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For centuries poets and songwriters have tried to describe the pain of a broken heart.
However, it has taken scientists to prove that the agony of unrequited love is more than a simple emotional response.
Experiments show that being dumped by a lover activates brain regions more usually associated with processing physical pain, such as the searing sensation of being burnt. In other words, a broken heart really does hurt.
The finding could help explain why being given the heave-ho can be so painful for so long.
The intriguing idea comes from an American study of 40 men and women whose relationships had ended against their wishes. All said the experience left them deeply hurt.
Their brains were scanned as they looked at various pictures.
Analysis of the scans revealed that the same brain regions lit up when processing the two types of pain, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports.
University of Michigan researcher Ethan Kross said: "These results give new meaning to the idea that social rejection 'hurts'."
"On the surface, spilling a hot cup of coffee on yourself and thinking about how rejected you feel when you look at the picture of a person that you recently experienced an unwanted break up with may seem to elicit very different types of pain."
"But this research shows that they may be even more similar than initially thought."
Other research has shed light on why we often yearn to get back together with a lost love.
Brain scans of men and women pining for a past partner revealed that a broken heart triggers the same feeling in the brain as kicking a drug addiction.
But there is hope for the lovelorn. The study showed that the greater then number of days since the rejection, the less activity there was in the parts of the brain behind emotional attachment.
參考譯文：
縱貫歷史長河，無數詩人騷客吟詠過心碎的痛楚。
如今科學家們證明了單戀的痛苦不僅是簡單的情緒反應。
試驗表明被愛人拋棄會激發大腦處理身體疼痛的區域，比如燒傷的灼熱感。換句話說，心碎的的確確是疼的。
這項發現有助于解釋為何分手會讓人長久痛苦。
這項試驗靈感來源一項面向40名男女的研究，他們都剛剛結束一段感情，均稱內心傷痛不淺。
研究者在他們觀看不同圖片時對大腦進行掃描。
《美國國家科學院院刊》發文稱，掃描分析表明大腦在處理心理和身體上兩種疼痛時，亮的地方是大腦同一區域。
密歇根大學研究員伊桑•克洛斯說：“結果讓人們了解了被社會拋棄的確讓人‘心生悲痛’。”
“表面看來，被熱咖啡燙傷，和看著剛分手的另一半的照片產生的拒絕感和心痛感，兩者看似是兩種截然不同的痛感。”
“然而研究表明它們比我們想象的要類似很多。”
另一項研究發現了為何我們總是希望和舊愛復合。
男女實驗對象看到舊愛的照片時，腦部掃描表明心碎感而活動的大腦區域和毒癮發作時的大腦區域是相同的。
然而失戀的人并非無藥可救，因為研究發現被拒絕的日子越久，這部分大腦區域的活動程度就會越低。
