Abstract
People tend to describe physical pain and social pain with the same terminology (deWall & Baumesiter, 2006; Eisenberger, et al., 2003; Way, et al., 2009). This suggests that there is a neurobiological overlap between the systems that control physical and social pain. DeWall (2011) found that invididuals who received a dose of acetaminophen had less activity in the bilateral anterior insula and bilateral posterior insula during a social rejection stimulation. Because social rejection also increases memory (Pajkos, et al., 2011), if subjects were given acetaminophen during social rejection then the memory enhancement should disappear. 59 students viewed an "online dating" video, requested a date, and were then romantically rejected harsly or politely. Half were given Tylenol, half a placebo. Harshly rejected students remembered significantly more than those politely rejected, and Tylenol enhanced details remembered by the harshly rejected participants.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| State | Published - Apr 11 2014 |