The answer to whether a romance will blossom into a long-term relationship may be found in the way our brains respond when we think about a new partner, a study says.

Scientists have found that they can spot the signs of a true romance in people embarking on a new relationship by looking at how much their brains light up when they think about their new partner. The scientists detected distinctive patterns of electrical activity in the brains of volunteers who believed they had fallen in love, and found that they could use the scans to predict whether a couple would stay together.

The studycould end the uncertainty of courting by revealing if a couple are likely to have a long relationship.  The scans showed that even if someone believed they had fallen in love, the activity of their neurons could suggest if their feelings were strong enough for them to be with the other person three years later.