It's no secret that being around someone we love can make us happy and relaxed, and their presence can reassure us and make us feel safe when we’re faced with a threat. But what we don’t completely understand is the neural mechanisms behind these feelings. Now, new research in PNAS demonstrates that the mere sight of a loved one can activate some brain regions and inhibit others, making painful events feel just a little bit less excruciating.
A group of UCLA scientists rounded up 21 females that were in committed relationships and put them one by one into an fMRI machine. The subjects were asked to look at a series of images (a stranger, their partner, and a chair) as they were subjected to a hot probe touching their forearm. As the women felt pain from the probe, the machine took scans of their brain to determine how the activity patterns changed depending on what image they were looking at. The subjects were also asked to rate the pain they felt while they saw each photo.
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