Note: I’ve always been somewhat shy, so this was interesting to me. Enjoy!
Shyness May Be Rooted in Brain Differences
By Jennifer Warner
June 20, 2003 – Children who shy away from new people and objects may always have a shy temperament, according to a new study. Researchers say shyness may be an enduring trait that may be partially explained by differences in the brain activity that last a lifetime.
The study found that adults who were shy as toddlers had higher levels of activity a part of the brain that’s related to emotion and novelty called the amygdala when shown pictures of unfamiliar faces. How people react to novelty and new situations is considered a key aspect of a shy temperament.
“We found that individual differences in temperament are associated with persistent differences in the responsivity of the amygdala, after more than 20 years of development and life experience,” says researcher Carl Schwartz, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, in a news release.
The findings are the latest edition of an ongoing study on shyness and child development at Harvard University. Researchers first categorized a large group of children age 2 as either inhibited and timid around new people, objects, and situations or uninhibited. They then tested the same children’s behavior at age 13, and in this study researchers looked at their brain activity using an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan around age 21.
In the study, published in the current issue of Science, 22 individuals were shown pictures of people they either had not seen before or had already seen in a “familiarization phase.” Researchers analyzed their brain response and found significant differences of activity in the amygdala between the inhibited and uninhibited participants. The shy adults showed much more activity in this region when shown unfamiliar faces, but the reaction of both groups was similar when shown familiar faces.
Researchers say inhibited children may be more likely to develop social anxiety disorder than uninhibited ones. By finding out the biological causes of inhibition and shyness, researchers say they may be able to identify children who may be at risk for the disorder.
“It’s only by understanding these developmental risk factors that one can really intervene in the lives of children early, to prevent suffering later in life,” says Schwartz.