New York, November 24 (IANS). A team of scientists has discovered new parts of the brain that help in social interactions. These areas are connected to older areas, such as the amygdala (which is associated with fear and emotions), and are always in communication with each other. This discovery may help in treating mental problems like anxiety and depression.
In a new study from Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, USA, scientists tried to better understand how humans became so adept that they could think about what is going on in the minds of others. This study has been published in Science Advances Journal.
Senior author Rodrigo Braga said, “We spend a lot of time thinking, ‘What is the person feeling, what is they thinking? Have I said something to upset them?’
The parts of the brain that allow us to do this are areas of the human brain that have expanded more recently in our evolution and that means it is a recently evolved process.
Braga added, “You’re putting yourself in someone else’s mind and guessing what that person is thinking, even though you can’t actually know.”
The study found that recently developed and advanced parts of the brain that support social interactions, called social cognitive networks, are connected to an ancient part of the brain, the amygdala, and that there are frequent connections between them. Remains.
The amygdala is known as the “lizard brain” and is most commonly associated with detecting threats and processing fear.
Braga said that “the amygdala is responsible for social behaviors such as rearing, aggression, and the operation of social-dominance hierarchies (orderly arrangements). Studies had found co-activation of the amygdala and social cognitive networks, but “our study is new Because it shows that this communication is always happening.”
There is a special part within the amygdala called the ‘medial nucleus’, and it is very important for social behaviours.
This study was the first to show that the medial nucleus of the amygdala is connected to newly developed social cognitive network areas related to thinking about others.
The scientists said connectivity with the amygdala helps shape the function of the social cognitive network because it provides access to the amygdala’s role in processing emotionally salient content.
Anxiety and depression both involve overactivity of the amygdala, which can lead to extreme emotions and difficulty regulating them.
The authors said that with the findings of this study, a less harmful procedure, trans-cranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), could improve treatment by using information about this brain connection.
–IANS
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