Jenna Bush Hager put her love for husband Henry Hager to the test in honor of Valentine’s Day, meeting with an expert in brainwave technology on Monday’s TODAY show to see just how strongly she feels for her longtime love. Jenna was fitted with an electrode cap for an electroencephalogram to monitor her brain’s electrical activity by Sandra Langeslag, Ph.D., an associate professor in psychological sciences at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, who was looking to see how Jenna responded to a variety of images, including her husband of 15 years.
Langeslag explained that while you might not be able to see love per se on a test, the brain does create more intense electrical signals when shown a picture of someone they love romantically than when shown photos of other people. To create a baseline, Jenna was shown photos of a stranger, her TODAY show friend and colleague Al Roker, and another member of her family – her cat, Hollywood Hager.
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“I’m just curious to see what’s going to happen,” Jenna said before beginning the test. After undergoing the entire experiment, the daytime personality was tickled to learn her brainwave response was strongest when shown her husband, with Langeslag explaining the activity was “a lot bigger” than when compared to Roker or the stranger. Only one of the other photos came close to eliciting a similar response, that of Hollywood himself.
“Your response to the cat is not quite as strong to your husband, but it’s there,” Langeslag explained. “Which makes sense, because you’re probably also very attached to the cat.” Jenna quipped, “But more attached to the husband.” Henry had some jokes of his own when he saw the EEG findings ahead of Monday’s show, sending in a video message response for his wife.
“Jenna, I understand you just finished a love study and that I came out on top,” he said in the video. “You do actually love me, (and) I love you.” He called the results “hard to believe,” teasing that her choices were between “Harry Styles, our cat, Tom Brady and,” motioning toward himself, “this guy.”
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