Physical Pain and Emotional Pain Use Same Brain Networks

Antipater writes "To the brain, heartbreak and emotional torment are no different from having hot coffee spilled on your hand, reports CNN. They cite a recent study from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in which 40 recently-dumped men and women underwent fMRI scans while having their arm burned or being shown a picture of their ex. The stimuli produced nearly identical brain reactions."

Comments

Re:In other news...

[petteyg359]

A lot of inspiration can be found in seemingly bizarre experiments.

Bad scans

[im_thatoneguy]

Goes to show how crude our current scanning techniques are.

I've burned my hand before and the sensation was quite different from being dumped.

Not to say it's magic or not in the brain. Just saying fMRI isn't accurate enough to detect the difference. There most certainly is a difference.

Re:Bad scans

[cupantae]

I don't know why parent is being modded up and the AC down. It's not like the researchers are saying to one another, "seeing as being dumped feels exactly like spilling hot coffee one the hand, we should check if this is backed by brain scans". You say that you know that the difference is, in fact, detectable between the two by adequate brain scanning equipment. You back this up by saying that the experiences feel different. That is as ridiculous as saying that you've rubbed charcoal and diamonds on paper, and you know they're different elements.

Re:Yeah - maybe if you look at it in a silo

[ustolemyname]

Yet I, having suffered both, would rather the boot to the head.

Different people value equivalent things differently. News at 11.

Re:Yeah - maybe if you look at it in a silo

[barlevg]

agreed. pain from a boot to the head fades faster.

Re:Yeah - maybe if you look at it in a silo

[Anonymous Coward]

but the same brain you are talking about has a "would you rather" processor - and mine would rather suffer an emotional heartbreak than a boot to the head

I have suffered tremendous psychological pain because of mental illness and I think I'd prefer physical pain... hell, one way of making your brain let go of mental anguish is to hurt yourself, cut, burn, whatever. Then you can focus on the throbbing pain of the cigarette burn, overriding the mental pain, and it is heaven compared to severe anxiety/panic.

Re:Yeah - maybe if you look at it in a silo

[definate]

This remind's me of something a teacher from primary school used to say...

"Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will always hurt me."
- Penny Sinclaire

I remember this profoundly affecting me at the time, because people had always stated the converse (that "names will never hurt me"), blew my mind at the time.

It must have affected me so much, that to this day, I still remember it some 20+ years later.