'Financial pain' a physical reality, researchers say
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 2, 2007 | 5:37 PM ET
CBC News
Do you get a gnawing feeling in your gut that won't go away after taking a hit on the stock market or the poker table? A new study says that sick sensation isn't just emotional — it's physical.
The University College London study, published in the May 2 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, suggests that gambling and investment losses activate fear and pain responses deep in the brain.A new study has found links between a person's reaction to financial losses and a system in the brain responsible for responding to pain.
(CBC)
The researchers mapped the brain activity of 24 participants playing poker.
They found that the region in the brain responsible for responding to pain, called the striatum, was activated when players suffered losses.
"This provides a sort of biological justification for the popular concept of 'financial pain,'" researcher Ben Seymour said in a release.
The striatum allows the brain to predict harm and prepare defensive action.
Seymour noted the results could be applied to daily financial decisions, including investing, that involves some degree of risk.
"Clearly, none of us want to lose money in the same way that none of us want to experience pain," Seymour noted.
Seymour said he hoped the study's findings would shed some insight into how people respond to and become addicted to gambling.
