How the brain filters bad news

We are more likely to be receptive to good news than bad…. a 40-second blast of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which sends magnetic pulses into the head, to disrupt different parts of their brains. In one group, the TMS was aimed at a part called the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), in another at the right IFG, and in the third, the target was a control region of the brain, where the pulses were not expected to have much effect. … Those who had magnetic stimulation to the right IFG, or a control part of the brain, showed the usual good news bias: that is, they updated their beliefs more on hearing good news…. But stimulation of the left IFG destroyed the bias. Those people were just as likely to change their views based on bad news as good. "We believe the left inferior frontal gyrus is normally inhibiting other parts of the brain from learning from bad news. But by interfering with the left IFG we're releasing this inhibition…."