Source Analysis

The source I selected was “Love hurts: An fMRI study” by Yawei Cheng and his fellow researchers, which is cited in Fredrickson’s book Love 2.0. This is a scientific article about a study performed by these scientists in that reveals a neurological basis for our sense of empathy. The study involved showing people several scenes and telling the test subjects to imagine either themselves, a close friend, or a stranger in the situations presented to them. The results showed that brain activity when imagining a friend in a painful situation was much like that of when imagining oneself in the same situation. This demonstrates how “intimacy affects the bottom-up information processing involved in empathy” (Cheng). Because this source was a scholarly article, its syntax is very sophisticated and the vocabulary includes lots of scientific terms. The writers are very well aware that their audience will be similarly highly educated people, perhaps working in fields closely related to neurology. As such, the style reflects it: the amount of “flowery language” is sparse, if present at all, and the text is concise and to the point. The overall tone is quite formal and knowledgeable, as expected in a scientific report. It invokes the audience by asking rhetorical questions, piquing the reader’s curiosity and leading them to read further into the details of the study. One of the questions it poses is “To what extent does imagining a loved-one differs from imagining an unfamiliar individual being in painful situations?” (Cheng). This question invites discussion and contribution to the ideas these scientists are coming up with, placing this article as a stepping stone for future endeavors involving similar concepts. Perhaps in the future this article will be able to show us the curiosity and thirst for knowledge that these scientists displayed in pursuit of their goals, and it may give us insight that more people may build upon to make new discoveries.

Works Cited:

Cheng, Yawei, Chenyi Chen, Ching-Po Lin, Kun-Hsien Chou, and Jean Decety. "Love Hurts: An FMRI Study." NeuroImage (2010): 923-29. 24 Feb. 2010. Web. 19 Oct. 2016. <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jean_Decety/publication/41620785_Love_hurts_an_fMRI_study/links/09e4150698e0da14c7000000.pdf>.