt so strong."

"During an affair, it's difficult to stay rational and hope that the part of your brain - the neocortex - steps in and takes over the limbic system that sends you on a constant roller coaster, leaves you emotionally and mentally exhausted, and feeling like there is no end in sight - the end that you want."

[Not Applicable]

I find it hard to believe that people having affairs were recruited for a study where they put them in some sort of scanner to analyze their brains and see what parts were working and which weren't. 

Anyone can publish an article on HuffPost. It's not a reliable resource.

And if someone has a doctorate, I am surprised they are talking about the "throws" of an affair. 

[Nas]

As an editor, I was not at all surprised to see "throws of an affair."
I've worked on a lot of reports for clinical studies and pharmaceutical research.  Science-based scholars are not grammar majors.  Even the most brilliant researchers often mix up homonyms and spell things very incorrectly.

What struck me more is that this article (and I read lots of things similar to this when I first learned about my H's affair) only explains what happens at the beginning of an affair - mostly the time when it's secret, usually even before BD.  Limerence research explains similar things.
 It doesn't explain the presumably varied and complex reasons that a person remains with an affair partner for 3, 5, 10, 15 years. 

[Anjae]

The original study is not from HuffPost. It is well know how affairs change the brain and that being involved in an affair is like being high or drugs, namely cocaine.

Have you ever been madly in love? If so, you know the feeling and how addictive it is. Nothing new in the brain being flooded with dopamine when there is an addiction with is what affairs tend to be.

What struck me more is that this article (and I read lots of things similar to this when I first learned about my H's affair) only explains what happens at the beginning of an affair - mostly the time when it's secret, usually even before BD.

The article is about the affair, not a relationship that may follow it. Most non-MLC affairs tend to just it, the affair.

Once there is no more secret and especially if the couple starts living together it will turn into what relationships turn into. Unless they two people keep doing things to make sure there is a high, the high will be gone.

If people remain in a relationship like Mr J and OW1, living apart and seeing each other once a week or so, the high and fantasy can carry on. However, there will be trust and other issues. You already know the person you're with can cheat/does not have a problem being involved with a married person.

Once the affair is out of the shadows and becomes the primary, or only relationship, it is no longer an affair. Affairs are secret things.

It doesn't explain the presumably varied and complex reasons that a person remains with an affair partner for 3, 5, 10, 15 years.

It doesn't because it is about the affair itself, the secret part, not about relationships that started as an affair. Relationships that started with an affair, which is what most of our MLCer have, or have had, is a different matter.

We like to call affair to the relationship or marriage to OW/OM, but it is not. As soon as it in the open it stops being so. Do you thing remarried MLCers are still having an affair? Or those that spend years living with OW/OM? I don't