Where would we be without experts?

I missed this last week, it must have been excitment over the robbery. However those pointy headed boffins over at the Medical Research Council have excelled themselves again.

Envy and pleasure do go together

No.. Tell me it ain't true doc.

The Schadenfreude study was led by Dr Hidehiko Takahashi of Tokoyo Medical and Dental University in Japan. Dr Dean Mobbs of the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, a co-author on the paper, said:

‘‘We captured images of what happens in the brain when a person feels pleasure as the result of another’s misfortune. The results clearly showed increased activation in the greater ventral striatum, a region implicated in many types of reward.’’

It's that definition of pleasure that sets me salivating,

Dr Mobbs added: “For example, the bragging neighbour who loses his expensive new car during the economic downturn would presumably make most people feel some satisfaction.”

So that explains why the Irish 'No' vote felt so good.