You're Invading My Space, Man!

One of my favorite Seinfeld episodes was the one about "the close talker." Elaine's new boyfriend really irritated Jerry & George because he liked to stand way too close when talking to them.

The concept of "personal space" is considered to be culturally determined because in some cultures people stand really close together when socially interacting. In other cultures the "social circle" around an individual is much greater. In America, "social space" is about 48". Inside that are found "personal space" and "intimate space." (You're going to love this: one textbook says that two things are reserved for intimate space: making love & wrestling.)

Some recent research reported in the December 2009 Monitor on Psychology suggests that the amygdala may also influence this sense of personal space. The amygdala is that part of our mid brain involved in controlling fear and processing emotion.

The research at the California Institute of Technology started with a patient who had Urbach-Wiethe disease that caused her amgydala to malfunction. One symptom of her disease is that she liked to stand "too close" to people when she interacted with them.

According to the article, researchers "used fMRI to examine amygdala activation among control group members as they heard that an experimenter stood nearby or far away. The normal participants' amygdala activity increased when they believed a researcher stood nearby, even though they could not see, feel or hear him."

Their conclusion? "The amygdala is involved in regulating social distance, independent of specific sensory cues." In other words, my amygdala fires, creating fear or another "avoid" emotion, when someone "invades my space."

The researchers suggest that their findings might provide a clue to the cause of the high anxiety experienced by autistic children when they are surrounded by people. The wiring of their amygdala may be messed up.