The Social Network of the Brain

Have you ever had a fight with a friend, lost a loved one, or read an article that literally made you feel bad physically? How many times have you heard something and said "Oh that just makes me sick" or "That hurts my heart". While I usually associate those words with an emotional pain, I have often times felt sick to my stomach when a friend and I are having a disagreement, to the point of nausea. Have you ever wondered why when you, for example, cringe and hold your neck when a friend is telling you about a neck injury they suffered? Neuroscientist Matthew Lieberman is looking at just that.

...so we had people play this little ball tossing game on the computer while they were laying in an MRI scanner. And you think you're playing with two other people who are also in scanners. And then at a certain point in the game we actually arrange it so that the other two players stop throwing you the ball. And so you get left out of the game for the remainder of the game. You're just sitting there waiting for the ball to come back to you.

And when we looked at the brains of these individuals who had just been rejected, we saw two fascinating things. The first thing we saw was that the same brain regions that registered the distress of physical pain were also more active when people were left out of the game compared to when they were included. And then the second thing we saw was that the people who told us they were more bothered by being left out of the game were the people who activated these brain regions the most intensely.

And then I think the finding that tends to really grab people after they hear these initial findings is much later work that shows that if you take Tylenol, it can actually make these effects go away.

That's right, Tylenol. I was listening to an interview with Lieberman on the radio as I was driving in my car. At the time, I was irritated with a friend who seems to have dropped off the face of the planet. I call her, I text, I get nothing. I have no clue where she is and the more I thought about it the sicker I felt. Perfect timing for this, it kinda made me want to pull off to a gas station to get a Tylenol.

In the study mentioned above the people didn't even know each other and still felt physical pain from rejection. I would postulate that the physical effects would be even worse with an old friend or family member in the same scenerio. Well, depending on how much you like your family ^_^ .

His research has taken the word "empathy" and turned it into something more. I have always believed in the collective conciousness, as in, we are all connected to each other all the time. Empathy is becoming something more than an idea of mental understanding, but also physical. He even speaks of taking on the physical pain or sickness of others simply through the brain's processing of small social interactions throughout the day.

One of the most interesting parts of the interview for me was when he compared extended periods of grief or loss to that of an addict, suggesting that the same sort of reward system exists that keeps people coming back to their sadness. Literally being addicted to their pain, grief, and/or sadness.

Yeah. I just had a minor role in a study that was published a number of years ago, and the strange thing is if you look at the folks who are experiencing normal grief, you'll see activity in the pain distress regions of the brain. But if you look at folks who are experiencing chronic grief, where they don't seem to recover - my grandmother, I think, went through this when my grandfather passed away.

She spent 15 years really in a true grief state, for the rest of her life. When you look at these individuals, in addition to that social pain response in the brain, you will also see a reward response that's also being activated, a little bit like someone who would, say, like to quit drugs, but still finds those things rewarding because there is an addiction to those things that are bad for us.

And so I think that that was what differentiated folks who couldn't recover, is that there was still something rewarding about staying attached to this memory in a way that other folks seem to - little by little, seem to let go of their tight clinch on.

This makes me think of anxiety a lot. I have incredible anxiety ( believe it or not! ) and whenever I start to feel the social anxiety bug coming on my brain instantly thinks of the last time I percieved myself to have done something socially awkward and embarassing. Then it's a downward spiral from there. I will continue to think of past things that were socially painful to me until I am completely shut off and in a panic attack.

To me that entire process, if we are going by what Lieberman is saying, is like having a "social heart attack" so to speak. If you have ever had a panic attack like that, you know that your pulse increases, your heart pounds, and if it gets too bad you honestly FEEL like you are having a heart attack.

Someone called in and asked about that feeling that you can read someone's mind, or finish their sentences. Lieberman had some very interesting things to say about that as well.

So I sometimes describe this as one of our social superpowers. So, we have the ability - and we use it countless times each day, so often we probably don't recognize it - where we can sort of peer into the minds of those around us and imagine how they're currently responding to some situation, what their thoughts and feelings are, or what their response would be to some novel situation.

... It's both a default system, because it comes on by default, but it's also a kind of mind-reading system, because largely these regions are involved in reading the minds of others and trying to understand what's going on with them.

Lieberman is now working on using this information in educational settings, rewarding students with social rewards such as being able to teach the material to another student. I think this is amazing stuff and can be applied in so many situations. So for all you like me who thought you were crazy for thinking you had extreme empathy and mind reading skills, you aren't so nuts after all!

xoxo
Val

Source

Great. So the one thing that can ease the mind, is the one thing that will destroy the liver.

Science you buffoon!!!

Think I'll avoid the paracetamol, they still don't even know how it is supposed to alleviate pain, so I dun wanna know how it's supposed to relieve anxiety.

Mind you, why is it they will let us take killer meds to alleviate things when they don't know how they work, yet other things, they lock you up for.. I know what meds I'll stick to. it might not have a pamphlet and come in blue time release enteric coating.. but it works.

reply to post by winofiend


I think he just mentioned the Tylenol as an interesting little tidbit they discovered during their research. I don't think he was saying take a Tylenol every time you have a negative reaction to a social encounter and I am certainly not recommending it

I think with the rest of the thread in mind also, it speaks a lot as to how we can naturally treat physical pain via meditation/stretching/diet that might be a product of social stress.

ValentineWiggin
reply to post by winofiend

 

I think he just mentioned the Tylenol as an interesting little tidbit they discovered during their research. I don't think he was saying take a Tylenol every time you have a negative reaction to a social encounter and I am certainly not recommending it

I think with the rest of the thread in mind also, it speaks a lot as to how we can naturally treat physical pain via meditation/stretching/diet that might be a product of social stress.

It would probably be far more beneficial long term to take a Tylenol rather than a pharm med with all the side effects. I have Tylenol I don't use but it's certainly something to consider. Fascinating stuff !

This probably relates to the weird feeling of total embarrassment or like, "SELF"-disgust I feel when watching movies or shows where the character onscreen is a fat bumbling idiot doofus acting like a disgusting American spoiled jerk.

I mean, you know, embarrassed-feeling empathy; and embarrassed to think that the crap produced for our enterntainment is also defining us, to some across the globe.

Like, when the writer has the character in some stupid harebrained foible, Im like, "Im not THAT stupid!" Like it's a reflection of my intelligence level that I am still watching.

It does feel physically cringe-inducing, yuck.

reply to post by ValentineWiggin


This subject makes so much sense to me. We are not just a physical being. We are a physical, mental and spiritual being. And I truly believe we are connected to one another. Therefore, the empathy makes perfect sense. At least to me.

I am going to read this more thoroughly, then... I'll be back.

BT

I've also experienced anxiety just by listening to a friend describe negative scenarios. Recently, I had to part ways with a rather toxic friend as I would become ill for hours and sometimes days after interactions with her.

Amazingly enough, after I cut all ties and got over the inital feelings of guilt for not being able to handle her problems any more, my headaches, nausea, and generalized anxiety returned to more manageble levels within a few days.

It's no mystery that we're all sharing electrons....and it's simply fascinating that even the emotions can show a relationship on par with the concepts of Quantum Entanglement!

It's absolutely wonderful to see a study looking deeper into the subtle emotional bonds between individuals in such a manner! Thank you so much for bringing this to light!

BearTruth
reply to post by ValentineWiggin

 

This subject makes so much sense to me. We are not just a physical being. We are a physical, mental and spiritual being. And I truly believe we are connected to one another. Therefore, the empathy makes perfect sense. At least to me.

I am going to read this more thoroughly, then... I'll be back.

BT

If you read or listen to the rest of the podcast, it's really not making any claims about this phenomena being attributed to anything remotely spiritual. We owe a great deal of our success as a species to our ability to cooperate with other members of the same group to achieve greater goals; this cooperation is dependant on pro-social mechanisms and it makes sense that the pain that the author of this work has mentioned would perhaps be an evolutionary response to the need to work cohesively as a group. Indeed, this is what he himself mentions in the podcast in response to another question.

hypervalentiodine

If you read or listen to the rest of the podcast, it's really not making any claims about this phenomena being attributed to anything remotely spiritual. We owe a great deal of our success as a species to our ability to cooperate with other members of the same group to achieve greater goals; this cooperation is dependant on pro-social mechanisms and it makes sense that the pain that the author of this work has mentioned would perhaps be an evolutionary response to the need to work cohesively as a group. Indeed, this is what he himself mentions in the podcast in response to another question.

Thanks for the input. I responded to the thread from my point of view, in relation to how I personally have perceived and reacted to others situations. It struck a cord with me, and I responded accordingly.

Intellectually, I am interested in the interactions and cohesive nature of various species, including humans. Because I am human, I guess I personally get caught up in the moment. I am analytical, I am not a completely disassociated observer. Mea culpa.



BT