Thanks to functional imaging tests, researchers have discovered that really sensitive people have more brain activity in sections of the brain that process visual information.
Their study was unveiled in a recent issue of the Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience journal. It found that these individuals are more sensitive to details, take longer to make a decision and get bored easily by small talk.
It is not necessarily a negative thing to be sensitive, however. It can be very advantageous in dangerous situations or when one has to make a difficult decision or wants to come up with an ingenious idea.
We already knew that sensitive people are often also shy and introverted. They are also more fearful and do not like noise or crowds.
At an early age, it is possible to tell if your child is part of the one-fifth of the population who are sensitive. He will cry more easily, will have profound thoughts and ask you some questions that are quite unusual for his age. Moreover, the sensitive child often observes before acting.