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Subscribe to RSSRemember that popular YouTube clip that features an affable dude dancing into a street? He's dancing from side to side, as he backs his way into the middle of a neighborhood street -- and WHAM! An ice cream truck that seems to come out of nowhere crashes into him. He's OK -- he even got his "web redemption" on a recent "Tosh.0" episode-- but getting hit by a truck is what you might call a shock, both to him and to his eventual millions of YouTube viewers.
But watching situations that are jarring to us are no big deal to our brains, suggests a new study published in the February issue of the journal Cortex. The processes in our brain's orbitofrontal cortex (the brain's "decider") remain the same, no matter how unexpected or frightening an event may be, says lead author Armin Schnider of the University Hospitals of Geneva in Switzerland.
"The context of this research is the brain’s ability to remain in phase with ongoing reality while allowing thoughts (memories) to freely float," Schnider explains. But while brain patterns don't change if you're merely surprised, all bets are off if you're in actual danger and need to quickly react, not think about it, she says.
Schnider supervised a team of researchers, who recorded functional magnetic resonance images, or fMRI, while volunteers were repeatedly shown an image of a pair of faces. The participants were told to predict the face on which a "target" would appear -- either a simple black circle, or a freaky spider. Whether the spider or the circle showed up, a cerebral network that included the orbitofrontal cortex was activated.
Schnider agrees that his findings are comforting, in a way -- unexpected events may give us a jolt, but to our brains, it's business as usual.
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Well duh, of course... It's not the events themselves, that are "OMG", but the stories we tell ourselves about the events. OMG is a story.
Brilliant study .......... fascinating!
The observers have apparently had not real shock... they did not attempt to actually elicit it from the group they studied. Telling them about what to expect does not allow the brain to actually be put into that state.
Bunch of bully, what I say
Rafeal, thank you for pointing out that the king has no clothes...
I am wondering what experiences they gave their victims, and how much radiation they had thrown at them, just so they can tell you this.
Please give me science. I want to know specifics of the study. Test results, how they found this out. People find that kind of stuff INTERESTING.
Yes, same thing I was thinking, but Chris-1664618 and his commenters seem so clueless as to the article and it's implications.
maybe i can get my wife to use this ,its not the event of our sex life but the memories she uses,before we had kids,and they didnt come knocking on our door while making time to keep the flames afire.
How do they tell if the spider is "freaky" or not?
you can ascertain a level of fear by heart rate. If it gets too high, you hit the fight or flight mode and end up doing stupid stuff.
So the brain doesnt like being surprised then! I wonder how much money they spent to find this out.
Are they saying the mind doesnt work well under stress then or what?
I agree totally with the posters here who say the article is missing something - the author makes the point, starts to discuss the research - she brings up the structure of the research - but without enough facts and details for us to know what the significance of the result she then jumps to after which she repeats her thesis statement. Weird - like a part has been taken out - too bad as science is something we could all use news about - what a waste of time here - was it the editor who took parts out? Not a good call.
By reading these comments, you'd think that MSNBC would wise up and realize that the sound-bite mentality is at Fox, not here except for the trolls!
....oh, no! Does this mean? .....OMG! Moment: Comcast and Rupert are merging?!?!?! MSNBC - NBC - content leans that way lately! Why wouldn't we think that? Even the pod casts remind me of the dumbed-down news of the Bush yrs!
What gives NBC?
No PTSD after seeing the guy get hit by a truck?