A series of 2-methoxy-4-(5-phenyl-4,5-dihydro-1<i>H</i>-pyrazol-3-yl)phenol (pyrazoline) derivatives (<b>2-6</b>) have been synthesized and tested for human monoamine oxidase (hMAO) inhibitory activity. The most active derivative (<b>2</b>) behaved as a competitive hMAO-A inhibitor, with an inhibition constant value of 0.08 μM and a strong hMAO-A selectivity (<i>K</i><sub>i</sub>(hMAO-B)/<i>K</i><sub>i</sub>(hMAO-A) > 1751). In addition, <b>2</b> exhibited little to no cytotoxic effects up to a 25 μM concentration and provided the best blood-brain barrier permeability among the derivatives synthesized. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed that a chlorine substituent at the <i>para</i>-position of the phenyl ring in <b>2</b> enabled a π-π stacking interaction with Tyr407 and Tyr444 that resulted in the formation of an "aromatic sandwich" structure. Consequently, this tight-binding aromatic cage culminated in a dramatically reduced active site volume that is believed to be the origin of the observed selectivity between the hMAO-A and hMAO-B isozymes. Removal of the chlorine from <b>2</b> disrupted the favorable intermolecular interactions and resulted in a selectivity change towards hMAO-B.