Blushing linked to brain regions being set off when feeling ‘exposed’

New Delhi, July 17

Blushing – the reddening and warming of cheeks when one becomes self-conscious – could come from increased activity in brain parts involved in emotional arousal when one feels “exposed,” a study has found.

Researchers said that little is known about what is going on underneath while we are blushing – famously described by biologist Charles Darwin as “the most human of all expressions”.

The team, including researchers from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, turned to girl teenagers performing karaoke to find out if blushing was a rapid, spontaneous emotional response, or if it was linked to thoughts such as those ‘about what others think of me’.

According to the team, female teens are “particularly sensitive to social judgement”. “It is known that blushing increases during this life stage, since adolescents are very sensitive to other people’s opinions and can be afraid of rejection or leaving (a) wrong impression,” said Milica Nikolic, a developmental psychologist from the University of Amsterdam and the first author of the study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

The team measured the cheek temperatures and brain activity of 40 teenagers as they watched pre-recorded videos of themselves and others singing karaoke, an entertainment form in which one publicly sings to backing tracks of popular songs.

The teens had visited the researchers’ lab on a previous occasion, when they were asked to sing “purposefully chosen difficult karaoke songs”, which included ‘Let It Go’ from the movie ‘Frozen’ and ‘Hello’, originally performed by English singer-songwriter Adele.

The researchers found teenagers blushed more when they saw themselves singing, compared to when others were singing.

There was an increased activity observed in the teens’ cerebellum, which “somewhat surprised” the authors as the brain region is most known for its role in movement and coordination.

“Lately, there has been a lot of research suggesting its involvement in emotional processing,” said Nikolic.

The authors found, however, that there was no activity in the brain regions traditionally known to be involved in understanding the mental state of oneself, including thinking about what others might be thinking.

“Based on this, we concluded that thinking about others’ thoughts may not be necessary for blushing to occur,” said Nikolic.

“Blushing may be a part of the automatic arousal you feel when you are exposed and there is something that is relevant to the self,” said Nikolic.