Anatomy Shared Article Research

This blog exists for the Anatomy students at Tree of Life Christian School. We will be reading various scientific articles, summarizing our research, and then commenting on others' summaries. We hope to broaden our view of the current research surrounding the human body, and to help others see how truly amazing the design of the human body is.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

The Biology of.... DISGUST!!!!!

Everyday in Manhattan, crowds of connoisseur’s of fine art gather in the New Museum of Contemporary Art not to look at magnificent paintings or pastels, but to watch a gadget digest some food. This ‘piece of art’, that impersonates a human gut, is over thirty feet long and six feet in height! This piece of art stimulates stronger emotion than even Picasso or Monet, at least a different kind. Everyone is fascinated most people are completely disgusted. After a long time of neglecting it, neuroscientists are now trying to figure out the area of the brain that causes disgust. It is a universal emotion that a researcher has called, “ the forgotten emotion of psychiatry.” One researcher interviewed people from different countries and circumstances as to what disgusts them, her results obviously varied from person to person but in general there was a mutual repugnance to feces and many other ‘universally loathed’ utterly disgusting items. The researcher realized the trends and came to the conclusion that disgust is critical to/enhances survival. Since the trend is universal researchers believe that the feeling of disgust is encoded in our genes. The urge to react to disgust is said to be not only from the brain but from the ‘gut brain’ (a collection of nerve cells). Using MRI’s and showing patients pictures of things that would make the common man feel disgust, researchers were able to see which parts of the brain were involved in the process. The two areas that seemed to be effected by the gross images were the striatum and insula. The insula plays such a hefty role in the feeling of disgust, if It’s damaged disgust can be completely eliminated. One researcher linked disgust to obsessive compulsive disorder, rather than being fear and anxiety in excess that it is severe abnormal disgust. The line is pretty gray between OCD & Disgust because there were a variety of tests that contradicted each other, but it’s new and I’m sure they will continue to learn more and more about what exactly it is in our brain that causes the feeling of disgust.

I can understand why disgust is "the forgotten emotion of psychiatry," other emotions/problems seem to be a higher priority but it's very interesting to see what the scientific minds are doing with the research. In the article it said, " It is keen to understand how disgust helps motivate people to maintain good hygiene." I also found it quite interesting that the certain things that grossed people out were mutual whether the person was from Africa, India or the U.S. Some of the things that grossed people out were quite funny ( kissing in public, wet people, dead sparrows), this is why i believe it's so hard to study the topic, people are so diverse. This is not like studying math, rather abstract and personal. It's also interesting that the MRI can show which part of the brain is active during different thoughts!

http://discovermagazine.com/2002/dec/featbiology

3 Comments:

Blogger kirsten2009 said...

One thing that really caught my attention was that the article described disgust as being important for survival. Whenever we feel disgusted we usually just think about how much we want to get away from whatever is grossing us out, not how this is helping us. But it kind of makes sense to me that disgust and OCD are related, but only on the thoughts of behavior and reactions. It would be interesting to read any follow-up research to see how they're chemically related.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008 5:31:00 PM  
Blogger Lian said...

its interesting that OCD has to do with a lack of the feeling of disgust. i havn't thought about disgust as being a feeling that could be damaged or lost in the same way that any other feeling can be. its also interesting that our feelings are critical in enhancing survival... if that is so does that mean that certain emotions, or the tendency toward a certain emotion, are passed from parents to children?

Wednesday, January 09, 2008 5:33:00 PM  
Blogger Elyse Koval said...

Who ever thought the simple emotion of disgust could be important to our survival? After thinking about it thought, it makes sence. If we feel disgust at a dead bird, then we will be motivated to get away. This reaction could keep us from getting germs. I wonder how further research on this subject will change our lives.

~ written by Kati W.~

Thursday, January 10, 2008 8:23:00 AM  

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