Mechanisms of envy

Japanese researchers discover mechanisms of envy

Japanese researchers say they have discovered the location in the brain for feelings of envy. Their research also showed that the more envy people feel, the more their brains appear activated.

A team, led by Hidehiko Takahashi of the National Institute of Radiological Sciences, conducted the study on 19 university students.

The students read information about classmates who were doing better in their studies, job-hunting and romantic relationships while their brains were observed with magnetic resonance imaging.

The team found that among the students who felt deeply envious, a part of the frontal lobe which senses physical pain was strongly activated.

The team also found that when students read information about the misfortunes of the envied person, the central part of the brain, called the striatum, was activated. The team says the stronger envy the subjects felt about others, the more pleasure they felt about the others' misfortunes.

Takahashi said his team's research has proven that brain studies could lead to the scientific analysis of human emotions. He added that the research could be applied to the development of new treatments for mental illnesses.

The study results will be released in the US magazine Science.

Slipping through my fingers....mamma mia

~Slipping Through My Fingers~
Artist : Meryl Streep & Amanda Seyfried
Album : Mamma Mia! OST
Lyrics Edited by Princess LiLLy

Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile

I watch her go with a surge of that well-known sadness
And I have to sit down for a while

The feeling that I'm losing her forever
And without really entering her world
I'm glad whenever I can share her laughter
That funny little girl

Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see what's in her mind
Each time I think I'm close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sleep in our eyes, her and me at the breakfast table
Barely awake, I let precious time go by

Then when she's gone there's that odd melancholy feeling
And a sense of guilt I can't deny

What happened to the wonderful adventures
The places I had planned for us to go
(Slipping through my fingers all the time)
Well, some of that we did but most we didn't
And why I just don't know

Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see what's in her mind
Each time I think I'm close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time
Slipping through my fingers

Schoolbag in hand she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smil