How your brain handles love and pain

guynextdoor

How your brain handles love and pain
Scanners reveal mechanisms behind empathy and placebo effect



Functional brain imaging shows that some of the same regions of the brain are activated by personal pain, at left, and by empathy over the pain of a loved one, at right. But other areas are not activated by empathy.

Two new brain-imaging studies describing the origins of empathy and how placebos work provide insights into the nature of pain, the mind-body connection and what it means to be human.

Whether we抮e feeling empathy when a loved one endures pain, or enjoying pain relief thanks to a placebo, pain-sensitive regions of our brains are at work

Atomic_Omnikid

So what's the role of oxytocin,dophamine and testosterone in our emotion..bcoz it some name I heard while I'm watching Discovery Channel abt how we feel love and pain...

guynextdoor

1. OT (oxytocin)

Merujuk kepada jurnal ternama Nature, mereka menceritakan tentang penemuan hormon fungsi Oxytocin untuk meningkatkan rasa percaya seseorang. Penemuan penting ini sangat berpotensi dalam pengembangan ubat penyakit autisme, dimana mereka mengalami kehilangan kepercayaan pada orang lain atau sindrom William, penyakit yang menimpa anak-anak sehingga tidak memiliki rasa takut terhadap orang asing.

ikut wiki plak...

Actions of oxytocin within the brain

Oxytocin secreted from the pituitary gland cannot re-enter the brain because of the blood-brain barrier. Instead, the behavioral effects of oxytocin are thought to reflect release from centrally-projecting oxytocin neurons, different from those that project to the pituitary gland. Oxytocin receptors are expressed by neurons in many parts of the brain and spinal cord, including the amygdala, ventromedial hypothalamus, septum and brainstem.

    * Sexual arousal. Oxytocin injected into the cerebrospinal fluid causes spontaneous erections in rats (Gimpl 2001), reflecting actions in the hypothalamus and spinal cord.
    * Bonding. In the Prairie Vole, oxytocin released into the brain of the female during sexual activity is important for forming a monogamous pair bond with her sexual partner. Vasopressin appears to have a similar effect in males [1]. In people, plasma concentrations of oxytocin have been reported to be higher amongst people who claim to be falling in love. Oxytocin has a role in social behaviors in many species, and so it seems likely that it has similar roles in humans. It has been suggested that deficiencies in oxytocin pathways in the brain might be a feature of autism.
    * Maternal behavior. Sheep and rat females given oxytocin antagonists after giving birth do not exhibit typical maternal behavior. By contrast, virgin sheep females show maternal behavior towards foreign lambs upon cerebrospinal fluid infusion of oxytocin, which they would not do otherwise. [2]
    * Various anti-stress functions. Oxytocin reduces blood pressure and cortisol levels, increasing tolerance to pain, and reducing anxiety. Oxytocin may play a role in encouraging "tend and befriend", as opposed to "fight or flight", behavior, in response to stress.
    * Increasing trust and reducing fear. In a risky investment game, experimental subjects given nasally administered oxytocin displayed "the highest level of trust" twice as often as the control group. Subjects who were told that they were interacting with a computer showed no such reaction, leading to the conclusion that oxytocin was not merely affecting risk-aversion (Kosfeld 2005). Nasally-administered oxytocin has also been reported to reduce fear, possibly by inhibiting the amygdala (which is thought to be responsible for fear responses) (Kirsch 2005). There is no conclusive evidence for access of oxytocin to the brain through intranasal administration, however.
    * According to some studies in animals, oxytocin inhibits the development of tolerance to various addictive drugs (opiates, cocaine, alcohol) and reduces withdrawal symptoms. (Kovacs 1998)
    * Certain learning and memory functions are impaired by centrally-administered oxytocin. (Gimpl 2001)

more???... you may refer to this link --> http://physrev.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/81/2/629

2. Dopamine actually isn't a hormone. Its a neurotransmitter. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that affects a wide variety of brain processes, many of which are involved in the control of movement ( like Parkinson's), the formation of emotional responses (like symptoms of schizophrenia), and the perception of pain and pleasure (as in addiction).

[ Last edited by  guynextdoor at 30-12-2006 10:04 AM ]