Words give brain handle on feelings: U.S. researcher

February 17, 2009

words

Sat Feb 14, 2:46 PM

By Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Brain scientists are starting to understand

something poets, songwriters and diarists have long known: putting

feelings into words helps ease the mind.

" It is a pretty well-established finding that this occurs, but we

don't know why, " Lieberman of the University of California,

Los Angeles, said on Saturday at the American Association for the

Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago.

" When you put feelings into words, you are turning on the same

regions in the brain that are involved in emotional self-control, "

Lieberman said.

" It regulates distress, " said Lieberman, who studies the brain using

technology known as functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI,

which highlights brain regions as they become active.

Lieberman's findings are based on studies in which healthy subjects

lie in an MRI machine and view emotionally evocative pictures, such

as scared or angry faces. Study participants touch a button

corresponding to a word that expresses that emotion.

When study subjects put feelings into words in this way, the

researchers noted increased brain activity in the ventrolateral

prefrontal cortex, a brain region known for dampening negative

emotions.

At the same time, they saw decreases in activity in the amygdala, the

brain machinery responsible for processing feelings about

relationships and emotions like fear, rage and aggression.

Lieberman said this may explain why many teenagers and others take up

pen and paper when they are filled with angst.

" I think it certainly could play a role in why people of any age

write diaries or bad lyrics to songs, " he said.

" That is certainly a possibility. "

Lieberman said he is now doing studies to see how putting words into

feelings might help people who fear spiders or have anxiety disorders.

(Editing by Walsh)

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