Gross to you, gross to me

Last week a region of the brain called the insula was in the news. As I described in my post, scientists found that physical pain and social rejection both activate the insula in much the same way. The insula returns now for a disgusting encore that gives a glimpse at how we get inside other people's heads. European scientists had people sniff vials that gave off different odors while they were being scanned with MRI. Disgusting smells triggered a distinct constellation of neurons in the insula. Then the researcers showed the subjects videos of people smelling vials of their own. In some cases, the people in the videos either smiled with pleasure, showed no reaction, or screw up their face in disgust. When the subjects watched people being grossed out, the pattern of brain activation looked much the same in their insula and elswhere when they were being grossed out ...