Article 3 in the series, “How I Resurrected My Blog and Stuck With It” will publish on January 25.

“If it feels good, do it.” — Timothy Leary

Below is an excerpt from a fine article by  author, Wired and NYT correspondent Jonah Lehrer. Check out his fascinating science blog, Frontal Cortex.

“The first thing to note about giving away money is that it feels really good. For instance, several brain scanning experiments demonstrate that donating to a worthy cause leads to activation in the dopamine reward pathway. It’s the same part of the brain that’s turned on when we have sex, or eat a slice of chocolate cake. In fact, there is typically more “reward-related” activity when we donate money than we receive an equivalent amount. Giving is literally better than getting, at least from the perspective of the brain.”
read entire article

Sure, we all know about the intrinsic value of giving. But its doubly cool when generosity cozies up to sex and chocolate cake.  Ah, the neuroscience of charity. A real turn on.