Study reveals “Christmas spirit” in the brain

A study in Denmark has revealed the location of "Christmas spirit" in the brain.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen identified a Christmas spirit network via functional MRI scans. Included in the network are several cortical regions, including the parietal lobules, premotor cortex and somatosensory cortex.

The researches divided participants into two groups- 10 participants in the Christmas group, who reported affinity for Christmas and 10 participants in the non-Christmas group, who had little or no affinity for Christmas.

Participants were then shown several photos related to Christmas-themed scenes - Christmas lights, trees, Santa cookies and everyday activity.

The participants were not aware of the purpose of the study at the time.

Scientists did not find any difference in neural activity between the two groups when viewing everyday imagery, but those in the Christmas group showed increased brain activity when seeing Christmas photos which helped researchers map the Christmas spirit network.

"These cerebral areas have been associated with spirituality, somatic senses, and recognition of facial emotion among many other functions," researcher wrote in their new study, published this week in the British Medical Journal.

The researchers hasten to add, however, that the results were not definitive - there were only 20 participants, after all, and as the researchers themselves pointed out, more research would be needed to confirm whether or not any sort of "Christmas spirit circuit" existed in the brain.

Further, even if their results were confirmed by more tests, it was not as though a Christmas tree picture could come to symbolise some region the brain.

Whatever system was behind people getting excited about Christmas probably also made people excited about other holidays and special events, too.