Love diminishes physical pain

• April 26, 2024

Contemplate your photograph to be loved makes the pain decrease. This is not only a poetic truth, but a scientific fact .

But not only the visual image, but also the thought of a loved one serves as a protective shield . This is because thanks to love , the brain experiences a small explosion of pleasure what, apparently, makes the physical pain decrease.

The psychologist Naomi Eisenberger , from the University of California at Los Angeles, says that, in their previous work, they had already noticed that when one individual observes another with whom he has an important emotional bond (like the love of a couple) pain decreases. The question is: how does this happen?

In a study published in June 2011 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) of the United States, it is established that the Eisenberger he used a machine functional magnetic resonance to scan the brains of 17 women, who were subjected to brief but sharp electric shocks while.

At the same time, they were shown Photographs of co-workers, objects, strangers and, of course, people with whom they maintained some romantic relationship . The latter were the ones that caused the reaction described.

Love gives security

Unlike the previous investigations, in this one, Eisenberger and his team had the opportunity to see directly the results of the reactions of the brains, who participated in the test. What they found was a reduction in the activity of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex , which is the part of the brain linked to the feelings of security Y tranquility .

These observations support the hypothesis that the presence of a loved one decreases the pain through the production of such feelings, and not only are the neuronal systems that produce euphoria, as seen in couples in the early stages of relationships.

This effect palliative , comments Eisenberger , it can be diametrically opposed to a phenomenon in which seeing a picture of spiders or snakes makes the pain He feels more intense.

According Eisenberg , in literature, we speak of "stimulus prepared for fear" - snakes and spiders are things for which we are innately ready to feel fear. These things have been threatening our survival through our evolutionary history. The loved ones they could act as safety signals, as people who have most favored the evolutionary history of our survival.

Although the new study was not done with men, Eisenberger assured Wired Science, that there is no reason to think that your reaction would be different. "People might speculate that women are more sensitive, but these processes are just as critical for men."

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