Brain areas distinguishing between good and bad

Have you ever wondered how our brain interprets a difficult social situation? For example: some people have a penchant of saying offending things smilingly. In such cases should our brain interpret it as a genuine smile or as an offense? Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig and the University Of Haifa, Israel, have identified neural mechanisms that help in understanding whether a difficult social situation is emotionally positive or negative.

When we are complimented, we get a positive vibe. Similarly, when someone attacks us, we know for sure that the situation is negative. But, we often come across more complex social situations – like someone may pass a cynical remark or the tone of voice when saying something is not positive. In such cases, our brains must have the know-how of processing the meaning of the emotional conflict properly“ else we might find ourselves responding happily when someone passes a negative remark or getting offended unnecessarily and that is not how it should be.

For their study, the researchers used emotionally confusing scenes from movies like Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs.” Christiane Rohr of the Max Planck Institute who is the study’s leader revealed that they identified two areas in the brain that act like ‘remote controls’. They together determine how a situation should be evaluated, and accordingly which other brain areas should be switched on or off.

The participants of the study were made to watch emotionally conflicting movies while lying in a magnetic resonance scanner. The movie included scenes of a person torturing another while smiling, dancing, and talking to his victim in a friendly manner, etc. The participants were then asked if each of the scenes watched in the movie included a conflict and according to them how much was the positive or negative element and whether the scene was pleasant or unpleasant to watch.

When the neuronal signals obtained via functional magnetic resonance imaging and the participants’ responses were analyzed, the researchers discovered that the brain switched between the two different neural networks whereby one is triggered when we perceive a situation as positive, and another is activated when we see it as negative. The superior temporal sulcus of the brain is used for the interpretation of positive situations and the inferior parietal lobule is active for the interpretation of negative situations. These areas were also activated when the participants felt that the movie scene represented an emotional conflict.

Hadas Okon-Singer, researcher at the University of Haifa remarked that it seemed that the two areas seem to ‘speak’ to each other and evaluate the situation in order to decide which one will be switched on and which one will be switched off. The results imply that these parts of the brain have the ability to influence the value, positive or negative, and they decide what will be dominant value in an emotional conflict.

While most people’s brain can manage to process such emotionally conflicting situations, but, there are some people who find it difficult and they can over time suffer from depression, anxious rumination, and a tendency to avoid social situations. Neuroscientists Rohr and Okon-Singer are hopeful that their study findings will help in facilitating further research into finding out why this mechanism does not function properly in some people. The researchers are hopeful that this study will help in developing therapies for people who find it difficult to deal with emotionally conflicting situations adequately.

References:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-08-brain-areas-distinguishing-good-bad.html

https://www.mpg.de/10680717/how-the-brain-evaluates-emotionally-difficult-situations