A new study concludes that social butterflies have more active
amygdalas. Emily Dickinson and Henry David Thoreau beg to
differ. Or, they would, if they weren't hiding under dining room
tables or in cabins in the woods. MSNBC calls its article
"Social Butterflies May Have Bigger Brain Structures," but by
"bigger brain structures," they mean "a part of the brain is
bigger." Kind of like how if you have bigger breasts than one of
your female friends, therefore your feet must also be bigger.
Science! Anyway, the part of the brain that's most active during
social interactions is called the amygdala, and those who tend
to be more outgoing and visit friends more often tend to have
larger, more active amygdalas. Scientists haven't yet determined
if the amygdala causes people to desire to interact more, or if
interaction actually changes the structure of the brain to
enlarge the amygdala. Further research is necessary to reach a
conclusion. I'm interested in what this means for people who
spend a fair amount of time