For your brain, romantic rejection is the same thing as being physically hurt

When your sweetheart dumps you, there’s a reason why it hurts so much. It turns out your brain registers the psychological hell in exactly the same way it registers physical pain.

A group of scientists used fMRI scans to study the brains of people dealing with being rejected, and compared them to the brains of people experiencing physical pain. They found that the exact same regions of the brain are involved in processing both experiences. For humans, social rejection is tantamount to literal injury.

 they saw the same regions of the brain lighting up during both physical and mental tasks - specifically, “areas that support the sensory components of physical pain (secondary somatosensory cortex; dorsal posterior insula).”

Read the full scientific paper via PNAS

by Annalee Newitz via raifontherocks

Source: io9.com

180 Notes/ Hide

  1. stellarblaze reblogged this from raifontherocks and added:
    For your brain, romantic rejection is the same thing as being physically burned
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    Guys, guys. Totally called it.
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