Throughout the ages, scribes, songwriters and shrinks have all benefited from a thing called "love" and now brain scientists are getting into the act.

At a meeting of the Society of Neuroscience, an austere group of scientists earnestly dissected the travails of the human heart and came to the conclusion that the brain plays a crucial role in love and attraction.

One study compared long-lasting love to the kind that might discreetly be called a “fling.”

Apparently, brain scans of long-term lovers showed activity in a part of the brain linked to calmness, attachment and pain management.  And in one finding that would even make cupid smile, similar brain activity was detected among participants who enjoyed a twenty year relationship, suggesting that love still resonates after all those years together.

But for short-term lovers, the news wasn’t quite so good.

Scans revealed that those who recently suffered a broken heart showed activity in a part of the brain associated with having an obsession or experiencing a cocaine rush. So, it can now be said, science has established the fact that love hurts.