IT’S hard to ignore a face filled with disgust, but people with an unsightly skin disorder seem to have a muted response to such facial expressions. This reduced sensitivity may serve to protect them from hurtful reactions to their appearance.
Christopher Griffiths at the University of Manchester, UK, and colleagues showed people with psoriasis – a non-infectious skin condition that produces reddening and lesions – a series of images of faces while scanning their brains.
Images of disgusted faces elicited less activation in the insular cortex, which processes feelings and observations of disgust, compared with a control group. Images of fearful faces…
