Word: anterior
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Statements like "2 + 2 = 5" and "Torture is good" caused an area called the anterior insula to light up. True statements like "2 + 2 = 4" activated the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. The ventromedial is thought to play a role in judgment, memory, fear and, according to one study, soft-drink preferences. The anterior insula helps process fear, disgust and reactions to bad smells...
...their home, with clear paths left from sofa to kitchen to bathroom, and the rest piled high with debris. When Saxena scanned the brains of these highly particular people, he found that they had equally particular abnormalities. Instead of hyperactivity in any area, they had reduced activity in the anterior cingulate gyrus, the part of the brain that helps you focus your attention and make decisions. "Those are things that compulsive hoarders have a lot of trouble with," he says...
Some injuries seem to distribute themselves differently between the sexes. Boys suffer concussions more often than girls do, no doubt because boys play more contact sports. But researchers are only beginning to understand why girls are more likely to tear their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), a piece of connective tissue that helps hold the knee together. The difference can be dramatic. A recent study by researchers at the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital in Manhattan determined that adolescent female athletes were eight times as likely to injure their ACL as their male counterparts...
...matter how cool your body is during questioning, your mind could still rat you out. Brains require blood to operate, and the harder they work, the more they need. Many regions of the cortex are thought to be recruited for a lie, but three stand out: the anterior (front) cingulate, which reconciles goals and intentions; the right orbital/ interior frontal, which processes the sense of reward; and the right middle frontal, which helps govern tasks requiring more than ordinary thought. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) looks for such busy, well-oxygenated areas. Get a hit in all three zones...
...doesn't. And because we all do a certain amount of self-censorship--telling white lies to avoid hurt feelings, for example--signs of activity in the relevant brain regions do not necessarily make you a criminal. "All fMRI lie-detection studies report findings in parts of the anterior cingulate," says University of South Carolina psychologist Jennifer Vendemia. "Well, that's good because if you don't have activation there, you're probably dead...