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Science 10 October 2003:
Vol. 302. no. 5643, pp. 237 - 239
DOI: 10.1126/science.1091062
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Perspectives

NEUROSCIENCE:
Feeling the Pain of Social Loss

Jaak Panksepp

Poets have long waxed lyrical about the pain of a broken heart. Now, as Panksepp explains in his Perspective, this metaphor may reflect real events in the mammalian brain. A new brain neuroimaging study (Eisenberger et al.) reveals that the brain areas that are activated during the distress caused by social exclusion are also those activated during physical pain. Thus, we now have an explanation for the feeling of physical pain that accompanies emotional loss-whether that be the loss of a loved one, rejection by one's social group, or the distress of separation experienced by young animals.

The author is at the J. P. Scott Center for Neuroscience, Mind and Behavior, Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA, and at the Falk Center for Molecular Therapeutics, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60201, USA. E-mail: jpankse{at}bgnet.bgsu.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Neurobiology of Aggression and Violence.
L. J. Siever (2008)
Am J Psychiatry 165, 429-442
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)