Amygdala plays an important role in determining the number of friendships, in real life and on Social Media.
Apparently, the bigger your amygdala is, the better you are at making and establishing friendships – according to a report of a team led by Dr Lisa Feldman Barrett of the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
In a study of 58 people, taking into account age and total brain size, the US team found significant differences in the amygdala’s size in people with larger, more complex social networks. This region has long been linked with emotional and mental state.
I know, you’re probably asking WTF is an amygdala, so Wikipedia sprints to the rescue:
The amygdalae (singular: amygdala; also corpus amygdaloideum) (Latin, from Greek αμυγδαλή, amygdalē, ‘almond’, ‘tonsil’, listed in the Gray’s Anatomy as the nucleus amygdalæ) are almond-shaped groups of nuclei located deep within the medial temporal lobes of the brain in complex vertebrates, including humans. Shown in research to perform a primary role in the processing and memory of emotional reactions, the amygdalae are considered part of the limbic system.
In other words, it’s a pair of “junk” inside your brain that controls how often you have a rage fit over things that happened in the past.
Apparently, people with a lot of emotional garbage have a loaded pair of amygdalae, however, according to the aforementioned research a large-sized amygdala region signifies an ability to form complex emotional relationships, such as friendships.
And that’s where social media come into play. Which can only mean one thing: Francois Carrillo, owner of Domaining.com must have one huge pair of amygdalae, if we were to consider the sheer number (1935) of his Facebook friends! 😀
