One Word.

Scared. Angry. Putting a one word label on the face to the left by pressing one of two buttons was an experimental task performed by participants in a recent study by Lieberman et al. (2007). That's the same as years of talk therapy, according to science writers and even Lieberman himself. For example,

Adapted from Fig. 1 of Lieberman et al. (2007).

Talking the pain away ...

[...after reading about this horribly, horribly overinterpreted study...]

by Lea Winerman
[APA] Monitor Staff [they should know better! one word: shame!]

Tell your troubles to a Guatemalan worry doll, place it beneath your pillow and, according to legend, those worries will be gone by morning. That’s just one example of the culture-spanning idea that putting problems into words can blunt those problems’ emotional impact. Centuries of thinkers—from Spinoza to William James to every psychologist who practices talk therapy—have recognized this peculiar power of language, according to UCLA psychologist Matthew Lieberman, PhD.

. . .

Using fMRI, the researchers found that when the participants labeled the faces’ emotions using words, they showed less activity in the amygdala—an area of the brain associated with emotional distress. At the same time, they showed more activity in the right ventral lateral prefrontal cortex...

...this suggests that verbalizing an emotion may activate the right ventral lateral prefrontal cortex, which then suppresses the areas of the brain that produce emotional pain. [because deciding whether a face is angry or scared is so emotionally wrenching.]

"[In talk therapy] we tend to focus primarily on content and enhanced understandings and changed understandings," said Lieberman. "But it’s not entirely irrelevant that they all involve putting feelings into words."

One word.

...is a bomb in your hands.

-- Scrawl, One Word

What was the study about? The researchers compared "affect labeling" (shown above) to other kinds of tasks to see which brain regions were specifically active when people pressed a button to indicate whether a facial expression conveyed fear or anger [for instance; "happy" and "surprised" were other possibilities, but these occurred only 20% of the time]. What were the other tasks? The five control conditions were "affect matching"(choosing which of two faces matches the expression of the target), "gender matching" (choosing which of two faces matches the gender of the target), "shape matching" (with simple geometric shapes) "gender labeling" (choosing the gender-appropriate name), and "observe affect" (just look at the emotional face without making a response). The most important contrast was affect labeling vs. gender labeling.


Adapted from Fig. 1 of Lieberman et al. (2007).

What were the results, and how should we interpret them? Mind Hacks is most certainly on the right track (bold emphasis mine):

The VLPFC increases its activity to dampen down the emotions triggered by the amygdala.

However, it's not clear whether this happens equally for both positive and negative emotions, as 80% of the faces in the study had expressions of anger or fear, while only 20% displayed happiness or surprise, so this data only really tells us about unpleasant feelings.

We know that observing emotion in others makes us more likely to feel the same thing ourselves, but it's not the same as experiencing an emotion 'first-hand', so we need to be a bit careful in assuming that this study fully represents the more everyday experience of talking about our emotions.

This experiment gives us a good understanding of the brain circuit involved reducing emotional impact via naming, but it doesn't tell us much about why this occurs.

This is one of the major drawbacks of neuroimaging studies. They often just redescribe an effect in terms of brain activity.

Yes. But that doesn't stop journalists from wild extrapolation (see blogosphere debate on the conflict between scientists vs. science journalists).

Name that feeling: You'll feel better

By Julie Steenhuysen
Thu Jun 21, 12:31 AM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Putting feelings into words makes sadness and anger less intense, U.S. brain researchers said on Wednesday, in a finding that explains why talking to a therapist -- or even a sympathetic bartender -- often makes people feel better.

They said talking about negative feelings activates a part of the brain responsible for impulse control.

"Anger." There. I wrote it. Press the right button. Do I feel better now? Do you?

You're scaring me now in the new year
You're scaring me now
You're scaring me now
One word is a bomb in your hands
One word becomes a bomb in your hands
One word is a bomb in your hands

-- Scrawl, One Word

Reference

Lieberman MD, Eisenberger NI, Crockett MJ, Tom SM, Pfeifer JH, Way BM. (2007). Putting feelings into words: affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli. Psychol Sci. 18(5):421-8.

Putting feelings into words (affect labeling) has long been thought to help manage negative emotional experiences; however, the mechanisms by which affect labeling produces this benefit remain largely unknown. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest a possible neurocognitive pathway for this process, but methodological limitations of previous studies have prevented strong inferences from being drawn. A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of affect labeling was conducted to remedy these limitations. The results indicated that affect labeling, relative to other forms of encoding, diminished the response of the amygdala and other limbic regions to negative emotional images. Additionally, affect labeling produced increased activity in a single brain region, right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RVLPFC). Finally, RVLPFC and amygdala activity during affect labeling were inversely correlated, a relationship that was mediated by activity in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). These results suggest that affect labeling may diminish emotional reactivity along a pathway from RVLPFC to MPFC to the amygdala.


If I give it a name it wouldn't be love
If I give it a name it wouldn't be love
IT WOULDN'T BE LOVE

-- Scrawl, One Word