So what does that answer depend on? Are we not all equally sensitive? It seems that some theories propose that there are differences in our responsiveness to environmental stimuli . It would be interesting to analyze if these differences depend on our personality and if this is reflected in some way at the brain level.
A recent study by Isabella Mutschler of the University of Basel in Switzerland and other collaborators has attempted to study the relationship between neuroticism (a personality trait) and the physiological responses in the brain to crying in children.
Neuroticism is defined as a stable tendency in our way of being that leads us to experience negative emotions, high anxiety and tension, worry and emotional instability. In Mutschler’s experiment, 102 healthy women participated in whom skin conductance was measured and a functional MRI was performed to measure their cerebral blood oxygen level while they were shown a video of crying children.
The results of the experiment, recently published in PLoS ONE (2016), showed that when a child cries, the brain areas related to emotions (amygdala and anterior insula) increased the oxygen response in the blood while other areas associated with responses such as habituation (fusiform gyrus, medial temporal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus or hippocampus, among others) decreased this response.
In addition, women who scored higher on the neuroticism trait showed greater activity in the amygdala and anterior cingulate when watching the videos, and they also had a greater skin conductance response (which is associated with a greater emotional response ).
These are interesting facts that help us understand human behavior , and that is always important. The brain continues to be an amazing organ and investigating it is a fundamental task to get to know ourselves better.
Marisa Fernández Sánchez, Senior Neuropsychologist, Unobrain
