A smiling face does
not always launch a thousand ships. After all, it evokes very different
reactions from our brains depending on whether we are Flamenco –loving
extroverts or shy wallflowers, say researchers.
In a pioneering study on the biology of personality
differences, scientists from the State University of New York in Stony Brook
and form Stanford University have found that seeing smiling faces makes the
brains of extroverted people light up more than the brains of shy people.
Psychologist and behavioural neuro-scientst Turhan Canli,
who led the investigations, told Reuters recently that, it’s not clear whether”...
Outgoing people actually get more pleasure out of looking at a smiling face.
They are certainly more reactive to a happy face, “he added. “I don’t know if
it feels better. Our study shows for the first time that the same facial
expression can be processed by different people, according to their
personality. “According to experts, this research is an instigating example of
what’s jocularly known as ‘light bright’ science – putting people in scanners
and seeing what lights up.
Says neurologists and author of Descartes’ Error, Anotonio R
Damasio, “Using imaging techniques such as Magnetic Resonance imaging (MRI) and
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to study patients with brain lesions as well
as normal subjects we have begin to make some head way into understanding the
areas of the brain involved in different types of emotion.”
In this particular case, the scientists were looking for
variations in the reactions of volunteers to fearful faces by studying an
almond- shaped area of the brain called amygdale. They found that regardless of
personality differences everyone responded in an identical manner: their
amygdales all its up with similar patterns.
However, when the same group of 15 volunteers was shown
happy faces, differences emerged at once, report Dr. Canil and his team in last
week’s issue of science.
The volunteers were shown standardized faces with
expressions that have been shown to have almost universal recognition. No matter
what the culture, people all equate an up-curing mouth with happiness and
pleasure and a down- curing one with sadness or disappointment. The study thus
flew in the face of conventional wisdom, which usually ignores personality
variables such as extraversion and neuroticism as being irrelevant to brain
functioning even if they are important to people’s emotional experience.
Dr. Canil clarified that his latest report focused on the
amygdale alone. Although the team also saw other actions in other parts of the brain,
they weren’t ready to report on these details. The scientists also had to
grapple with a chicken –and –egg question is the extroverts’ hail –fellow-
well- met’ attitude caused by hard –wring of the brain to get more pleaser out
of smiling faces, or do they respond more brightly to smiling because they are
outgoing?
While the answer is not clear, experts say that with the new
methodologies, the intersection between social behavior and brain mechanisms
has become accessible. Others say that the emerging ‘social cognitive’ neuro-
science could’ help reunify psychology after years of splintering into ever
finer sub-disciplines.
The latest research follows an earlier path breaking study
by Dr. Canil and different coworkers that showed that how our brains respond to
emotional stimuli depends on the personalities we harbor.
As Dr. Damasio told the Library of Congress in a keynote
lecture on “The science of emotion.” “We do ourselves a disservice when we
think of human begins as exclusively logic or knowledge –driven, and fail to
pay attention to the emotions. The tow systems are enmeshed because that is the
way out brain and our organisms have been put together by evolution.”
7.
The objective of the passage is to:
A.
Clarify the roles of psychology and neuroscience
in understanding human emotions.
B.
Posit the theory that extroverts are more
likely, to get pleasure out of a smiling face than introverts.
C.
Report the findings of a research that links
personality variables to brain functioning.
D.
Endorse the continuing exploration of
personality variables and human emotions by psychology.
8.
According to the passage , the amygdales of
extroverted people reacted more intensely to
smiling , face than those, of introverts because:
A.
Extroverts’ brains are designed to react more
intensely to pleasurable images,
B.
It is a personality characteristic of extraverts
to react more intensely to a pleasurable image.
C.
Extroverts are psychologically inclined and
mentally teased to respond to pleasurable images
D.
None of
the above
9.
Dr. Canli’s research connected the unique
reactions of extraverts to their personalities on the , basis of:
A.
The overall reaction of the brain
B.
The reaction of the amygdale
C.
His particular methodology
D.
The brain- mechanism differences.
10.
According
to Dr. Damasio human begins are:
A.
Not knowledge – driven
B.
A product of logic and emotion
C.
Evolutionary giants in the ways of emotion
D.
Designated so that logic and emotion are
simultaneously possible to hem
11.
A suitable title for the passage would be:
A.
Psycho babble: Trick or Treat
B.
Personality and
emotional responses
C.
The relevance of a smile
D.
Personality – a determinant of neurological
response
Answers and Explanations
7.
C the passage reports the findings of a
research that posits a correlation between types of personalities and brain
functioning (“refer paragraph 7).
8.
D refer paragraph 8 and 9.
9.
B refer paragraph 8.
10.
D refers to the last paragraph”…. Put
together by evolution”.
11.
D Option D sumps up the gist of the passage.
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