What exactly happens in the human brain when injustice is felt?

As the study participant experienced unfairness and anger, the researchers observe through brain imaging which areas were activated.

We, humans, are sensitive beings and the anger comes naturally the way we get happy feelings when something good happens to us. However, the urge of taking revenge occurs when someone experiences injustice. But what happens in the human brain when the injustice is felt before this feeling turns into actions.

According to the ANI report, the researchers developed an economic game to understand the process. During the research, a participant is confronted with the fair behaviour of one player and the unfair provocations of another player. As the study participant experienced unfairness and anger, the researchers observe through brain imaging which areas were activated.

Even the scientists gave the participant the opportunity to take revenge in the second phase. Thus, they identified the location in the brain of activations that are related to the suppression of the act of revenge in the prefrontal dorsolateral cortex (DLPFC), an area in the prefrontal cortex of the brain of humans and non-human primates. The more active the DLPFC is during the provocation phase, lesser are the chances of taking revenge.

According to the report, 25 people participated in the inequality game. And this economic game has been created by Olga Klimecki-Lenz. However, this game is created to trigger a feeling of injustice, then anger, before offering the "victim" the possibility of revenge.

Olga Klimecki-Lenz reportedly said, "The participant has economic interactions with two players, whose behaviour is actually pre-programmed, which he doesn't know about. One is friendly, offers the participant only mutually beneficial financial interactions and sends nice messages, while the other player makes sure to multiply only his own profits, going against the participant's interest and sending annoying messages."

The game takes place in three phases. During the game, the participants were installed in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner allowing scientists to measure his brain activity. The participant is then confronted with the photographs of the other two players and the messages and financial transactions that he receives and issues.

The CISA researchers team observed that the greater the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity during the provocation phase, the lesser the participants punished the unfair player. In fact, low DLPFC activity was associated with a more pronounced revenge on the participant following provocation by the unfair player.

The first time, the role of DLPFC in revenge has been identified. And it is also found to be distinct from concentrated areas of anger in the amygdala and superior temporal lobe. The full study has been published in the journal- Scientific Reports.

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