jayparkinsonmd:

Over the past few years, there has been growing interest in something called “resting state functional MRI”, a technique for seeing what your brain is doing when you aren’t doing much of anything at all.  It turns out that brains at rest are pretty restless, consuming far more energy than they do when doing. More interesting, “resting” activity is not random, but highly coherent, consistent, and predictable. The discovery of the brain’s characteristic resting behavior led some years ago to the postulation of a “default network” for the brain—a set of regions that consistently cooperate to do … well, what, exactly, we don’t know. But surely it must be something interesting. Your brain would hardly waste all of that energy dancing to the beat of its inner drummer if there weren’t some reason for it, right?

via psydoctor8

#1: Very interesting! I like how this challenges the static, decontextualized computer metaphor for the brain. I think it would be important to look at this research in light of variations of Peripheral Nervous System activity (i.e., assessing and responding to potential threats). Even more awesome would be to link to early childhood neurological development and attachment/trauma.

#2: Um, HELLO, Dr. Jay Parkinson!

“This brain imaging study of individuals who were still ‘in love’ with their rejecter supplies further evidence that the passion of ‘romantic love’ is a goal-oriented motivation state rather than a specific emotion” the researchers concluded, noting that brain imaging showed some similarities between romantic rejection and cocaine craving. “The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that romantic love is a specific form of addiction.”

The study also helps to explain “why feelings and behaviors related to romantic rejection are difficult to control” and why extreme behaviors associated with romantic rejection such as stalking, homicide, suicide, and clinical depression occur in cultures all over the world, the researchers wrote.

(original study in the Journal of Neurophysiology via ScienceDaily via boingboing)

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Yep, more evidence that Ke$ha may be a genius (what, you haven’t heard that she got near-perfect SATs???)