Regret remains today as one of the
world’s toughest, habitual mental problems. From a day to day basis, the effect
regret can have on a person, or rat for this matter, is usually negative. Often
times when one experiences regret, rather than allowing this misfortunate event
to occur once more, they search for a new mode of operation. This suffering of
regret alone is usually enough for the individual involved to reevaluate their
next action with caution. What this can lead to is timidity with one’s actions,
although it may be expressed as confidence. Interestingly enough, as it is
noted by Professor David Radish of University of Minnesota’s Department of Neuroscience,
it often becomes difficult when studying regret to distinguish its effects from
that of disappointment.
Regret itself is often associated
with old age, personified by the retired individual who postulates all of the
decisions that could have been made correctly in his or her life. A study in
Hamburg, Germany decided to look closer at this correlation of age and regret.
One would assume that the younger generation, with the ample opportunities that
life has to offer them, would experience less regret. The researchers, using
fMRI technology, conducted studies on three groups of individuals: healthy
persons with an average age of 25, healthy persons with an average age of 66,
and depressed persons with an average age of 66. The participants of the study worked
on a game on the computer similar to a game show. They must decide whether or
not to open boxes that could either contain money or a devil emblem. If one has
the misfortune of drawing the latter emblem, all of the money that they have
accumulated up to that point is lost and that round is finished. Game over. To
maximize the regret experienced, the conductors of the study would show the
participants the outcome of the other boxes.
This is similar in nature to Dr.
Brian Sweis’ regret research, testing a rat’s ability to regret. In that
specific study, rather than a computer game, there was a maze for the rats to
experience. The reward factor, instead of money in boxes, was a rat’s best
friend: food! The rat would move in a counterclockwise manner and select the
reward zone of its liking. At this point a sound would go off for a
specifically allotted amount of time indicating how long the rat must wait for
the food to be readily available to eat. Measuring brain activity, the
researchers were able to identify regret in several instances. For example, if
a rat were to pass up on a station that only required a 45 second wait for food
to only arrive at his next station and wait for 2 minutes, the rat experienced
human-like regret. In one specific case the rat even turned its head back to
the previous station, as if to say “if only…”.
When we look at Dr. Brian Sweis’ research,
although it deals with a different species, the results on the brain are
similar. Rats experienced this neuronal firing in the ventral striatum and
especially in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). When rats were posed with the
decision to move on or maintain patience at the current reward station, the OFC
was reported to be highly stimulated.
In Hamburg, the results of the
study turned out to be somewhat alarming. When revealed either the devil emblem
and lost money that could have been, both the young age group and the depressed
elderly experienced a decreased level of activity in the ventral striatum.
Activity in the ventral striatum and orbitofrontal cortex are connected to the
reward processing one experiences. However, much to my surprise, the healthy
elderly did NOT experience a decrease in said activity. Taking the intrigue
even further, this group showed an increase in neural firing in the Anterior
Cingulate Cortex: the area that is associated with the regulation of emotion
and decision-making. This discovery would illustrate the ability to use this
regret almost immediately with a positive and onward looking perspective. As
the game progressed, the young and depressed elderly began to up the ante with
their strategy, taking more risks. The healthy elderly, in contrast, stuck to
their original game-plans, mostly maintaining the same strategy throughout the
80 game rounds.
When dealing with regret, it
becomes increasingly difficult to move forward from the current feeling of
sorrow and lament. The ability of the healthy elderly to maintain their mental
health in such a way Is a testament to the patience, endurance, and experience that
one accumulates as time passes on. It would only seem reasonable to attribute
this increased activity in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex when dealing with high-regret
situations to the understanding of how temporary a situation is. Often times,
we allow ourselves to be drenched in the solemnity of our current situations
(the difficulty of finals, the death of a loved one, etc). Like the study in
Hamburg showed, through a lifetime of regret and decision-making, one may
finally be able to bypass many of the negative connotations associated with
their “wrong” decisions. To arrive at that though surely is something is not
second nature; even rats experienced a decreased activity in OFC. Regret, when
dealt with in the right way, does not necessarily entail this sadness or anger
that certain groups experience. With the right mindset, there is an ability to
control and use this regret in a positive way, which healthy, old individuals
were able to show us. I hope that one day I am able to control my regret in
with such skill.
Works Cited
"The Neuroscience of Regret." Psychology Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 May 2016.
Steiner, A.
P., & Redish, A. D. (2014). Behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of
regret in rat decision-making on a neuroeconomic task. Nature Neuroscience
Nat Neurosci, 17(7), 995-1002. 2016
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