Embarrassed? Blame Your Brain Cultural References

​No big surprise—teens in these Cyberball experiments feel sad and rejected. The surprising part? Rejection activates the same brain systems that physical pain triggers. Brain scans show that rejection fires up the “Ow!” part of our brain that makes pain upsetting. Without this pain-response system, we would recognize physical pain, but it wouldn’t bother us. This physical pain system also responds to many kinds of social pain, like thinking about a breakup or being called boring.

*Rejection is when you feel like nobody wants you to be part of their group.

In the English language just like in all languages we have some idioms which mean that the words don't always mean what they say. Here are some definitions of each word or phrase that may be confusing.

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• fitting in (paragraph 3): being accepted by others and feeling like part of the group

• tackle a challenge (paragraph 4): try something hard (not something about a sport)

• broken hearted (paragraph 5): very sad

• tug-of-war (paragraph 10): a game in which two sides pull a rope in opposite directions

• potty break (paragraph 14): a silly name for going to the bathroom

​Cultural References