Our Loved Ones, Ourselves

Science!

An article we found in Science Daily describes a study presented in the August issue of the journal, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, which provides evidence for something we have long felt to be an inherent truth:

Our 'self' comes to include the people to whom we feel close.

The scientists "conducted the study with 22 young adult participants who underwent fMRI scans of their brains during experiments to monitor brain activity while under threat of receiving mild electrical shocks to themselves or to a friend or stranger. The researchers found, as they expected, that regions of the brain responsible for threat response -- the anterior insula, putamen and supramarginal gyrus -- became active under threat of shock to the self. In the case of threat of shock to a stranger, the brain in those regions displayed little activity. However when the threat of shock was to a friend, the brain activity of the participant became essentially identical to the activity displayed under threat to the self."

"The finding shows the brain's remarkable capacity to model self to others; that people close to us become a part of ourselves, and that is not just metaphor or poetry, it's very real. Literally we are under threat when a friend is under threat. But not so when a stranger is under threat."

Unsurprising. And oh, so true. 

Brain MRI found at National Geographic, here.