The Christmas spirit can be viewed from the human's brain and learn that biology can explain a man's conflicting views of Christmas. According to a report on the Washington Post warm feelings that go with the Christmas season activates a response in the brain.
There are those who care less about red-nosed reindeers and tinsel-strewn trees as their brains simply will not react to holiday images and literally do not have the Christmas spirit.
In Denmark, a team of researchers tried to locate where the joyful Christmas spirit or feelings are found in the human brain. They divided participants into two groups - those who had strong traditions of Christmas while the other with those who do not celebrate it.
The latter group had a Pakistani, Iraqi, Turkish and Indian who were born or expatriates in Denmark. Those who did not celebrate Christmas but have a strong connection with it, or those who did celebrate it but had a negative association with it were excluded.
Fox 4 News said the small study had 20 participants, 10 for each group. The study participants were hooked up to brain imaging machines. They were shown holiday-themed pictures and stuff. The brain scans showed that seeing those things lit up in the minds of Group 1 while this did not happen to the members of Group 2. The researchers concluded that there is a Christmas spirit in the human brain.
According to the researchers, locating the Christmas spirit in the human brain can help prevent the "bah humbug" syndrome, a disgust for Christmas. Physicist Bryan Haddock t Rigshospitalet, a Copenhagen University affiliate joked: "Who knows? Maybe someday there will be a complex machine that can generate the Christmas spirit in people."
Haddock said he wrote the study in August and was not serious with the results. In the section of Conflicts of Interest, he wrote none, but wrote "dibs" on any invasive or non-invasive, as well as any profitable treatment of the bah humbug syndrome.
"We are currently preparing a patent application on a Santa's hat that you can buy for family members with symptoms. When they start grumbling at Christmas dinner, with the touch of a button you can give them electric stimulation right in the Christmas spirit centres." Haddock state.
However, to know if someone has a Christmas spirit or not, Haddock's suggestion is just to ask them, as there is no need to take a look at their human brain.
The authors said the findings were interesting but they admitted the need for a further research on a larger group. The study was published in the British Medical Journal's Christmas edition.
