That's Disgusting! I Can Tell from Your Face

Yahoo ^ | 10/30/03 | Reuters

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

You don't need to actually see or smell something unpleasant to know it is disgusting -- you only need to look at someone else's expression, according to research published on Wednesday.

The brain responds the same whether a person actually experiences something disgusting, or just sees another person reacting, Italian researchers found.

Writing in the October 30th issue of the journal Neuron, they said they saw the same brain activity in people who smelled a foul odor and in those looking at someone else smelling a foul odor.

Dr. Giacomo Rizzolatti of the University of Parma, Italy, and colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to watch brain activity "live."

The insula and the cingulate cortex areas of the brain were most active in both groups, they reported.

"The present findings indicate that seeing someone else's facial expressions triggers the neural activity typical of our own experience of the same emotion," they wrote.

The same may be true of other emotional reactions, they said.

[Justice]

[ArrogantBustard]

the face of a man who's been exposed to Ol' Crusty...

[Semper Paratus]

"He who smelt it, delt it"

[smith288]

[vrwinger]

Somehow, the following phenomenon must be related:

Who hasn't said: "EEEEWWW!! This tastes awful!... Here, try it..."

Why, when we bite into something truly disgusting, do we insist others around us do the same?

[Khurkris]

"Does this taste funny to you...?"

"Here...taste this. Does that taste funny?"

"Smell that...think thats gone bad?"

[Molesworth]

>>"The present findings indicate that seeing someone else's facial expressions triggers the neural activity typical of our own experience of the same emotion," they wrote.<<

Yes. Yes. Yessssssss.

[Justice]

[nothingnew]

This story stinks.

FMCDH

[nothingnew]

"EEEEWWW!! This tastes awful!... Here, try it..."

So how is it you know my wife?

FMCDH

[sheik yerbouty]

She is beginning to look like a 9forgive any mispelling) Char pei! Thise dogs are fugly!

[rabidralph]

Hmmm, is it your wife who says these things or is it your wife who tastes awful? Please clarify.

[Chewbacca]

Not true. I love the taste of horehound candy, but everyone I let try it tends to grimace and spit it out.

Tastes great to me.

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

You don't need to actually see or smell something unpleasant to know it is disgusting -- you only need to look at someone else's expression

This explains how Bush got the swing voters after the debates with Gore. Who could watch Al "He-Man" Gore without involuntarily wincing?

[trussell]

Now you've done it. I have to go to the store and see if I can find some horehound candy. I haven't had any of that in years, and it's some of the best candy ever made!!

[Atlas Sneezed]

Makes perfect sense. If Thag just ate a bite of wildebeest that was gangrenous, or berries that were poisonous, it would be advantageous to others sharing Thag's genes if they also had the ability to transmit and receive such health-protecting signals.

[nothingnew]

My wife tastes deliciuos.

FMCDH