How the Brain Reacts to Good and Bad Surprises


	How the Brain Reacts to Good and Bad Surprises

chestnut501

7-18-2009 9:34 PM

215 views

tags:

science, neuroscience, brain, neurons, emotions, fear, circuitry

chestnut501 says:

A study with monkeys finds that the amygdala, the emotional center of the brain, has neurons that fire for good surprises, and different neurons that fire for bad surprises.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/80397f24-fa19-48f5-b0d8-057625e452ba/C342FCE4-30AB-4AE6-B8A8-CA1D2ED29F40/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=20BE476F-E7F2-99DF-3A8F766FBB0A19C3" href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=20BE476F-E7F2-99DF-3A8F766FBB0A19C3" style="font-size: 11px;">www.scientificamerican.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=20BE476F-E7F2-99DF-3A8F766FBB0A19C3">Say you are walking in the forest. <A href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/topic.cfm?id=birds">Birds</A> are 
chirping. Sun is shining. And you come around a corner and bam, you're face to 
face with a grizzly. And you freeze!<BR><BR></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=20BE476F-E7F2-99DF-3A8F766FBB0A19C3">Now let’s say you came around that same corner but this time you run into your 
old pal Joe.<BR><BR></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=20BE476F-E7F2-99DF-3A8F766FBB0A19C3">Both events are equally surprising, and our amygdala, the emotional part of the 
brain, is activated. But how does the amygdala process what makes us recoil from 
the bear, but go to hug Joe?<BR>Researchers recently reported in the journal 
Neuron, that there are two circuits at work.<BR>&nbsp;<BR></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=20BE476F-E7F2-99DF-3A8F766FBB0A19C3">They measured the firing of nearly 300 cells in five monkeys. The monkeys either 
received an unexpected sip of water (nice surprise) or a puff of air in their 
face (bad surprise).<BR>&nbsp;<BR></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=20BE476F-E7F2-99DF-3A8F766FBB0A19C3">Scientists found that in the amygdala, there are a group of neurons that 
specifically react to surprise. And then there are different neurons that react 
to only good or only bad surprises.<BR>&nbsp;<BR></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/C342FCE4-30AB-4AE6-B8A8-CA1D2ED29F40/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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