Watching how the brain reacts to boredom could help people cope | WSU Insider

By Scott Weybright
College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resources Sciences

Trouble is a common human experience. But the way people manage or manage boredom is important for mental health.

"Everyone is having trouble," said Sammy Perone, an assistant professor at the University of Washington State in the Department of Human Development. "But some people often experience it, which is unhealthy. So we wanted to know how to fix it effectively. "

The brains of people prone to boredom react differently to those who do not, Perone and his colleagues discovered in a new article recently published in the journal Psychophysiology. Among their discoveries, people who are bored more often tend to be more anxious and more prone to depression.

Perone conducted the research and wrote the paper with WSU Assistant Professor Elizabeth Weybright and WSU graduate student Alana Anderson.

"Previously, we thought that people who reacted more negatively to boredom would have specific brain waves before getting bored," Perone said. "But in our basic tests, we could not differentiate brain waves, only when they were in trouble did the difference surface."

This means that the big difference between people who are bored is often the way they react to a boring situation. The implication is that they can learn coping mechanisms to avoid these negative responses.

How to annoy people

To study how the brain reacts to boredom, you must first do a basic screening and then annoy people almost until tears. Perone therefore studied 54 people in his lab, where they entered, completed a questionnaire and were equipped with a special cap that measures brain waves at 128 points of the scalp.

The survey consisted of a series of questions about the boredom and the reaction of the participants. Next, the researchers measured the brainwaves of each participant with their eyes open and closed for basic reading. Then the trouble started.

The subjects sat in front of a computer and posted eight pegs on the screen. Their job was to click on the ankle that had been highlighted. Each click rotates the ankle a quarter of a turn. Then another would be highlighted. The experiment consisted of 320 quarter turn, taking about 10 minutes.

"I've never done it, it's really tedious," said Perone. "But when looking for past experiences, this task was considered the most boring. That's what we needed.

Reactions to boredom are the key

When analyzing brain wave results, researchers looked at two specific areas. The right and left frontal areas of the brain are active for different reasons. The left frontal activity is higher when people try to engage or stimulate themselves by thinking of something else. The right frontal activity increases when people experience more negative emotions or become more anxious.

In baseline tests, there was no difference between those who reacted with higher left brain activity than the right brain. But those who answered the survey questions by being more inclined to experience boredom in their daily lives had a more upright frontal brain activity as they became increasingly bored.

"According to the polls, we found that people who mastered boredom on a daily basis turned more to the left," Perone said. "Those who do not do as well in everyday life have changed their rights."

To face the boredom

According to Perone, there are many ways for people to deal with boredom. They are looking for a book or something to read. They create a grocery list or think about what they will prepare for dinner, for example.

"We had a person in the experience who reported mentally repeating Christmas songs for an upcoming concert. They did the pivoting exercise to the rhythm of the music in their head, "said Perone. "Doing things that keep you engaged rather than focusing on your boredom is really helpful."

Real application

The next stage of research will be to get people to be more proactive in their thoughts when they get bored.

"The results of this article show that it is possible to react more positively to boredom," Perone said. "We now want to find the best tools we can offer people to be bored in a positive way. So we will always do the connecting activity, but we will give them something to think about as they do it.

"It's very important to have a connection between the lab and the real world. If we can help people cope better with boredom, it can have a real and positive impact on mental health. "

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