Neuroceuticals:  Relative Brain Pain

Just as people experience physical pain differently, so too do people experience emotional pain differently.  Today, relative physical pain indexes are being developed to help people understand who feels pain more or less than others. In a similar fashion, it would be helpful to have a relative emotional gauge to help people better understand the depth of their depression or height of their joy relative to other people's experiences.  An emotional pain gauge would use information about a person's neural circuitry and neurotransmitters levels to help determine a person's relative emotional state.  Technologies will need to move far beyond current fMRI (function Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans to determine locational excitement of neurons, as well as a way to determine real-time in vivo (in a live person) the amount of particular neurotransmitters.  The information generated from a Relative Emotional Gauge meter (REG) could then be use to help one another empathize with each other from a perspective that makes sense.  So how happy are you today?  I'm an 8! 

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