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posted by janrinok on Saturday April 28 2018, @02:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the cheatcodes dept.

From The Atlantic:

It is a good question, but I was a little surprised to see it as the title of a research paper in a medical journal: “How Happy Is Too Happy?”

Yet there it was in a publication from 2012. The article was grappling with the issue of how we should deal with the possibility of manipulating people’s moods and feelings of happiness through brain stimulation. If you have direct access to the reward system and can turn the feeling of euphoria up or down, who decides what the level should be? The doctors or the person whose brain is on the line?

The authors were asking this question because of a patient who wanted to decide the matter for himself: a 33-year-old German man who had been suffering for many years from severe OCD and generalized anxiety syndrome. A few years earlier, his doctors had implanted electrodes in a central part of his brain’s reward system—namely, the nucleus accumbens. Electrically stimulating the patient’s brain had worked rather well on his symptoms, but now it was time to change the stimulator battery.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 28 2018, @12:07PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 28 2018, @12:07PM (#672982)

    Hmm, I don't think masturbation is a source of the happiness we're discussing, but I have to admit that even when done wrong, it is not so bad.

    As for me, I prefer for others to properly stimulate my pleasure centers, which would seem to affect the same sensory zones, yet somehow feels more satisfying. Wouldn't you agree that is better, yet the result is the same?

    How happy is too happy, and how much sex is too much sex, and what is the best way to go about it to at least be happy for a little while until those people start expecting you to pay them or at least reciprocate the favors?

  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday April 28 2018, @12:39PM

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday April 28 2018, @12:39PM (#672988) Homepage Journal

    As for me, I prefer for others to properly stimulate my pleasure centers, which would seem to affect the same sensory zones, yet somehow feels more satisfying. Wouldn't you agree that is better, yet the result is the same?

    Narrowly viewed, yes. That leaves out any time spent in the company of the other in question though, which can vary quite widely in enjoyability.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
  • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Saturday April 28 2018, @11:02PM

    by fyngyrz (6567) on Saturday April 28 2018, @11:02PM (#673164) Journal

    how much sex is too much sex

    If it's good sex with someone you're really fond of, the answer is "when physical damage starts to accumulate."