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That 80s power ballad¹ had it all wrong. Love may keep you from hurting.

Two researchers—pain specialist Sean Mackey at Stanford and love specialist Arthur Aron at S.U.N.Y. Stony² Brook—met at a neuroscience conference. They realized they were talking about the same brain region.

So back at Stanford, researchers recruited 15 undergrads in the early euphoric throes of a relationship. The volunteers had photos of the romantic partner and of an attractive acquaintance. As they looked at the photos, their palms were safely heated to mild pain. Then the volunteers repeated the experiment but were distracted by tasks such as: think of sports that don't use balls. Previous research found that distraction³ can ease pain.

Both distraction and the pictures of new loves reduced pain. But, the love photo acted in a totally different area of the brain—the primitive⁴ reward system region that lights up where addictive⁵ drugs work, and where pain-relieving opioids do their magic. The study was published in Public Library of Science One.

So the next time you're in pain, maybe you don't need to pop a pill. Just fall in love.

Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American's 60-Second Science, I'm Cynthia Grabe.