Summary: A new study reveals how the brain triggers curiosity in response to visual ambiguity. Researchers identified brain areas that assess uncertai

Brain Study Reveals How Curiosity Arises in Kids

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2024-07-10 20:30:03

Summary: A new study reveals how the brain triggers curiosity in response to visual ambiguity. Researchers identified brain areas that assess uncertainty, sparking curiosity. Using fMRI, they found that lower confidence in recognizing images leads to higher curiosity. This discovery highlights the deep biological roots of human curiosity and its role in creativity.

You look up into the clear blue sky and see something you can’t quite identify. Is it a balloon? A plane? A UFO? You’re curious, right?

A research team based at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute has for the first time witnessed what is happening in the human brain when feelings of curiosity like this arise.

In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, the scientists revealed brain areas that appear to assess the degree of uncertainty in visually ambiguous situations, giving rise to subjective feelings of curiosity.

“Curiosity has deep biological origins,” said corresponding author Jacqueline Gottlieb, PhD, a principal investigator at the Zuckerman Institute. The primary evolutionary benefit of curiosity, she added, is to encourage living things to explore their world in ways that help them survive.