Explain the relationship between romantic love and the functional architecture of the brain.
What will be an ideal response?
One recent study examined the relationship between romantic love and the functional architecture of the brain. Individuals who were in love, who had recently ended a love relationship, or who had never been in love were compared as they rested in the fMRI machine while awake, instructed to think about nothing. The adults who were in love showed increased functional connectivity in several areas of the brain thought to be important in processing sensory and emotional information, reward, and motivational processes: the caudate nucleus, nucleus accumbens (NAC), and part of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The caudate nucleus is associated with reward detection, expectation, and representation of goals, and the NAC is rich in receptors for dopamine and oxytocin, neurotransmitters that are associated with rewards, suggesting that the participants who were in love experienced greater neurological rewards even while resting, thinking about nothing. In addition, the increased connectivity in the ACC, associated with cognitive control and the sense of self and other, suggests greater ability to monitor conflict and attend to one's own and other's emotions, activities central to successful social interactions. Finally, being in love was associated with greater connectivity among these regions and the amygdala, a part of the brain involved in emotion, suggesting an enhanced ability to understand and control emotion.
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It is known that before an eye movement or a finger movement occurs, it is possible to record altered activity in a specific cerebral cortex area. The Gestaltists would argue that this is support for the principle of ____.?
a. ?Einsicht b. ?cerebral sign Gestalt c. ?isomorphism d. ?quasimorphism e. ?equimorphism
Which of the following is not a characteristic of correlational studies? a. They help researchers understand cause and effect
b. They indicate the strength of a relationship between variables. c. When two variables are highly related, knowledge about one variable can be used to make predictions about the other variable. d. They are helpful in generating hypotheses for experimental research.
Patrice decided to lose weight by dieting. He found that it was relatively easy to lose the first 18 or so pounds, but after that, he felt his body was fighting his effort to lose more weight. Patrice's experience is consistent with the concept of ______
A) positive energy balance B) the general adaptation syndrome C) extinction D) a set point
Based on statistics describing the rate of decline in the number of smokers, which group has exhibited the greatest decline in smoking in recent years?
a) men with college degrees b) men with a high school education c) women with an elementary school education d) women with a high school education and some college