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Researchers placed people in relatively new romantic relationships inside an fMRI scanner while exposing them to controlled heat pain.
During some trials, participants looked at a photograph of their romantic partner.
Their reported pain significantly decreased compared with a condition where they viewed an acquaintance.
The partner photographs also activated reward-related areas of the brain.
A distraction task reduced pain too, but it involved different neural mechanisms.
Seeing someone you love can therefore influence something as physical as how strongly pain is experienced.
© PLOS ONE — Stanford University