Where hatred lives in the brain
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Love, schmuv. British researchers wanted to find out what hate looks like inside the mind.
Using fMRIs, they scanned the brains of 17 people -- while the participants looked at photos of people for whom they felt nothing and while they looked at photos of people whom they hated. For most participants, the loathed one was an ex-lover or work competitor; for one woman, it was a political figure (the study doesn’t specify which figure).
In their study’s introduction, the researchers said:
‘Given the common association between love and hate, and the relative frequency with which one of these sentiments can transform into the other, we also hypothesized that there would be some strong correlation in the brain sites activated during the experience of these two antipodean sentiments. The results surprised us.’
There were shared areas of activation between hate and other emotions, of course, but overall, researchers found a pattern unique to hatred. Of special importance were the parts of the brain involved in generating aggressive behavior and turning such behavior into action.
Some parts of the brain crucial to similar emotions were left cold, notably the amygdala (activated by fear and aggression) and the anterior cingulate, hippocampus, medial temporal regions and obritofrontal cortex (activated by anger and threat).
And though there were some shared areas of activity -- notably in the putamen and insula -- in both love and hate, parts of the brain deactivated in love were much more limited in hate.
The researchers said in conclusion:
‘This difference in the extent of deactivated cortex, compared to the deactivated cortex in the context of romantic love, may seem surprising, since hate too can be an all consuming passion. But whereas in romantic love, the lover is more likely to be less critical and judgmental regarding the loved person, it is more likely that in the context of hate the hater may want to exercise judgment in calculating moves to harm, injure or otherwise extract revenge.’
The results were published today in PLoS One.
Included is the questionnaire used to assess participants’ level of hatred. Check it out -- whether from curiosity or to assess your own feelings. (Though with that much hatred, it seems, you may be too busy plotting for self-reflection.)
-- Tami Dennis