Christmas spirit located in brain, new hope for 'Bah, humbug' afflicted: MR study

December 23, 2015
by Thomas Dworetzky, Contributing Reporter
A jolly new Danish study in the British Medical Journal has located the Christmas spirit in the human brain, according to the journal's Christmas issue.

But those feelings of joy and fond memories are not for all, noted author Anders Hougaard and colleagues at the University of Copenhagen. Sadly, the researchers have reported, "millions of people" around the world are laid low each holiday season with the "Bah, humbug syndrome."

They hope that more research will help alleviate the suffering of these victims. "Throughout the world, we estimate that millions of people are prone to displaying Christmas spirit deficiencies after many years of celebrating Christmas," noted the team in their BMJ article, adding that, "accurate localization of the Christmas spirit is a paramount first step in being able to help this group of patients. Location of the Christmas spirit could also contribute to a more general understanding of the brain’s role in festive cultural traditions, making a medical contribution to cross-cultural festivities and goodwill to all."

The researchers, from Rigshospitalet, a hospital affiliated with Copenhagen University, studied 20 tests subjects using fMRI to measure neural activity.

In their study 10 Christmas celebrators and 10 people who did not have any Christmas traditions were shown a series of images with video goggles designed to trigger brain responses. The 84 images were displayed for two seconds each. A series of six images with a Christmas theme were shown; then subjects were exposed to six everyday images. Differences in the brain activation maps from the scans of the two groups were then examined to look for Christmas-specific brain activation.

Results were enlightening. The researchers found five areas where the Christmas group responded to Christmas images with a higher activation than the non-Christmas group, including the left primary motor and premotor cortex, right inferior and superior parietal lobule, and bilateral primary somatosensory cortex.

Other research has shown that these cerebral areas are associated with spirituality, somatic senses, and recognition of facial emotion among many other functions.

"Activation in these areas coincided well with our hypothesis that images with a Christmas theme would stimulate centers associated with the Christmas spirit, " according to the study.

The researchers explained that left and right parietal lobules have been shown "to play a determining role in self transcendence, the personality trait regarding predisposition to spirituality." Activity in the frontal premotor cortex "is important for experiencing emotions shared with other individuals by mirroring or copying their body state."

Further research is necessary to understand the Christmas spirit, and other potential holiday brain activity, such as Easter, Hanukkah, Eid al-Fitr, and Diwali, according to the authors.

"Although merry and intriguing, these findings should be interpreted with caution," they advised. "Something as magical and complex as the Christmas spirit cannot be fully explained by, or limited to, the mapped brain activity alone."

Dr. Jeffrey Sunshine, vice chairman in the Department of Radiology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center offered caution about the study's significance, however fun a first step it might be, noting to ABC News that, "maybe one day we’ll actually have an ability to use things like functional MRI to continue to link emotions in parts of the brain."

One of the study authors agreed with his caution. “When you finally measure something in a scanner, you have an over-belief that you’ve somehow decoded it,” noted Bryan Haddock, a physicist at Rigshospitalet, noted to The Washington Post.

“It’s a very small step in understanding the Christmas spirit,” he added light-heartedly, “Who knows? Maybe someday there will be a complex machine that can generate the Christmas spirit in people.”

Lighthearted as this study may be, the holidays do deserve some serious study as they are a particularly dangerous time of year for both revelers and grumpy alike. More neurological study might really lead to better ways for both victims and caregivers to manage some of the much-less-amusing surprises Santa can leave during this season.

Stress and depression strike many, for example, during this time of year. These are often revealed by symptoms that include binge spending, unrealistic expectations — and seemingly random and measurably endless raging arguments with family and friends about nothing in particular, according to the Mayo Clinic. These can leave a hangover of financial trouble and social distress long after the season passes.

There are also significant cardiac risks to the season. First reported in a 1978 American Heart Journal study of 24 individuals and known as the "holiday heart syndrome," the condition presents with atrial fibrillation associated with symptoms of palpitations, shortness of breath, chest pain, lightheadedness, stroke and heart failure.

No one is sure about the exact causes, but excessive alcohol and food consumption, including ingesting too much salt, most likely do play a role. Whatever its etiology, however, it is a fact that more fatal heart attacks happen on Dec. 25 than any other day of the year, with Dec. 26 and Jan. 1 being the next highest heart attack days for the year, according to Everyday Health.