by Hed Kandi » Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:55 am
According to dermatologists, there is a perfectly logical reason why scratching an itch feels so good as it temporarily shuts off the area of the brain associated with unpleasant feelings and memories. After using fMRI to observe the brains of 13 participants while they were being scratched, researchers determined that scratching reduced activity in both the anterior cingulate cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex. The more intensely a person was scratched, the more depressed activity was in those regions of the brain. Brain activity did increase in areas linked to pain and compulsive behavior and may help explain the compulsion to continue scratching.