Scientists finally find a cure for Cupid’s arrows

‘Some people can become compulsive’

BRAIN training using pictures of arrows could help people recover from heartbreak, a top neuroscientist claims.

Jilted lovers may be able to reprogramme their brains to stop dwelling on being dumped and prevent themselves sending drunken texts or trying to win someone back.

The key, according to Cambridge professor Barbara Sahakian, is to exercise the part of the brain which stops impulsive behaviours.

The training exercise works by asking people to repeatedly press a button when they see an arrow pointing left or right, then stop when a buzzer sounds.

The prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain in charge of stopping, is strengthened like a muscle.

And the same part of the brain may kick in to stop people acting on their feelings after a particularly bad break-up.

Professor Sahakian is currently testing brain training to stop compulsive behaviours in people suffering from mental illness.

She said: ‘The frontal lobes in the brain are so important for inhibitory control, for inhibiting responses.

‘People don’t realise that the frontal lobes exert control in many different situations, whether in a brain-training task or in stopping people ruminating on lost love.

‘It is like exercising a muscle, and it might stop someone who is heartbroken from repeatedly texting their expartner. The brain would have the tools to put a stop to that.’

The principle is the same as for existing brain training for people with obsessive compulsive disorder.

Professor Sahakian said: ‘The thing about love is that it can affect the wrong systems in the brain.

‘People can become compulsive about it all, which is important if you are going to marry someone and have children with them – you need strong feelings. However, if that person does not love you any more or has gone off with someone else, that becomes maladaptive.’

Heartbreak involves the amygdala and limbic parts of the brain, but the mechanism which governs ‘inhibitory control’, in the prefrontal cortex, can prevent us giving in to our emotions. Scientists in the US found in 2010 that lovelorn people can spend months struggling to cope with their emotions, as the brain still expects the ‘reward’ of being in love with the person they are no longer with.

The academics reported people sobbing for hours, pleading for reconciliation and showing up at their previous partners’ workplaces to make declarations of anger or love. But brain training could help people get better at not acting on their feelings.

Previous research has already shown that the arrow task activates the parts of the brain involved in impulse control. Professor Sahakian said: ‘It is a case of “use it or lose it” when it comes to inhibitory control.

‘If it follows other forms of brain training, eight hours a month could be enough to help.’

The exercise with the arrows could also work because it distracts people from their newly single status.

She added: ‘People take their friends on holiday or a night out following a divorce or break-up because they know distraction works.’

The neuroscientist was speaking after appearing at Cheltenham Science Festival in the UK to promote her book, Sex, Lies And Brain Scans.