Say goodbye to long hours spent eating ice cream in bed, questionable hair experiments and piles of tissues covered in tears? A recent study shows how stimulating certain areas of the brain could ease your suffering after a heartbreak, explains New Scientist.
At any age, breakups can cause real emotional turmoil. Researchers call this phenomenon “love trauma syndrome” (LTS), a term that refers to the collection of symptoms of grief and distress experienced after the end of a relationship. Less harmless than you might think, LTS can lead to real episodes of depression, anxiety, and even sleep disturbances.
To find new solutions to this problem, an international team of researchers looked at a novel approach: transcranial direct current stimulation. The scientists used low-level electrical currents to stimulate the affected parts of the brains of thirty-six participants (volunteers, of course) who had recently suffered a bad breakup.
To carry out this study, they were divided into three groups. The first group received stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex – in other words, the part of the brain that makes decisions, solves problems, controls impulses… In the second group, it was the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex that was stimulated: it is responsible for regulating your emotions, your empathy… The last group, on the other hand, simply received a dummy stimulation.
Encouraging results for broken hearts
The results of the study are clear: participants in the groups that received real stimulation experienced a significant improvement in their symptoms compared to the so-called placebo group. The stimulated volunteers…
- Slate.fr
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