That Neuroscience Guy - Neuroscience Bite - Jealousy

Episode Date: June 2, 2022

Have you ever been jealous of someone? Do you wonder why we feel envious of those around us? In today's Neuroscience Bite, we discuss the neuroscience behind jealousy. 

Hi, my name is Olof Kergolsen, and I'm a neuroscientist at the University of Victoria. And in my spare time, I'm that neuroscience guy. Welcome to another Neuroscience Bite. Have you ever been jealous? Well, of course you have. We've all been jealous. You might have been jealous of a friend, a family member, a significant other, or possibly even a stranger. Now, you might think that I'm going to be talking to you about the amygdala again. And of course, when you're jealous, the amygdala is active. That's the emotional center of the brain or one of the regions of the brain that plays a key role in emotion.

And when you're jealous, the amygdala is definitely active. But there's a lot more to it than that. In some early research, monkeys were used to study jealousy. What the researchers did was they basically took a male monkey that had a partner and they put it in a location where it could view its partner with another male monkey. And what the researchers found was fascinating. They found that there was more activity in the monkey's cingulate cortex. It's an area of the brain that's been associated with social pain, amongst other things. And the researchers also saw hormonal changes in the monkeys. They saw increases in a release of testosterone and cortisol. Now, testosterone makes sense because that's your

sort of anger response in this situation, at least for the male monkeys in this case. And cortisol is also interesting because cortisol has been linked as an indicator of social stress. So within the monkeys, researchers saw activity in a part of the brain associated with social pain, the cingulate cortex, and a release of cortisol, which is also an indicator of social stress. Now, work has also been done studying jealousy in humans. In a recent study back in 2015, researchers stimulated the left and right frontal lobes of the brain in humans. Now, they did this using transcranial magnetic stimulation. Basically, it's a way to fire a magnetic pulse into the brain that stimulates or enhances brain activity, if you will. And they did this in two groups of people.

And then they had the people play games that were supposed to provoke feelings of rejection or jealousy, in other words. Now, it turned out that the people that had their left prefrontal cortex stimulated reported more jealous feelings than people that had the right prefrontal cortex stimulated. So again, another brain region, in this case, the left prefrontal cortex, that plays a role in our feelings of jealousy. And finally, other research showed that in humans, the lateral septum of the brain has been activated. Now, this is a midbrain structure that is closely linked to the cingulate cortex. And again, it's a structure that's associated with social pain or the

experience of feeling slightly slighted or hurt by others in social situations. In other words, feeling slightly slighted or hurt by others in social situations. In other words, jealousy. So if you're experiencing jealousy, remember it's natural. It's your brain's natural response to social pain and social situations. So like I just said, jealousy is in the brain. And there are things you can do about it, of course. The easiest thing to do is, of course, embrace good brain health. Now, that's another neuroscience bite. Remember, we got the t-shirts on the Etsy store. You can support us on Patreon. You can DM me ideas on Twitter, at that neuroscience guy. And of course, I'll have another full episode for you on Sunday, where we're going to explore the aging brain. My name is

Olof Kregolsen, and I'm that neuroscience guy. Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you on Sunday.