I was reading an article recently that went pretty far in supporting my theory that love is a form of mental retardation and impairment. According to a recent fMRI study:
Among other areas, parts of the pre-frontal cortex a bit of the brain towards the front and implicated in social judgment seems to get switched off when we are in love...The parts of the brain deactivated form a network which are implicated in the evaluation of trustworthiness of others and basically critical social assessment.
Clearly this "love" is causing an tide of bad decision-making, suboptimal economic productivity and (to quote Dr. Phil) an epidemic of oral sex.
Such holes in brain activity can be seen not just in sufferers of "love." Users of the underground date terrorism club rape drug "Ecstasy" show strikingly similar patterns of dysfunction.
The dark inactive regions on the right represent areas of the brain responsible for vigilance, clear judgement and trust in government policy.
How is it that while we have fought and successfully eliminated ecstasy use in the last 20 years, "love" is still allowed to roam free and threaten the cognitive stability of our children.
Among other areas, parts of the pre-frontal cortex a bit of the brain towards the front and implicated in social judgment seems to get switched off when we are in love...The parts of the brain deactivated form a network which are implicated in the evaluation of trustworthiness of others and basically critical social assessment.
Clearly this "love" is causing an tide of bad decision-making, suboptimal economic productivity and (to quote Dr. Phil) an epidemic of oral sex.
Such holes in brain activity can be seen not just in sufferers of "love." Users of the underground date terrorism club rape drug "Ecstasy" show strikingly similar patterns of dysfunction.
The dark inactive regions on the right represent areas of the brain responsible for vigilance, clear judgement and trust in government policy.
How is it that while we have fought and successfully eliminated ecstasy use in the last 20 years, "love" is still allowed to roam free and threaten the cognitive stability of our children.
Actually I love it because it shows how our preconceived notions can bias our opinions and take away our ability to critically evaluate data. Those fMRI images were taken from monkeys repeatedly injected with "typical" doses of MDMA as part of a study that was published several years ago (and repeatedly cited) to show the dangers of ecstacy usage. The picture is striking, no? The only problem with it - last year it was revealed that rather than being injected with MDMA, whose effect is unknown, they were mistakenly injected with methampethamine, whose effect is clear. The published paper was subsequently retracted and in fact that jury is still out on long term effects of MDMA usage. Food for thought.
As for your entry, that much is true - love clouds judgement almost as badly as most chemical impairments. The idiotic things people do when they think they're in "love" suggests that there should be a law against driving while in that state.
On another note... are you at all familiar with SG:NHS? You of all people would fit in that group rather nicely, I think.
And as for salon.com.... I'm still waiting to hear from them. They say to give them three weeks and if you still haven't heard you can assume that they aren't interested. It's been one, but I'm not holding my breath. I won't give up though, I still think I have something meaningful to say.