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Feeling embarrassed a sign of healthy brain--study
by Jaspreet Virk - April 19, 2011 - comments
Feeling of embarrassment leads to increase in blood pressure, heart beat. Also, the breathing pattern changes.
Do you often feel embarrassed? If so, cheer up, as it is one of the signs that your brain is still healthy, finds a new study.
According to the research findings presented at the 63rd annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Hawaii, the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex, a thumb-sized region located in the right hemisphere of the brain governs this emotion.
The ability of people to feel embarrassed is directly related to the functioning of this part of the brain, and the degree to which one feels embarrassed depends on how well pregenual anterior cingulate cortex is working.
“This region is actually essential for this reaction. When you lose this region, you lose this embarrassment response.”-- lead researcher Dr. Virginia Sturm, a postdoctoral fellow at UC-San Francisco
Link to embarrassment found
To find out which part of the brain was responsible for feeling of embarrassment, the researchers at University of California at San Francisco and Berkeley recruited volunteers, many with neurodegenerative disease.
Researchers recorded their voice while they sang the 'Temptations' "My Girl" karaoke-style. Later they made them listen to the recording.
Analyzing the reactions of the participants, researchers found that embarrassment is deep-rooted in the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex region of the brain.
People with neurological damage aren't embarrassed
They also found that healthy people reacted differently from those suffering from neurodegenerative disease.
"In healthy people, watching themselves sing elicits a considerable embarrassment reaction,” stated lead researcher Dr. Virginia Sturm, a postdoctoral fellow at UC-San Francisco.
Feeling of embarrassment leads to increase in blood pressure, heart beat. Also, the breathing pattern changes.
However, those with neurodegenerative disorders react indifferently. This shows that such people lose their ability to be embarrassed.
Sturm stated that pegenual anterior cingulate cortex “is actually essential for this reaction. When you lose this region, you lose this embarrassment response.”
He added, “The smaller the region, the less embarrassed the people were.”