Figure 1.

Three axial sections through the human brain at 2 mm intervals show a consistent activation difference between a group happily in love and a group in love but recently rejected (yellow colour, p<0.01). Those who were recently rejected show greater activation in the right ventral putamen–pallidum and accumbens core (side definition is radiological convention) than those who were happily in love. These regions have been associated with reward, especially uncertain large gains and losses in gambling, and uncertain reinforcement in rats. (Figure data from Aron et al. 2005 and a preliminary report, Fisher et al. 2005a,b).