Researchers find why people collect strange things
By Cindy Hadish
UI researchers have pinpointed an area of the brain that appears to control collecting behavior. Findings have shed light on what drives people to collect and may lead to treatment for compulsive collectors.
Patients with abnormal collecting behavior showed damage to a part of the right prefrontal lobes of the cortex.When that part of the brain is injured, Dr. Steven Anderson said, the collecting urge loses its guidance.
He noted primitive collecting behavior occurs in squirrels and other animals, including humans. While most animals collect food to survive, humans might collect art or other valuables.
Unlike stamps or other typical collections, patients with abnormal collecting behavior fill their homes with vast quantities of useless items such as junk mail, and they resist discarding the collections.
Not all people who accumulate unusual collections have suffered brain damage. For example, Anderson said a difference exists between those patients and the Depressionera generation who collect aluminum foil or other items they think they might need. The collection itself or act of collecting interferes with compulsive collectors’ daily lives.
‘‘They’ve lost that modulator for their collecting,’’ he said. ‘‘The ability to place a value on something — that’s what’s lost in these people.’’
Anderson said the findings may have implications for understanding neurological conditions such as obsessivecompulsive disorder and schizophrenia, in which abnormal collecting behavior occurs but the patient has no detectable brain defect.
Comments (3)
Yes, and the occasional time they find something useful in the junkpile reinforces the collecting behavior. It gives an excuse to justify it.
unable to discern which item holds a real memory and which is a false memory- i shove both under the bed in the spare room until there is no room left for memories or ppl…. jk….
personally i think people who collect weird things, or have one really really favorite animal, or some other self-created personality trait are just trying to make up for the fact that they’re not really that interesting. that they need something to talk about in those getting-to-know-each-other games where you say three things about yourself.