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."

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