Have you ever submitted an essay the minute before it was due, heart pounding and fingers flying across the keyboard? Have you ever try to focus on your work but you can’t hold yourself to take a look of your cell phone, play with your pencils or even just lay on the bed doing nothing. After hours or days struggling, you give up and finish your work roughly and you say alright, my procrastination is killing me.
credit: https://goo.gl/images/Z9ZFEf
What if I tell you it’s not your fault and not even “procrastination” ‘s fault. Scientist already identified that two parts of brain may explain why people procrastinate so much. Generally, people with poor action control will result in procrastination. However, a study done in few month shows that people with poor control over their actions have a larger amygdala. The amygdala can warns people about their negative effects actions. What’s more, the study found out that people with poor action control, were also suffering from less pronounced connection between the amygdala and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).
In this video, Science in YouTube will explain how the ACC play the role in emotion.
https://youtu.be/3F4HS6Eo5q8
credit: https://youtu.be/3F4HS6Eo5q8
The video can help you to have a clear idea about how ACC work to procrastinator and non-procrastinator brains .You can also view the physiological differences in procrastinator brains vs. non-procrastinator brains by the pictures below.
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Research study on ACC and procrastination
The scientists — bio psychologists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany studied how ACC different effects people. Scientist scanned 264 people’s brain through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). And then looked at the volume of specific regions in the brain. After that they figured how the regions connect to each other. The participants were asked to fill in a survey about their ability to control their actions and how if they procrastination in daily life. Most of them were university students with no neurological disorders. The result of the study is that ” people can’t control their actions successfully if the connection between the amygdala and the dorsal ACC is impaired.”
If you are still regret about wasting time and feel guilty about procrastination. Don’t be so said, it’s not all your fault! Your given body somehow makes you can’t focus on the work and delay. Scientifically make plans will be more helpful than blaming yourself!
