Rejection in love is physically hurt
People who are rejected in love, may have similar feelings experienced as physical pain. American scientists came to this conclusion in a new study.
A rejection of love leads to activity in brain areas that also are associated with physical pain. People who are dumped by their partner, experience the same discomfort as much as physical torture.
Discovery News reports that, based on an experiment conducted by scientists at Columbia University in New York.
Photos
Scientists confronted subjects with a photograph of an ex-lover who had rejected them, or a picture of an ordinary friend. Other participants in the experiment were tortured with a device that heated their arm or just heated.
The subjects were always indicate how uncomfortable they felt on a scale of one to five. Also a scan of their brains made.
Brain Areas
According to the researchers led a confrontation with an ex-lover to as much inconvenience to the subjects and physical torture with hot stimuli.
It was also found in both situations the same areas of the brain active. The results of the study are described in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Intense
The activity in the brains of the participants in the experiment at the sight of an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend is less severe than physical pain.
The scientists also stress that first there must be an intense relationship, before a social rejection leads to the same sense as physical pain.