The obsessions of the green-eyed monster: jealousy and the female brain

Abstract

The present brain-imaging study assessed neural correlates of romantic jealousy in women who had suffered real infidelity by their partner. We predicted to find activation across different brain structures associated with the processing of negative emotions and cognitive processes as well as obsessive-compulsive behavior. FMRI scans were administered while participants listened to descriptions of their own or another person’s experience of infidelity and jealousy, or to nonsense words. In the self-experienced (vs. other-experienced) jealousy condition, activity was greater in areas commonly associated with the interaction between different negative emotions (i.e., insula, anterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex) such as fear, anger, sadness and cognitive processes like rumination. Enhanced activity was also found in the fronto-striato-thalamo-frontal circuit, a network implicated in habit formation and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Activation in the above networks was not enhanced when participants listened to other-experienced infidelity reports, as indicated by comparisons with the neutral condition. We discuss implications for the understanding and treatment of jealousy.

Keywords:

• Jealousy
• brain imaging
• fMRI
• obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
• infidelity

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nadine Steis

Nadine Steis, is a clinician in private practice. Her research focuses on psychosomatic illnesses and psychotherapy research.

Silvia Oddo-Sommerfeld

Silvia Oddo-Sommerfeld, PhD, leads the psychological division of the Department of Obstetrics and Perinatal Medicine, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. She also works as a clinician in private practice. Her research focuses on perinatal affective disorders and the impact of premature birth on women, men and children. Her research interests further comprise neuroscientific studies and bonding. She established a telefonic counselling service for postpartum depressive women.

Gerald Echterhoff

Gerald Echterhoff, PhD (USA), is Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Münster, Germany, and a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of North Rhine-Westphalia. His research passions include shared reality, social cognition, memory, interpersonal relations, and the psychology of refugee migration.

Aylin Thiel

Aylin Thiel, PhD, is a clinician in private practice. Her research focuses on psychosomatic illnesses and psychotherapy research.

Jürgen Thiel

Jürgen Thiel, PhD, is a clinician in private practice. His research focuses on psychosomatic illnesses and psychotherapy research.

Katja Briem

Katja Briem, PhD, is a clinician in the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Centre, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany. Her research interests focus on psychosomatic illnesses, self-injurious behavior, and neuroscientific studies.

Angela Ciaramidaro

Angela Ciaramidaro, PhD in Cognitive Science, is Assistant Professor (tenure track) at the Department of Education and Human Sciences (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy) and is also a Cognitive Psychotherapist. She has a strong multidisciplinary expertise in the fields of social neuroscience and clinical psychology and her research interests are focused on behavioral and neuroimaging studies investigating social cognition in healthy and clinical populations.

Christine M. Freitag

Christine M. Freitag is Professor for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and Director of the Department of child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. Her research focuses on autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity and conduct disorder in children and adolescents, and comprises clinical trials, diagnostic, neuropsychological, brain imaging, and genetic studies.

Axel Mecklinger

Axel Mecklinger is a Full Professor for Neuropsychology at Saarland University in Saarbrücken. Prior to this, he worked as a Senior Research Scientist at the Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig. In 1999 he received the Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contributions to Psychophysiology from the Society for Psychophysiological Research. He is Associate Editor of Brain & Cognition and member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Psychophysiology. His research interests are the Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning, Memory and Cognitive Control.

Katja Unterhorst

Katja Unterhorst is a psychologist and psychotherapist in training currently living in Kiel, Germany. Her research interests include human sexuality and the potential uses of psychedelics in psychotherapy and psychiatry.

Aglaja Stirn

Aglaja Stirn is Professor of Psychosomatic Medicine and Sexual Medicine at the University of Kiel. She is also Director of the Institute for Sexual Medicine and Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. Her areas of interest are psychosomatics and sexuality.