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Can Tylenol cure a broken heart?
The Boston Globe: I was intrigued by a new study published this week, which found that getting romantically rejected hurts, like "a jab in the arm with a red-hot poker," as Melissa Healy writes in this Los Angeles Times article article. Turns out, those going through a bad breakup can activate brain regions that sense physical pain simply by looking at a photo of their ex, according to the research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But does getting jilted really feel like a poker stab? And where does it hurt exactly -- in the big toe? The heart itself? Well, not exactly, says lead author Ethan Kross, a psychologist at the University of Michigan.
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Make a clean online break with pests
CNN: Fact: In this crazy game called life, you will encounter people with whom you won't want to engage. Some of these people will not realize they annoy you, and as you do your best to avoid them in social situations and eradicate their existence from your hippocampus, they will loom ever larger in your life. People are cowards. We don't like to deliver bad news or be the instigator of others' negative feelings -- even if, in shrinking back and twiddling our thumbs, we hurt others more in the process.
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Study: How Well Do You Know Your Best Friend?
TIME: How often do you fight with your best friend? Your answer is likely related to how well you know her "triggers" — the things that really set her off. For instance, do needy people or attention hogs annoy your friend? Does she think lying is ever okay? If you can answer these intimate questions about your closest friend, a new study in Psychological Science suggests, you probably fight with her less. And knowing such details leads to an overall closer, more rewarding relationship.
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New Study Highlights Gender Differences in Depression
Depression erodes intimate relationships. A depressed person can be withdrawn, needy, or hostile—and give little back. But there’s another way that depression isolates partners from each other. It chips away at the ability to perceive the others’ thoughts and feelings. It impairs what psychologists call “empathic accuracy” —and that can exacerbate alienation, depression, and the cycle by which they feed each other. Three Israeli researchers—Reuma Gadassi and Nilly Mor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Eshkol Rafaeli at Bar-Ilan University—wanted to understand better these dynamics in relationships, particularly the role of gender.
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The Brain Is Not an Explanation
The Huffington Post: "Brain scans pinpoint how chocoholics are hooked." This headline appeared in the Guardian a few years ago above a science story that began: "Chocoholics really do have chocolate on the brain." The story went on to describe a study that used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of chocoholics and non-cravers. The study found increased activity in the pleasure centers of the chocoholics' brains, and the Guardian report concluded: "There may also be some truth in calling the love of chocolate an addiction in some people." Really? Is that a fair conclusion to draw from the fMRI data in this study, reported in the European Journal of Neuroscience?
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What’s Your Biggest Regret?
The New York Times: We all have regrets, but new research suggests the most common regret among American adults involves a lost romantic opportunity. Researchers at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign collected data from 370 adults in the United States during a telephone survey. They asked respondents to describe one memorable regret, explaining what it was, how it happened and whether their regret stemmed from something they did or didn’t do. The most common regret involved romance, with nearly one in five respondents telling a story of a missed love connection.
