An area of the brain just above the eye sockets – the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) – helps us cope with perceived future uncertainties. Credit: simonkr/Getty Images
Human emotions are affected by the uncertainty of the future. Research now suggests that an area of the brain just above the eye sockets – the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) – comes to our rescue in dealing with such dilemmas and helping us cope with perceived future uncertainties1.
This area of the brain has extensive connections with sensory areas as well as limbic system structures involved in emotions and memory, the researchers say. Their findings could be useful in understanding conditions like anxiety, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder linked to the OFC.
The brain predicts the evolving external world through learning and memory but a few other cognitive processes and emotions have been less studied. Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur in Rajasthan, led by Dipanjan Roy, examined the behavioural and neuroimaging responses of participants to an 8-minute clip of a black and white Alfred Hitchcock film, Bang! You’re Dead.
The team, which included researchers Gargi Majumdar and Fahd Yazin at the National Brain Research Centre in Haryana, found a strong positive correlation between arousal and uncertainty. They also found an inverse correlation between arousal and valence. They identified how lOFC deals with the dynamics of emotion – how it waxes and wanes with time. This brain area also helped characterize emotional states and uncertainty associated with them. lOFC, working in concert with other lateral prefrontal regions, is involved in predicting futures in other cognitive domains such as attention, memory, learning and language, the researchers found.
