Official News page 6

REAL LIFE NEWS: LOVE CAN EASE YOUR PAIN

by Hazed

It sounds like the lyric from a romantic song, but it's actually the conclusion drawn by scientists after studying brain scans, which suggested many of the areas normally involved in pain response are also activated by thoughts of love.

Researchers at Stanford University gave 15 students mild doses of pain, then gave them MRI brain scans which measure brain activity in real-time. During the scans, the subjects were asked to gaze at pictures of their loved ones, or at a picture of an equally-attractive acquaintance. All the students were in the early stages of a romantic relationship, when feelings of love are most intense.

The result: viewing pictures of their beloved reduced their perceptions of pain much more than looking at the pictures of an acquaintance. Love really is the drug.

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