For year , Rutgers University anthropologist Helen Fisher has tirelessly analyzed the evolutionary purposes and neurologic operation ofloveand its flaky emcee of attendant behaviors . In doing so , she and her colleagues have uncovered how thehuman brainbecomes intoxicated with the sense impression of falling headland over heels , and also what happens when that love drug is ripped aside . As anyone who ’s been through a sore separation may belike judge , the results are n’t pretty .
Functional MRI ( fMRI ) brain scan of 10 women and five humans who lately had been on the receiving end of a breakup revealed a bustle of neurologic activity at the bare sight of their x ’s photograph . Areas of the mental capacity associated with addiction , motivation and anticipation of loss glittered on the functional magnetic resonance imaging screens , explain the great unwashed ’s post - breakup propensity to feel at the same time hopeless , yet yearn to see their lost loves and make amends [ origin : Fisher et al ] . farewell way with a buff is so powerfully painful , the brain processes its occurrent the same as it would withdrawal from a cocain habituation [ source : Fisher et al ] .
To serve participants wipe their genial slate clean of their angst - inducing exes , the researchers instructed them to matter backward by septenary from 9,247 . After 40 second or so , their genius activeness returned to neutral , hurt momently solace by the mental task of arithmetical . What Fisher and her colleagues may not have realized , however , was that there ’s an easier way to ease the sting of wild-eyed loss . To quell the breakup blues , the ready and most strong ethical drug often comes in musical form [ source : O’Connor ] .
In the face of aroused release , breakup Song can offer uncomparable solace . Whether someone is in demand of a peppiness public lecture on survival from Gloria Gaynor , or a bitter tell - off courtesy of Bob Dylan or unadulterated anguish out of Sam Cooke , breakup songs say it all for us , providing space to billow and , eventually , motivation to move on . A growing body of enquiry also suggest that hear to breakup songs is n’t just a ego - lenient practice session in sappiness . euphony does n’t just go in one pinna and out the other – it actually possess pain - mitigating belongings .
Music: A Cure for What Ails
aesculapian investigator have started ante up close aid to whether more medicine should be piped into the healthcare unconscious process , beyond the Muzak in doctors ' offices . Although symphonies and sonatas ca n’t erase painfulness with the precision of an analgesic ethical drug , they are n’t whole inert , either . A study published in August 2011 found that breast cancer patient role undergo mastectomy experienced loweredbloodpressure and reported lower anxiousness when music was wager in the backcloth before , during and after the procedure [ root : Binns - Turner et al ] . Similarly , children treated to post - operative music require less morphine during their recoveries , compared to peers in quieter environments [ source : Nilsson et al ] .
Melodious notes serve as an auditory unguent because they induce thebrain ’s limbic organization that regulates enjoyable sensations , such as rich bite of a cupcake [ generator : Totten ] . That electronic web of neuron releases joy - prompting dopamine in response to a individual get wind his or her favorite jams . Post - breakup , the limbic system of rules is also what ’s left spite . For that reason , putting those brokenheartedness song on repetition can middling satiate the brain nerve tract that were formerly excite by the ex - romantic spouse . With the limbic organisation revived , feelings of hopelessness and low can ebb away as well .
The anxiety of utmost emotional turmoil that comes with splitting up also may contribute to the satisfaction derive from listening to sad , meat - heavy tunes . For illustration , a discipline conducted at the University of Utah ’s Pain Research Center found that music - liaise pain easing was most effective among queasy patients [ source : Bradshaw et al ] . On average , birdcall do n’t provide a huge amount of forcible pain relief ; study participant reported a miserly 0.5 - point drop in pain in the neck on a zero - to-10 musical scale when they listened to music [ reservoir : Limjoco ] . But for people grappling with the climactic anxiety of anticipating of a operative operation or slogging through wild-eyed despair , medicine ’s pocket-sized analgesic force is amplified ; every little note helps .
No wonder the melodic library of breakup songs is endlessly extensive , crabbed - cross-pollinate every possible genre . Since doctor have yet to concoct a curative for grief , listen to and belting out the blues may just be the next secure therapy .
