Scanning their brains using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the scientists found that a region involved in language processing - the temporal lobe, part of the prefrontalcortex - was activated during verbal learning in rested patients.
The results suggest that these emotions are handled in the medial prefrontalcortex (the middle of the front of the frontal lobe), the left posterior superior temporal sulcus (one of the furrows towards the side of the brain) and the visual cortex (towards the back of the brain).
By measuring relative degrees of activation in the parietal lobe, an area involved in integrating visual images, and in the prefrontalcortex, where decision making takes place, Berns says, he could determine that the group changed what the reporter perceived.