Can Your Brain’s Feelings Hurt Your Body, too?

Recent research shows that social rejection and physical pain are intrinsically linked in the brain.

brain feelings hurt your body

Dr. Naomi Eisenberger is revealing that the emotional benefits of socialization –acceptance, intimacy, friendship–are so crucial that any lack may hurt our bodies as well as our minds. Luckily, it’s possible that training can help improve emotional well-being.

How social rejection might affect physical pain

In an experiment published in the 2006 issue of the journal Pain, Eisenberger used 75 subjects to explore perceptions of physical pain in the context of social situations.

First, researchers identified each person’s unique pain threshold by transmitting varying levels of heat to the forearm. Subjects rated the pain level of each stimulus until they reached “very unpleasant.” This provided a baseline for personal thresholds of physical pain in normal situations.

Subjects then took part in a ball-tossing game involving three characters on a computer screen. One character represented the subject; researchers told everyone that the other two characters were played by real people (though the computer actually controlled everything). The subject was either socially included (the ball was regularly tossed to the subject) or not included (the ball was not tossed to the subject). In the last 30 seconds of the game, a new heat stimulus was applied and subjects rated its pain level.

Unsurprisingly, the non-included group reported 67% more social distress. More surprisingly, the same people who reported great social distress due to the game also reported higher pain ratings (based on threshold) at the end of the game—showing a link between social and physical pain.

Pain processing in the brain

Many fMRI studies have confirmed that emotional and physical pain both activate the brain’s dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Still other studies note that people who suffer from physical conditions such as chronic pain are also more likely to have emotional anxiety and feel social rejection more deeply.

In other words, emotional health contributes in many ways to living a full life. Luckily, scientists have already found indications that you can train and control your emotions.

Researchers suggests that better emotional control is something everyone can strive towards, even if you’re in perfect health. Some of the cognitive processes involved in emotional well-being—such as executive control, which helps us plan rationally and control impulses—can also transfer to intellectual abilities that you rely on at work and in school. Get access to Shirsa today: it could benefit you in ways you might not have considered!

- Team Shirsa