Broken heart hurts like a burn on the skin

• May 2, 2024

The same brain networks that activate when you suffer a slight burn they turn on when you think of a love that has rejected you, revealed a study published in the magazine Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Apparently, the brain does not distinguish between physical pain and the emotional suffering intense. The broken heart and the painful separations They are "more than just metaphors", he says. Ethan Kross , principal investigator of the study and assistant professor of psychology in The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

The study, also published on the portal Health.com , reveals the role of feelings of rejection and other emotional traumas, which have a determining effect on the development of chronic pain disorders, such as fibromyalgia :

"This raises interesting questions about whether treating physical pain can help relieve emotional pain and vice versa. These findings delineate the direct path in which emotional experiences can be related to the body, "Ross says.

This study was the first to show that the rejection can cause a response in two areas of the brain associated with physical pain: secondary somatosensory cortex and the dorsal insula later. These regions of the brain were lit in the study, because the rejection that the volunteers experienced was unusually intense.

Although Kross emphasizes that the study is "a first step," to understand the connection between physical and emotional pain, the findings may help chronic pain patients understand that emotions can affect their physical condition.