IS IT GOOD FOR MY BRAIN TO AVOID THE NEWS FROM TIME TO TIME?
IT’S EASY TO GET SICK OF THE 24-HOUR NEWS CYCLE OF WAR, CLIMATE CRISES AND ECONOMIC TURMOIL
BY DR LISA FELDMAN BARRETT
Scientists can study how the human brain and body deal with information that people are likely to experience as distressing. We show test subjects a barrage of images or words designed to burden their nervous systems – exactly the sort of stuff we all encounter daily in the news (in fact, some of our most troublesome material comes from news reports). After a moment, we see changes in patterns of brain activity that are important for regulating bodily systems. Some changes occur in brain regions that have been dubbed the home of ‘fight or flight’ circuits, but really these regions are more generally important for coordinating and regulating your nervous system, immune system, and metabolism. As a result, we observe test subjects’ pounding hearts, sweating palms, and gushing cortisol as their brains prepare their bodies to act. Even though they are safely tucked away in a comfy lab chair, just imagining an unpleasant event can bring on an electrochemical storm of changes.