Aftermaths Of Break Up

By Religare

Wednesday, July 7, 2010, 18:09

A romantic partnership is an intimate relationship between the two. If it breaks up, it can break down one's sense of identity,leading to depression. Here is a new study which says partner rejection can affect brain activity which is linked with motivation, reward and addiction cravings.

The study was led by Dr. Lucy Brown, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University which demonstrated that primitive reward and survival systems are activated in people who look at their beloved.

By using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) researchers have found the brain activity of 15 college adults who were rejected by their partners. At the same time, they were found to be intensely 'in love'.

While seeing photographs of their former partners the participants brain were activated including the ventral tegmental area, which controls motivation and reward as well as feelings of romantic love, the nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal/prefrontal cortex, are associated with craving and addiction . The dopaminergic reward system is evident in cocaine addiction and the insular cortex and anterior cingulate, are associated with physical pain and distress.

By examining these areas of the brain, the expert gives the insight of the anguished feelings that can accompany a break-up and extreme behaviours resulting in stalking, homicide and suicide.

"Romantic love, under both happy and unhappy circumstances, may be a 'natural' addiction. Our findings suggest that the pain of romantic rejection may be a necessary part of life that nature built into our anatomy and physiology. A natural recovery, to pair up with someone else, is in our physiology, too," said Brown.