How to get rid of obsessive thoughts 🌿

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Researchers from the University of Cambridge managed to disclose which chemical component of the human brain can suppress unwanted and obsessive thoughts.

Dr. Michael Anderson, a neuroscience professor who led the study, discovered this chemical component in the brain department, which is responsible for memory.

According to Professor Anderson, the ability to control one's own thoughts is necessary for physical and mental health.

He also argues that a person has a "similar mechanism" to get rid of unwanted thoughts.

Prefrontal cortex or PFC is the most developed part of the brain. It is responsible for behavior, concentration, critical thinking, problem solving, self-awareness, decision-making, social cognition and short-term memory.

PFC also controls other parts of the brain, including the motor cortex and the hippocampus.

Until recently, no one suspected that PFC is also playing an important role in the process of blocking obsessive thoughts.

🌿 Research
On November 3, 2017, a study by Professor Anderson was published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

Participants in the study were given the task to try to restrain their thoughts on a certain topic, at which time scientists observed the reaction of their brain with the help of functional MRI and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (used to measure the chemical processes of the brain).

Spectroscopy has shown that the ability to suppress unwanted thoughts directly depends on the neurotransmitters, namely gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Neurotransmitters are chemicals in the brain through which signals are transmitted between neurons.

GABA is the most important inhibitory neurotransmitter that helps regulate the activity of excitatory neurotransmitters such as glutamic acid (glutamate) and dopamine.

🌿 Here is the final conclusion of Professor Anderson's study on the items:

- The concentration of gamma-aminobutyric acid in the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory, determines the ability of a person to restrain unwanted thoughts.

- Contrary to the majority of witnesses, the ability to get rid of unwanted thoughts depends not only on the activity of the prefrontal cortex of the brain.

- People with a low concentration of gamma-aminobutyric acid in the hippocampus in the form of inhibition of activity in the prefrontal cortex and thus, least successfully suppressed unwanted thoughts.

- The results of this study can be used to introduce alternative methods of treating schizophrenia. (In patients with schizophrenia, hyperreactivity has been detected in the hippocampus, which causes hallucinations and obsessive thoughts).