Spurned lovers’ brains reflect risk evaluation, pain

From Washington, D.C., at a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience

Relationships too often end with feelings of hurt, longing, and craving. A new study suggests that scientists can see those emotions reflected in brain images of lovers who were recently spurned.

Three years ago, Lucy Brown of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and her colleagues identified brain areas that seem to be active when someone is happily in love.