Can emotional pain be as hurtful as physical pain?
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1 April 2011
A
research study published this week suggests that after the end of a
relationship, a broken heart really can hurt. The study in the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences, shows that physical pain and the emotional
pain can 'hurt' in the same way.
Reporter
James
Cowling
You've broken up with your
girlfriend or boyfriend, your wife or husband has left you and you feel
rejected, dejected,
broken-hearted. Well, new research suggests that intense feelings of rejection
are ashurtful as
physical pain.
The
lead author of the study, Ethan Kross, said the reason is because the same
regions of the brain that become active in response to painfulsensory experiences
are also activated during intense experiences of social rejection.
The
researchers hope their findings will
offer new insight into
how the experience of intense social loss may lead to various physical painsymptoms and disorders.
They
also confirmed the notion that
people from different cultures all around the world use the same language,
words like 'hurt' and 'pain', to describe the experience of both physical pain
and social rejection.
James Cowling, BBC News
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