Scientists Find 'Altruistic' Center of the Brain

davidwr writes "A team of researchers at Duke University published a paper linking the brain's posterior superior temporal cortex to altruistic behavior. The BBC also picked up the story. If confirmed this has applications in neurology, psychology, child-rearing, and a host of other domains. From the BBC piece: 'Using brain scans, the US investigators found this region related to a person's real-life unselfish behaviour. The Duke University Medical Center study on 45 volunteers is published in Nature Neuroscience. The participants were asked to disclose how often they engaged in different helping behaviours, such as doing charity work, and were also asked to play a computer game designed to measure altruism.'"

Comments

The target in evolutionary arms races

[Baldrson]

Thus the posterior superior temporal cortex should be the target of many evolutionary arms races seeking to gain or prevent extended phenotypic control of altruistic behavior.

Moo

[Chacham]

This is so reidiculous.

The Duke University Medical Center study on 45 volunteers is published in Nature Neuroscience.

45 volunteers?

Firstly, 45 is not enough for a statistical analysis involving brain scans, there is enough multiplicity as it is, there was bound to be *some* congruence. Seriously, they are making predictions from 45 people?!?!

On top of that, they are volunteers?

Umm, in a study on altruism, there would have to be (at least) two separate groups, one which was paid, and one that donated their time...

The participants were asked to disclose how often they engaged in different helping behaviours, such as doing charity work

And they believe the answers? Why not ask people "Are you a liar?" and find out that 75% of the people always tell the truth.

Sheesh! This study is an affront to altruism.

and were also asked to play a computer game designed to measure altruism.

By who?

Altruism us unselfish behaviour. Guess what, what is unselfish to A may be tremendously selfish to B. Republicans and Democrats have severely different defintions of selfish and unselfish. And then there's Xians and Muslims. The list goes on.

Being selfish is an inherently subjective behaviour, making altruism also inherently subjective. It changes by the person. So, if this "game" could measure altruism, it would be only one person's subjective view of altruism, implemented in a game.

And even if it could measure altruism, it is a game. And as many people know, people use in-game personas for who they may like to be, or to act out immature feelings that the person would not normally act with. How many people play games exactrly as they live life?

On top of that, they knew this was for a study. Being self-concious would have an obvious affect on altruistic tendencies.

He said true altruism was a rare or even intangible thing.

*Sigh*

Sounds like he found what he wanted to find. There are many altruistic people. You just have to know where to look.

"Altruism is usually reciprocal - you do something for someone and you expect something back ultimately.

/me cries.

And _he_ is an expert on altruism???

"The other types are kin altruism, giving to ones relatives, and being cheated or cuckolded."

Oh please. We give to our families not out of altruism, but because of identification. This is very basic psycology.

He said it would be interesting to study people at the extremes of altruism and selfishness and see if their brains differed significantly.

So, now altruistic people are not normal?

===============

Moral of the story is, ask a hedonist about altruism and he'll tell you that it's an abnormality.

While it is true that we are born selfish, Freud explained why very well, because we cannot differentiate betwen our own ego and anyone else's for a couple years, and our own ego isn't fully developed until about age five. By that time we have a firm root in selfishness and it takes work to change it.

Trying to find the physiological manifestation of psycological behaviour is an arduous task that rarely yieds anything even remotely conclusive. Yet, as in any frontier, researchers are doing their best, and sooner or later it will likely yeild fruit. However, taking on complex behavioral systems which are based in culture, change by the person, and even in a given person changes throughout his years, assuming results is preposterous. Let alone in a small group, and by people who don't even know what it means.

I'd call it junk science, but even that name would give it too much credit.

Re:You've obviously misread Ms. Rand

[halivar]

You need to brush up on your Ayn Rand. The term "altruist" is used as a derogatory term, and "voluntary altruism" is something to be reviled and weakness.

"Nobody respects an altruist, neither in private life nor in international affairs. An altruist is a person who keeps sacrificing himself and his values, which means: sacrificing his friends to his enemies, his allies to his protagonists, his interests to any cry for help, his strength to anyone's weakness, his convictions to anyone's wishes, the truth to any lie, the good to any evil."

"It stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there's someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master."

"Just as life is an end in itself, so every living human being is an end in himself, not the means to the ends or the welfare of others - and, therefore, man must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself."

To that end, I suggest Ayn Rand was a self-serving bitch.

Re:Ok, how do I zap that part.

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Hmmm ... seems you have mixed up "We" (later redone as "1984") with "Brave New World" - however, IMHO - there is not much room for altruism in either version.

Both are interesting, but incomplete, models of communistic governments. The point is the Communism COULD work if you had a way to sort out the most altruistic individuals for committee positions, the next most altruistic individuals for bureaucrats, and keep the greedy away from power or resources that could be used to harm society.

Re:Raises questions

[MillionthMonkey]

I've had no working sense of humor for days at a time. This isn't one of those times though. But I've regained consciousness surrounded by unhelpful people before, so cracks like that bring back sore memories for me. The worst is when people (esp. cops) think I'm on drugs. I wake up with 1% of my brain working and retrograde amnesia and a migraine with nausea and right away people are giving me bullshit about drugs.

Re:Ok, how do I zap that part.

[foobsr]

if you had a way to sort out the most altruistic individuals for committee positions, ...

Which is the crucial issue (apparently not yet solved). Perhaps works only in small local authorities (which then have to be wired up in a sophisticated way, maybe as in a nD-honeycomb structure that reconfigures due to requirements). Discussed this for hours+ :)

CC.