Regret? It's all in the mind

'I could kick myself' is an all-too-common reaction to making a wrong decision or missing a golden opportunity.

Now scientists have identified the part of the brain that makes us feel regret. It appears to be centred in a small area of the front of the head, called the orbitofrontal cortex.

The region seems to provide a link between emotion and rational thought. The discovery emerged from a gambling experiment involving healthy volunteers and a group with damage to the orbitofrontal cortex area of the brain.

Only the healthy people expressed regret when their gambling decisions cost them money, according to Science magazine. The researchers, of the Institute of Cognitive Science in Bron, France, wrote: 'Regret has a profound impact in decision-making and is a powerful predictor of behaviour, because people's choices are often made to avoid this highly unpleasant emotion.'