Heartbreak hurts

McMillen, Matt. "To the brain, getting burned, getting dumped feel the same ." Health.com March 29, 2011: n. pag. Web. 29 Mar 2011. http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/28/burn.heartbreak.same.to.brain/index.html .

In a study led by doctor Ethan Kross,an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor researchers were able to find that the sensation of being burned physically and hurt emotionally activate the same networks in the brain. The sponsors of the research were not mentioned but the method used to find the data were. According to this article, 21 women and 19 men had their brains monitored by a fMRI scan while they were given a shock that created a sensation similar to being burnt by hot coffee and then later forced to look at and focus on memories they had with their recent romantic love interests. All of the volunteers were dumped in the 6 months prior to the study and had no medical history of mental illness or chronic pain. According to the article the fMRI showed that the secondary somatosensory cortex and the dorsal posterior insula were triggered during both exercises and before this study those areas of the brain were only associated with physical pain. The study was important because it helps doctors to see that emotional therapy along with physical therapy for a patient can help them recuperate better.