• About Dr. Elaine Aron
  • Resources
    • For HSPs
    • For Parents of HSCs
    • International Websites
    • HSP-Knowledgeable Therapists, Coaches and Medical Professionals
      • Seeking an HSP-knowledgeable Therapist?
      • For HSP-Knowledgeable Professionals
    • Coaches and Other Professionals
      • Certified Coaches
      • Medical Professionals
      • How to Be Listed as an HSP-Knowledgeable Professional
    • Just for Highly Sensitive Therapists (and Coaches)
  • For Interviews, Speakers
  • FAQs
  • Blog
  • How to Reach Us
  • The Foundation

The Highly Sensitive Person

  • Home
  • Books
    • The Highly Sensitive Person
    • The Highly Sensitive Parent
    • The Highly Sensitive Person’s Workbook
    • The Highly Sensitive Person in Love
    • The Highly Sensitive Child
    • Psychotherapy and the Highly Sensitive Person
    • The Undervalued Self
  • Self-Tests
    • Are You Highly Sensitive?
    • Is Your Child Highly Sensitive?
    • High Sensation Seeking Test
  • Comfort Zone
    • Blog
    • Email Newsletters 2004-2014
  • HSP Events
  • Store
    • Bookstore
    • Audio
    • DVDs
    • Therapist List Test Materials
    • Shipping Info
  • If You Need Help
    • Therapists
    • Coaches
    • Medical Professionals
    • How to be listed as an HSP-knowledgeable professional
  • Research
    • Measurement Scales for Researchers
    • Summaries of Research – Easy Reads
    • Sensory Processing Sensitivity: The State of the Model (in Powerpoint format)
    • Research Articles by Elaine and Her Collaborators
    • Articles by Others That Are Especially Relevant
    • Researcher Contact
  • Videos & Podcasts

New research on the brain activity of HSPs

June 15, 2014 By Elaine 4 Comments

HSPs’ Brain Activation, Compared to Non-HSPs, Indicates More Empathy and Awareness

Originally published in Comfort Zone Newsletter: June 2014

Big news! A very important scientific article about the brain activity of HSPs has just been published. After four years of work by six authors (Bianca P. Acevedo; me; my husband, Arthur Aron; Matthew-Donald Sangster; Nancy Collins; and Lucy L. Brown, from various universities), it is finally out: “The Highly Sensitive Brain: An fMRI Study of Sensory Processing Sensitivity and Response to Others’ Emotions.” It was officially published Monday (two days ago, and first as an on-line publication) in the scientific journal, Brain and Behavior. For those of you not wanting to wade through a complicated research article, here’s a summary.

The research used “functional magnetic resonance imaging,” which is able to detect activation of brain areas while someone performs a task. In this case the task was looking at photos of strangers and spouses showing happy, sad, or neutral expressions. Compared to the non-HSPs in the study, the HSPs’ brains were more responsive to expressions of emotions on the faces of others. This was true in all cases, stranger or partner, happy or sad (compared to neutral). However, HSPs’ brains were especially responsive to the emotions of their husband or wife (someone very close to them), and even more responsive to positive emotions than negative ones.

The Big Findings

There were two particularly exciting finds about the brain areas that were more active for HSPs than non-HSPs during these tasks. First, this responsiveness occurred in the “mirror neuron” areas, apparently only found in primates and humans and known to facilitate empathy. The second especially interesting area was the insula, sometimes called the “seat of consciousness” because it brings together all aspects – thoughts, feelings, perceptions, bodily states, etc. – all of our moment-to-moment experience. These are fairly amazing results!

Findings from previous studies of HSPs’ brain were found again, also important news. One of these previous studies was that when HSPs are viewing a photo, they tend to show more activation than non-HSPs in areas involved in “higher” levels of perceptual processing, in keeping with the idea that HSPs process things more deeply (more elaborately, at higher levels of organization, etc.).

This study involved only 18 participants – typical for fMRI studies because brain scans are expensive. But with only a small group of participants, it is even harder to get such clear results – these definite differences between those who scored high and those who scored low on the HSP Self-Test. Further, 13 of the participants were tested a second time a year later and the results were the same, a “replication,” which is very important for scientific confidence in results.

These results speak for themselves, and corroborate our experience. For example, think of these two items from the HSP self-test: “Do other people’s moods affect you?” and “When people are uncomfortable in a physical environment do you tend to know what needs to be done to make it more comfortable (like changing the lighting or the seating)?”

Does the world need more empathy for others and general awareness of what’s happening? Yes. Do we have that to offer? Not that we want to act superior, but apparently so.

Filed Under: News, Old Comfort Zone Articles, Research

Comments

  1. Bonnie MacGregor says

    February 22, 2020 at 12:54 pm

    I have insurance, I believe this trait has greatly effected my life, and the lives of my children. Can one request this test?

    Reply
    • B.C.Ihme says

      September 12, 2020 at 4:45 pm

      You can find one online. I’d like to suggest taking a Myers Briggs test to see if your one of the rare personality types. It seems to me our education system plays against the traits of HSP’s. If your one who was highly distracted in school with all the noises, florescent lighting, smells with teachers telling us how to think and where to place our attention at all times for hours and years. Then diagnosing is as ADHD as if we’re the ones who are deficit and disordered.
      Good luck,
      Bonnie C. I.

      Reply
      • L Simmons says

        April 20, 2021 at 8:05 pm

        Send your HSP child to this HSP teacher! Nearly 30% of my “emotionally distrurbed/ADHD” Special Ed students are actually above normal intelligence HSPs who find my sparsely decorated, emotionally calm classroom a haven. “Behavioral problems” magically vanish.

        Reply
  2. Gloria Kurkowski-Alter says

    April 25, 2021 at 9:34 am

    This explains why my family labeled, abused and rejected me. I was empathetic and felt different since childhood. The last 27 years, were particularly horrible because I was on psych meds. Finally, met my husband who listened and let me express myself. Now, off of all meds and finally know, through your questions, I am a HSP. Now, I can live with who I am. Thank you.

    Reply

Share Your Comments & Feedback: Cancel reply

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. All comments are moderated before posting, so please be patient.

The purpose of these comments is to share your experiences and support each other as HSPs. Elaine is busy these days with her research and writing, and usually doesn’t have time to reply, but she invites and appreciates all of your thoughts, feedback, support, and conversation.

If you disagree, please be respectful. Avoid harsh language or negative assumptions about motivations or character. Focus on facts, ideas and - most of all - compassion.

If you have other correspondence, please use the links under the "How to Reach Us" tab.

 

Some HTML tags allowed: <strong>, <em>, <del>, etc.

Recent Posts

  • Research from 2022 on High Sensitivity
  • Research: High Sensitivity Wrongly Identified with Narcissism, Plus Studies on Parenting Applied to Managing and Caregiving
  • More HSP Research
  • More Research, from 2018 and 2019

Posts by Category

Announcing our newest book
The Highly Sensitive Parent

HSP Parent

New 25th Anniversary Edition
The Highly Sensitive Person

HSP 25th Anniversary Edition

Announcing the release of our documentary Sensitive Lovers: A Deeper Look into their Relationships

In this documentary, Art Aron (well-known love researcher) and Elaine Aron provide the science and advice behind the film Sensitive and in Love. Learn more about Sensitive Lovers here.

Sensitive and In Love

A feature film, focuses on what perhaps matters most: how high sensitivity affects your relationships with loved ones. Learn more and purchase the Sensitive and In Love here.

Sensitive: The Untold Story

Rent or purchase Sensitive: The Untold Story here.

Search

Subscribe

Sign up for The Comfort Zone
for updates and announcements about events, book releases, blog posts and other news of interest to the HSP community. We will not share your information with anyone else.

CLICK HERE to join our mailing list.

About this Blog

The quarterly Comfort Zone ended in 2014, partly to give Elaine more time to write, but also because a blog seemed more up-to-date and flexible, allowing her to write new posts based on the interests of readers. If you've signed up for her list, you will be notified when she has posted anything new. Comments: While she will not answer every comment, she will read them all and, again, may be inspired by some comments to write another blog post. You will also receive emails of any important announcement rather than these showing up only in the quarterly issue. Old Comfort Zones: The many emailed Comfort Zones are still very timely. To make full use of the extensive Comfort Zone archives, the Comfort Zone section has a Google search that will find old Comfort Zone issues as well as topics in the blog posts.

The Original Book

The Highly Sensitive Person book cover

A general introduction and covers every aspect of an HSP's life. Worldwide bestseller. Translated into 32 languages. With an Author's Note summarizing the latest research.

More Books by Elaine Aron...

Connect with Us

For questions, problems, or feedback, go here and choose the email address that fits your needs.

Copyright © 2023 Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D. — All rights reserved.