<p>A strong emotional arousal may be driving some Twitter users to get obsessed with the microblogging site, a new study suggests.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Researchers examined the mental activity of 114 volunteers while they tweeted on phones, tablets and laptops, using a technique called steady-state topography.<br /><br />They found markedly higher responses than the norm in the three areas which correspond to emotional arousal, feelings of personal relevance, and memory.<br /><br />Emotional arousal is linked to sites in the back right half of the brain, and the study used activity at the right parieto-temporal site to assess the intensity of emotions elicited by the service, the Guardian reported.<br /><br />For people actively using the platform, sending tweets or searching for other, those responses were 75 per cent higher than the online norm; but even for those just passively reading the service, the response was 64 per cent more intense.<br /><br />"The way that messages are delivered drives a strong emotional response," said Heather Armstrong, chief executive of market research firm Neuro Insight, which carried out the study.<br /><br />"It's very short and sharp, it's very immediate, and it's appearing in your own context," said Armstrong.<br /><br />Twitter scores quite so highly because "people are seeing stuff in a context which is immensely personally relevant," said Armstrong.</p>
<p>A strong emotional arousal may be driving some Twitter users to get obsessed with the microblogging site, a new study suggests.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Researchers examined the mental activity of 114 volunteers while they tweeted on phones, tablets and laptops, using a technique called steady-state topography.<br /><br />They found markedly higher responses than the norm in the three areas which correspond to emotional arousal, feelings of personal relevance, and memory.<br /><br />Emotional arousal is linked to sites in the back right half of the brain, and the study used activity at the right parieto-temporal site to assess the intensity of emotions elicited by the service, the Guardian reported.<br /><br />For people actively using the platform, sending tweets or searching for other, those responses were 75 per cent higher than the online norm; but even for those just passively reading the service, the response was 64 per cent more intense.<br /><br />"The way that messages are delivered drives a strong emotional response," said Heather Armstrong, chief executive of market research firm Neuro Insight, which carried out the study.<br /><br />"It's very short and sharp, it's very immediate, and it's appearing in your own context," said Armstrong.<br /><br />Twitter scores quite so highly because "people are seeing stuff in a context which is immensely personally relevant," said Armstrong.</p>