Disgust is one of the basic emotions and has helped us survive throughout our evolution, although it has been relatively forgotten by psychology, we already have enough information about how disgust in the brain is treated: a feeling of strong aversion to certain substances or objects, which forces us to expel them, or reject them.
This emotion is universally considered one of the six basic emotions, identified in all cultures and people with sensory limitations, has a characteristic facial expression: lift the upper lip, frown and descend through the corner of the mouth.
- In addition.
- It is accompanied by decreased blood pressure.
- Decreased galvanic skin response.
- Nausea.
- Decreased heart rate.
- Disgust.
- Object distance.
- Respiratory changes and characteristic vocalizations (e.
- G.
- “Ughh !?).
Is it important to consider the fact that the brain has been shaped by our experience?As a species and as individuals. So, before we had an immune system developed, we had some kind of behavioral immune system.
This more basic system acted as a barrier that protected us from contact with parasites and other potential damage to our body.
The advantage that disgust gave us was mainly the ability to avoid disease, so, although there are cultural differences in what is disgust, the main triggers of this emotion are:
While it is an innate emotion, it is necessary to take into account that certain aspects of disgust are learned, by cultural or developmental differences; children don’t seem upset until they’re two, for example.
However, this could be explained by the fact that up to this age they are dependent on their parents, especially since our species was born quite immature and vulnerable, so when observing the behavior of the parents, the child begins to develop this emotion.
To know how disgust is treated in the brain, it is necessary to take into account two main regions: the insula and the limbic system (amygdala and hippocampus).
So far, scientific studies have linked disgust to certain areas of the brain, capturing images of regions involved in the manifestation of this emotion; now, thanks to new technologies such as functional MRI, it is possible to observe how disgust is dynamically processed in the brain. Brain.
This is what a year ago a group of researchers from Catalonia, Spain, in which 30 people underwent an MRI, during which six minutes of videos of delicious dishes were presented, followed by six minutes of food and other unpleasant objects (cockroaches or men eating earthworms, among others).
The results showed that even 40 seconds after observing the unpleasant images, the brain continued to process this emotion, and brain images have shown that, in the face of a disgusting scene or object, not only part of the brain is activated among those listed. above, but almost half of the brain is activated.
Regarding treatment, scientists explained that there were three phases:
Sometimes the person may feel an excessive upset or related to stimuli that would initially have no reason to provoke him or her. There are several psychopathological disorders related to or a specific disgust component.
Examples include some anxiety disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive cleaning disorder and order, in which there is excessive concern about dirt and the possibility of germ contagion.
In some phobias, the disgust component is crucial, such as in blood phobia or social phobia, in the latter case, in some cases, the affected person feels some disgust or disgust at having sex with others. There are also studies on papel. de of disgust in eating disorders.