Dating sites would be well-advised to add “brain activity” as a compatability criterion, according to a study released Tuesday showing that close friends have eerily comparable neural responses to life experiences.
“Our results suggest that friends process the world around them in exceptionally similar ways,” said lead author Carolyn Parkinson, director of the Computational Social Neuroscience Lab at the University of California in Los Angeles.
Using magnetic resonance imaging to compare which regions of the brain lit up as 42 volunteers watched short clips from news reports, music videos, comedy skits and documentaries, researchers were able to identify who among them were friends.
Photo: AFP
The closer the relationship, the more alike the neural patterns in parts of the brain governing emotional response, high-level reasoning and the capacity to focus one’s attention.
“Friends had the most similar neural activity patterns, followed by friends-of-friends,” the authors said in a statement. “You can predict who people are friends with just by looking at how their brains respond to the video clips.”
The 14 brief excerpts included journalists debating whether then US President Barack Obama should use humor in his speeches; a sentimental music video about a social outcast with a facial deformity; a documentary about baby sloths in Costa Rica; and scenes from a gay wedding.
Scientists long ago understood that “birds of a feather flock together” when it comes to human social networks, with people attracted more easily to those of the same age, physical appearance and ethnic background, as well as other demographic categories.
ONLINE ECHO CHAMBERS
This tendency extends to social networks too, according to the study, published in the journal Nature Communications.
From an Darwinian perspective, evolutionary psychologists argue, the “like-with-like” principle favor social cohesion, empathy and frictionless collective action.
The relationships we forge with individuals who are clearly different from us — not of our “tribe” — tend to be practical, task-oriented and short-lived, research has shown.
But seeking out peas from the same pod has a downside that is amplified in the digital age, said senior author Thalia Wheatley, a professor of psychology and brain science at Dartmouth University in Massachusetts.
“The cost of surrounding ourselves with only like-minded people is the creation of echo chambers and polarization,” she told AFP.
“This can be exacerbated by online communities that offer a constant diet of information that only confirms what people already believe.”
One question not answered by the study is whether we naturally gravitate toward people who see the world the same way we do, or whether similarity -- including the way our brains light up -- springs from shared experience. Most likely, it is a combination of the two.
“We are a social species and live our lives connected to everybody else,” said Wheatley.
“If we want to understand how the human brain works, then we need to understand how brains work in combination — how minds shape each other.”
On April 26, The Lancet published a letter from two doctors at Taichung-based China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) warning that “Taiwan’s Health Care System is on the Brink of Collapse.” The authors said that “Years of policy inaction and mismanagement of resources have led to the National Health Insurance system operating under unsustainable conditions.” The pushback was immediate. Errors in the paper were quickly identified and publicized, to discredit the authors (the hospital apologized). CNA reported that CMUH said the letter described Taiwan in 2021 as having 62 nurses per 10,000 people, when the correct number was 78 nurses per 10,000
As we live longer, our risk of cognitive impairment is increasing. How can we delay the onset of symptoms? Do we have to give up every indulgence or can small changes make a difference? We asked neurologists for tips on how to keep our brains healthy for life. TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEALTH “All of the sensible things that apply to bodily health apply to brain health,” says Suzanne O’Sullivan, a consultant in neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, and the author of The Age of Diagnosis. “When you’re 20, you can get away with absolute
May 5 to May 11 What started out as friction between Taiwanese students at Taichung First High School and a Japanese head cook escalated dramatically over the first two weeks of May 1927. It began on April 30 when the cook’s wife knew that lotus starch used in that night’s dinner had rat feces in it, but failed to inform staff until the meal was already prepared. The students believed that her silence was intentional, and filed a complaint. The school’s Japanese administrators sided with the cook’s family, dismissing the students as troublemakers and clamping down on their freedoms — with
As Donald Trump’s executive order in March led to the shuttering of Voice of America (VOA) — the global broadcaster whose roots date back to the fight against Nazi propaganda — he quickly attracted support from figures not used to aligning themselves with any US administration. Trump had ordered the US Agency for Global Media, the federal agency that funds VOA and other groups promoting independent journalism overseas, to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” The decision suddenly halted programming in 49 languages to more than 425 million people. In Moscow, Margarita Simonyan, the hardline editor-in-chief of the
RSS