First brain imaging study of emotion is “disgusting”

William Atkins
Wednesday, 19 March 2008 21:54

Science - Health

Stanford University researchers have performed the first imaging study of the brain with respect to two coping methods for the regulation of human emotion. They used scenes of “surgical procedures, vomiting and animal slaughter” to induce disgust. And, it worked!         

Stanford research psychology associate Philippe R. Goldin was the lead author of the paper that describes the research. It appears in the March 15, 2008 issue of Biological Psychiatry,

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to study and measure the nervous system in the brains of subjects.

The male subjects were shown 15-second videos that were intended to produce “disgust.”

The Goldin team contrasted two techniques of emotion regulation; that is, the way that humans cope with and control their emotions and feelings.

These two different methods are commonly used with psychologists in helping people cope with and control their feelings and emotions.

One method is called cognitive reappraisal. It reduced the intensity of the emotions that people feel by modifying the reaction to the feeling, changing its meaning to something less disgusting, as was the case in their study.
Goldin explains, “For example, if you were watching a doctor stitch up a wound in someone's arm, rather than just being horrified by all the blood, you might instead focus on the fact that the patient was being helped and would recover."

The second method is called expressive suppression. It, instead, actually increases the intensity of emotions but the subject tries to outwardly act like everything is ok. In this method, the subject simply suppresses all physical and emotional feelings and “you grit your teeth and bear it.”

In the study, the subjects were taught both techniques. During the experiment, the subjects lie down inside the MRI scanner, which shows neural activity in the brain.

They are then shown different short video clips on a screen positioned about six inches from their face. A camera records their expressions. Afterwards, subjects describe to the researchers how they felt when viewing the videos, forty-five clips in all.

Why are the researchers using disgust as a way to induce emotions? Please read on.