FRANK SINATRA learned from regret. He acknowledged he’d experienced it a few times, but adapted his behaviour to avoid feeling the same way again: regrets, he’d had a few, he sang, but then again too few to mention.
Now scientists have identified the regions of the brain that are active when we feel regret, and shown how we learn from it. The work may eventually lead to a treatment for those whose “regret learning circuits” don’t work properly, such as pathological gamblers.
“The results show that regret is anatomically different from disappointment”
Angela Sirigu at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences…
