Tuesday, December 13, 2011

City living affects your brain, researchers find

The part of the brain that the danger becomes overactive in the direction of city people under stress

the brains of people living in cities function differently than those in rural areas, according to a study of brain scan. The scientists found that the two regions involved in the regulation of emotion and anxiety, become overactive in people of the city when they are stressed and argue that the differences could explain the higher rates of mental health problems seen in urban areas.

Previous research has shown that people living in cities have a 21% higher risk of anxiety disorders and 39% increased risk of mood disorders. Moreover, the incidence of schizophrenia is double that of those born and raised in cities.

In the new study, Dr. Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, University of Heidelberg in Germany scanned the brains of healthy volunteers over 50 who lived in a number of places in rural areas to major cities, while engaged in the difficult task of mental arithmetic. The experiments were designed to volunteer groups are worried about their performance.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, showed that the amygdala of participants living in cities has been more active in stressful situations. "We know that the amygdala, which is the danger of sensors in the brain and is linked to anxiety and depression," said Meyer-Lindenberg

another region called the cingulate cortex was hyperactive in participants who were born in cities. "We know that [the ACC] is important to control emotions and deal with the adversity of the environment."

In a commentary in the journal Nature, Dr. Daniel Kennedy and Professor Ralph Adolphs, both at the California Institute of Technology, said there are large variations in the preferences of an entire people, and the ability to cope with city life.

"Some thrive in New York, while others happily swap for a desert island psychologists have found that an important factor accounting for this variability is the perceived degree of control available on their daily lives .. social threat, the lack of control and subordination are all possible candidates for mediating the effects of stressful city life, and probably largely responsible for individual differences. "

Working
factors causing tension in the city, in the first place is the next step in trying to understand the effects on mental health in urban areas. Meyer-Lindenberg said social fragmentation, noise and overcrowding may all be factors. "There is evidence earlier that if someone invades your personal space, too close to you, that's exactly what the amygdala, cingulate cortex circuit which is [the] so that it could be something as simple as gravity. "


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