I'm so fantastic (if I ignore my frontal lobes) | Futurity
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lobes, the more accurate your view of yourself is,” says Jennifer Beer,
an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. “And the more you view yourself as desirable or better than your peers, the less you use those lobes.”
Findings are scheduled for publication in the February edition of the journal NeuroImage.
The natural human tendency to see oneself in a positive light can be
helpful and motivating in some situations but detrimental in others,
Beer says.
Her research, conducted at the university’s Imaging Research Center,
gives new insight into the relationship among brain functions and human
emotion and perceptions.
It may help scientists better understand brain functions in seniors
or people who suffer from depression or other mental illnesses. It could
also have implications for recovering methamphetamine addicts whose
frontal lobes are often damaged by drug use and who can overestimate
their ability to stay clean.
As part of the study, 20 subjects answered questions about how they
compared to their peers on such positive traits as tact, modesty,
likability, and maturity and such negative traits as materialism,
messiness, unreliability, and narrow-mindedness. As the subjects
answered those questions, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine
scanned their brains.
The subjects who viewed themselves in a very positive light across
those disparate areas used their orbitofrontal cortex less than the
other subjects. This region of the frontal lobe is generally associated
with reasoning, planning, decision-making, and problem-solving.
Some subjects who had accurate views of themselves showed four times
more frontal lobe activation than the most extreme “rose-colored
glasses” wearer in the study.
Among a separate set of subjects who were asked the same questions,
those who were required to answer quickly saw themselves in a far more
positive light than those who had unlimited time to answer. Those
findings suggest that processing information in a more deliberate manner
may be the way in which frontal lobe activation permits people to come
to more realistic conclusions.
“Subjects made unrealistically positive judgments about themselves
more quickly, suggesting these judgments require fewer mental
resources,” Beer says. “Perhaps, like the visual system, the social
judgment system is designed to give us a quick ‘good enough’ perception
for the sake of efficiency.”
University of Texas news: www.utexas.edu/news/
Posted by Tim Green-U. Texas on
32 Comments Add A Comment
"I wonder if this explains the religious. They think they’re (literally)
God’s image made manifest, and clearly swallow totalitarian doctrine
based on emotional need, rather than sound reasoning and hard evidence
(most often).
The orbitofrontal cortex is also where sexual pleasure is generated.
Sexual pleasure and high level brain functions appear to be closely
related. That’s something to think about.
It also makes me wonder about the sex life of these “rose colored” people. It might be worth a study."
U. TEXAS-AUSTIN—The less you use your brain’s frontal lobes, the more you see yourself through rose-colored glasses, new research shows.
“In healthy people, the more you activate a portion of your frontal lobes, the more accurate your view of yourself is,” says Jennifer Beer,
an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. “And the more you view yourself as desirable or better than your peers, the less you use those lobes.”
Findings are scheduled for publication in the February edition of the journal NeuroImage.
The natural human tendency to see oneself in a positive light can be
helpful and motivating in some situations but detrimental in others,
Beer says.
Her research, conducted at the university’s Imaging Research Center,
gives new insight into the relationship among brain functions and human
emotion and perceptions.
It may help scientists better understand brain functions in seniors
or people who suffer from depression or other mental illnesses. It could
also have implications for recovering methamphetamine addicts whose
frontal lobes are often damaged by drug use and who can overestimate
their ability to stay clean.
As part of the study, 20 subjects answered questions about how they
compared to their peers on such positive traits as tact, modesty,
likability, and maturity and such negative traits as materialism,
messiness, unreliability, and narrow-mindedness. As the subjects
answered those questions, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine
scanned their brains.
The subjects who viewed themselves in a very positive light across
those disparate areas used their orbitofrontal cortex less than the
other subjects. This region of the frontal lobe is generally associated
with reasoning, planning, decision-making, and problem-solving.
Some subjects who had accurate views of themselves showed four times
more frontal lobe activation than the most extreme “rose-colored
glasses” wearer in the study.
Among a separate set of subjects who were asked the same questions,
those who were required to answer quickly saw themselves in a far more
positive light than those who had unlimited time to answer. Those
findings suggest that processing information in a more deliberate manner
may be the way in which frontal lobe activation permits people to come
to more realistic conclusions.
“Subjects made unrealistically positive judgments about themselves
more quickly, suggesting these judgments require fewer mental
resources,” Beer says. “Perhaps, like the visual system, the social
judgment system is designed to give us a quick ‘good enough’ perception
for the sake of efficiency.”
University of Texas news: www.utexas.edu/news/
