درد و دلتنگی ناشی از طرد شدن توسط یار عشق رمانتیک ممکن است نتیجه کنش در قسمت هایی از مغز باشد که با انگیزش، پاداش، و هوس های اعتیادی در ارتباط است. این مطلب نتیجه گیری مطالعه ای است که در شماره ماه جولای ژورنال اف نوروفیزیولوژی انتشار یافت.
یافته های این مطالعه می تواند مفهوم های ضمنی برای درک این مطلب داشته باشد که چرا کنترل احساسات مرتبط با طرد رمانتیک می تواند تا این اندازه سخت شود، و ممکن است بینشی در مورد رفتار های افراطی مرتبط با طرد، مانند کمین و تعقیب، قتل و خودکشی – رفتارهایی که در میان بسیاری فرهنگ ها در سراسر جهان رخ می دهد – به دست دهد.
طرح مطالعه و یافته ها
پژوهشگران در این مطالعه از دستگاه fMRI برای ثبت کنش های مغزی 15 مرد و زن در سن دانشجویی و علاقمند به جنس مخالف که به تازگی از جانب طرف احساس عاطفی خود طرد شده بودند اما می گفتند که هنوز شدیدا "عاشق" هستند استفاده کردند. میانگین طول زمانی از ابتدای هنگامی که شرکت کنندگان طرد شده بودند تا وقتی که در این مطالعه ثبت نام کردند 63 روز بود. همه شرکت کنندگان در آزمونی که "مقیاس عشق آتشین" نامیده می شود نمره های بالایی آورده بودند. تمام شرکت کنندگان گفتند که آنها بیش از 85 درصد زمان بیداری خود را به فکر کردن درباره کسانی که آنها را طرد کرده بودند می گذراندند، آنها آرزو می کردند که آن فرد به آنها بازگردد و می خواستند دوباره با هم باشند.
شرکت کنندگان هر کدام عکسی از یار سابق خود را نگاه کردند. آنگاه یک تمرین ساده ریاضی، مانند شمارش معکوس از یک عدد چهار رقمی تصادفی با تناوب 7، انجام دادند تا ذهن آنها از افکار رمانتیک پرت شود. سرانجام، آنها به عکس هایی ار یک فرد آشنای "خنثی،" مانند دوست یک هم اتاقی، نگاه کردند.
پژوهشگران دریافتند که نگاه کردن به تصویر یار سابق شرکت کنندگان در مقایسه با نگاه کردن به عکس خنثی ناحیه های کلیدی در مغز شرکت کنندگان را بیشتر تحریک کرد. این ناحیه ها عبارت بود از: ...
(علاوه بر متن تهیه شده از منبع انجمن فیزیولوژی آمریکا خبری کوتاه تر و با متنی ساده تر نیز به نقل از لایوسینس یاهو در زیر آمده است.)
Romantic Rejection Stimulates Areas of Brain Involved in Motivation, Reward and Addiction
Is romantic rejection a specific form of addiction?
Released: 7/6/2010 2:00 PM EDT
Source: American Physiological Society (APS)
Newswise — The pain and anguish of rejection by a romantic partner may be the result of activity in parts of the brain associated with motivation, reward and addiction cravings, according to a study published in the July issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology (http://jn.physiology.org/).
The study’s findings could have implications for understanding why feelings related to romantic rejection can be hard to control, and may provide insight into extreme behaviors associated with rejection, such as stalking, homicide and suicide—behaviors that occur across many cultures throughout the world.
Study Design and Findings
In the study, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to record brain activity in 15 college-age, heterosexual men and women who had recently been rejected by their partners but reported that they were still intensely “in love.” The average length of time since the initial rejection and the participants’ enrollment in the study was 63 days, and all participants scored high on a psychological test called the Passionate Love Scale, which determines the intensity of romantic feelings. All participants said they spent more than 85% of their waking hours thinking of the person who rejected them, they yearned for the person to return and they wanted to get back together.
Participants each viewed a photograph their former partners. Then they completed a simple math exercise, such as counting backwards from a random four-digit number by 7, to distract them from their romantic thoughts. Finally, they viewed a photograph of a familiar “neutral” person, such as a roommate’s friend.
The researchers found that looking at photographs of the participants’ former partners stimulated several key areas of the participants’ brains more than looking at photos of neutral persons did. The areas are:
• the ventral tegmental area in the mid-brain, which controls motivation and reward and is known to be involved in feelings of romantic love,
• the nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal/prefrontal cortex, which are associated with craving and addiction, specifically the dopaminergic reward system evident in cocaine addiction, and
• the insular cortex and the anterior cingulate, which are associated with physical pain and distress.
The researchers note that their findings supply evidence that “the passion of ‘romantic love’ is a goal-oriented motivation state rather than a specific emotion” and that their results are “consistent with the hypothesis that romantic rejection is a specific form of addiction.” Those who are coping with a romantic rejection may be fighting against a strong survival system that appears to be the basis of many addictions. The data help to explain why the beloved is so difficult to give up.
Hope for the Lovelorn
There is hope for the lovelorn, however: The researchers found that the greater the number of days since the rejection, the less activity there was in the area of the brain associated with attachment, the right ventral putamen/pallidum area, when the participants viewed photographs of their former partners. Also, areas associated with reappraising difficult emotional situations and assessing one's gains and losses were activated, suggesting that rejected individuals are trying to understand and learn from their difficult situation--what could be an adaptive response to rejection. If attachment responses decrease as the days go by and falling out of love is a learning process, there could very well be physiological evidence that time heals all wounds.
Research Team
The study, entitled Reward, Addiction and Emotion Regulation Systems Associated with Rejection in Love, was conducted by Helen E. Fisher, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, Lucy L. Brown, Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, New York, NY, Art Aron, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, and Greg Strong and Debra Mashek, the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The Journal of Neurophysiology is a publication of the American Physiological Society (www.The-APS.org).
Physiology is the study of how molecules, cells, tissues and organs function to create health or disease. The American Physiological Society (APS) has been an integral part of this scientific discovery process since it was established in 1887.
'Romantic Love Is an Addiction,' Researchers Say
Rachael Rettner
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com rachael Rettner
livescience Staff Writer
livescience.com – Tue Jul 6, 3:05 pm ET
Those who pine over a lost love might have a biological reason for their prolonged yearning. New brain research suggests getting over romantic rejection might be akin to kicking an addiction.
The study is one of the first to examine the brains of the recently broken-hearted who have trouble letting go of their relationship.
The researchers found that, for heartbroken men and women, looking at photographs of former partners activated regions in the brain associated with rewards, addiction cravings, control of emotions, feelings of attachment and physical pain and distress.
The results provide insight into why it might be hard for some people to get over a break up, and why, in some cases, people are driven to commit extreme behaviors, such as stalking and homicide, after losing love.
"Romantic love is an addiction," said study author Helen E. Fisher, a biological anthropologist at Rutgers University who studies love. "It's a very powerfully wonderful addiction when things are going well and a perfectly horrible addiction when things are going poorly," she said.
The researchers speculate the brain's response to romantic rejection may have an evolutionary basis.
"I think the brain circuitry for romantic love evolved millions of years ago, to enable our ancestors to focus their mating energy on just one person at a time and start that mating process," Fisher said. "And when you've been rejected in love, you have lost life's greatest prize, which is a mating partner."
"This brain system becomes activated probably to help you try to win this person back so you focus on them and crave them and try to get them back," she said.
Brains of the heart-broken
Fisher and her colleagues scanned the brains of 15 college-aged volunteers (10 women and 5 men) who had all recently experienced a break up, but were still in love with the person who had rejected them. The average length of the relationship was about 2 years, and about 2 months had passed, on average, since the relationship ended.
All participants scored high on the Passionate Love Scale, a questionnaire psychologists use to measure the intensity of romantic feelings. Participants also said they spent more than 85 percent of their waking hours thinking about their rejecter.
In the experiment, the subjects viewed a photograph of their former partner and were asked to think about events that occurred with him or her. The subjects also looked at a neutral image of a familiar person, such as a classmate or friend of a friend. To try and suppress the romantic feelings conjured up from the first half of the experiment, the researchers had participants compete a math exercise in between viewing the rejecter photograph and the neutral photograph.
Among the findings
Viewing their former loved one stimulated a region of the brain called the ventral tegmental area, involved in motivation and reward. Previous work has found this region is also active in people who are madly in love. This makes sense, because "Whether you're happily in love or whether you're unhappily in love, you're still in love," Fisher said.
Brain regions known as the nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal/prefrontal cortex were also activated. These regions are known to be associated with intense cocaine addiction and cigarette addiction.
There was also increased activity in the brain's insular cortex and the anterior cingulated, regions associated with physical pain and distress.
Some good news
The researchers did find some good news for romantically rejected: time seems to heal. The more time that had passed since the breakup, the less activity there was in a brain region associated with attachment.
Brain areas involved in emotion regulation, decision making and evaluation were also active when participants viewed their rejecter. This suggests participants were learning from their past romantic experience, evaluating their gains and losses and figuring out how to deal with the situation, Fisher said.
These findings suggest that talking about their experience, rather than simply moping in grief, may have therapeutic benefits for the lovelorn.
"It seems to be healthy for the brain, to instead of just wallowing in despair, to think about the situation more actively and try to work out how you're going to handle it." Fisher said.
The results were published in the July issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology.