"That is really condescending."
Posted on 12/20/2006 3:19:50 PM PST by blam
Source: University of Virginia
Date: December 20, 2006
High-quality Marriages Help To Calm Nerves
Science Daily — A University of Virginia neuroscientist has found that women under stress who hold their husbands' hands show signs of immediate relief, which can clearly be seen on their brain scans.
"This is the first study of the neurological reactions to human touch in a threatening situation, and the first study to measure how the brain facilitates the health-enhancing properties of close social relationships," says Dr. James A. Coan, author of the study, which is published in the December 2006 issue of the journal Psychological Science.
Coan, an assistant professor in the U.Va. Neuroscience Graduate Program and the Department of Psychology, conducted a study involving several couples who rated themselves as highly satisfied with their marriages. Coan and colleagues designed a functional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) study in which 16 married women were subjected to the threat of a very mild electric shock while they by turns held their husband's hand, the hand of a stranger (male) or no hand at all. The MRI was able to show how these women's brains responded to this handholding while in a threatening situation.
The results showed a large decrease in the brain response to threat as a function of spouse handholding, and a limited decrease in this response as a function of stranger handholding. Moreover, spouse handholding effects varied as a function of marital quality, with women in the very highest quality marriages benefiting from a very powerful decrease in threat-related brain activity, including a strong decrease in the emotional (affective) component of the brain's pain processing circuits.
Coan is expanding his functional MRI studies in collaboration with the U.Va. Department of Radiology, to continue his exploration of the neuroscience of emotion and close social relationships.
They say married men live longer. Or maybe it just seems longer.
Not at all surprised.
Great study.
Thx.
bump for later
Later pingout.
bump
It would be interesting to see how homosexual relationships compare to stable marriages under these same test criteria.
I can’t believe that universities and these so called researchers actually get funds and probably our tax dollars to do such BS studies. I wish my job were so cake.
So let’s say I’m really stressed after a bad day at work (like the one I’ve had every day for the last six months) and I really need some comfort and understanding.
Well now, who would comfort me more? A) a person I know very well, trust and like; say perhaps a husband (presumably not a cold, distant or abusive one; hence “a quality marriage”), B) a total freaking stranger picked randomly off the street who I’ve never met before in my life, or C) “Just suck it up chick and comfort your own damn self”.
Never in a million years would I have guessed the outcome of this study (sarcasm). It’s so simple and basic human nature that even a Caveman could figure it out – with all apologies to the Caveman in the Geico commercials.
I would reasonably guess that these same women would test with decreased stress responses if they were instead of a husband, holding the hand of a long time best girl friend, a sister, father, etc., if the only other choices were a complete stranger or going it alone.
Unless there was a lot more to this “Study”, it doesn’t prove or disprove the benefits of marriage – not that there aren’t benefits to a “quality marriage”. Rather it suggests the benefit of have close, “quality” personal relationships. And it doesn’t say a wit about Homosexual relationships one way or another.
Happy Jesus Christ's Birthday!
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Sorry for dupe, asked mod to fix it...
Spoilsport! :)
Actually, I'll bet it isn't just husbands.
Any loved one, such as a close family member would
probably get the same results, so don't you men get to thinkin' you're all that! :P
Spoilsport! :)
Actually, I'll bet it isn't just husbands.
Any loved one, such as a close family member, would
probably get the same results. So don't you men get to thinkin' you're all that! :P
This is the first thing that you ponder when reading an article like this? I'd say what's unnatural is perhaps your fascination with homosexuals and whether they find comfort in each other the same way heterosexuals do.
"That is really condescending."
Oh dear... ;~)
Heh... now that's funny ;~) Poor guys :~) But I think it's a two way street in a good marriage, sometimes we're the calmer, sometimes we're the calmee. :~)
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