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GenevaManage your emotions better so as not to lose your mind
Researchers from the University have analyzed the impact on the brain of images of natural disasters or situations of distress.
The connections between two regions of the brain are high in people with high anxiety.
© Figure adapted from Baez Lugo et al., 2023, Nature Aging/UNIGE
Better management of negative emotions might help preserve mental health. This is indicated by research from the University of Geneva (UNIGE). Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), scientists have observed the brain activity of young and old people confronted with the psychological suffering of others.
Reports showing people in hospitals, in war zones, or during earthquakes were shown to volunteers, as well as videos without emotional content. The researchers’ innovative approach was to use real images, not movies, and observe what happens not during, but following viewing.
The anxious most affected
“There is a stronger response among the elderly, and even more among the most anxious,” says Sebastian Baez Lugo, first author of the work. A region in particular, between the amygdala and the posterior cingulate cortex – a place particularly affected in the event of Alzheimer’s – “is permanently contaminated by the suffering of others”.
Foreign language or meditation
Thus, “poor management of emotions over the years might contribute to the development of forms of dementia at an advanced age”, notes the researcher. Scientists are currently conducting an 18-month study to assess how learning a foreign language or training in meditation might help prevent this phenomenon.
Aging and training mentally
The work of the team from UNIGE’s Center for Affective Sciences, made up in particular of Professor Patrik Vuilleumier and researcher Olga Klimecki, is part of a vast European study, Medit-Ageing. Its objective is to see how to improve aging without medication, for example with intense mental training such as meditation, specifies Sebastian Baez Lugo.