The Science Behind a Broken Heart

To "die of a broken heart" may be more than a fanciful phrase, suggests research published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A British team has found that the regions of the brain responsible for learning, memory and emotion can destabilise the cardiac muscle of someone who already has heart disease.

When we are under stress, these "higher regions" of the brain take part in a vicious circle of activity which can trigger harmful rhythms, researchers say. [...]

Dr Marcus Gray from Brighton said: "We know that stress can increase the risk of sudden death through cardiac arrest and that the brain areas responsible for regulating heart function can be unbalanced by stress. Our research suggests that the cerebral cortex may play a significant role in these events by becoming involved in a vicious circle."

These findings, based on the physiology of just ten people, are extremely preliminary, but the links described are quite plausible. It will be interesting to see whether further studies back them up.

Broken heart can be fatal, says study [Sydney Morning Herald]

Image: David Goehring