As we age, we tend to look more fondly on the world and on our memories, but does that mean we can’t detect threat? While a great deal of research indicates that older individuals tend to focus on pleasurable or non-threatening aspects of experience and memories, it is unclear whether this means they are less…
Read MoreHow to Know if an Angry Face is Threatening
While it may be tricky to say if an angry face is threatening, our brain may already be deciding for us. This may sound far-fetched, but as Dr. Harald Schupp and a team of researchers found in 2004, we are hardwired on an evolutionary level to experience a fear response upon detecting perceived threat in…
Read MorePain and the Seven Basic Emotions are Closely Intertwined
Over the past month, we have emphasized the expression and feeling of pain, but it is also apparent that pain and the seven basic emotions are closely intertwined. It is specifically the connections between pain and anger that were explored in a 2008 study in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine. In that study, Dr. Jennifer…
Read MoreAn App for Pain Evaluations?
We know that humans are terrible at distinguishing real pain from faked pain, but could your smartphone just do that for you? Building off of last week’s blog, it seems that some researchers have sought to implement the insight that computers are better at detecting genuine pain than doctors. In an exciting new study, the…
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