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Structure In Brain Linked To Varied Social Life

Posted by timothy on from the party-node-for-party-mode dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Scientists have discovered that the amygdala, a small, almond-shaped structure deep within the temporal lobe, is important to a rich and varied social life among humans. The finding was published this week in a new study in Nature Neuroscience and is similar to previous findings in other primate species, which compared the size and complexity of social groups across those species."

23 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The ultimate coward by fishexe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm allergic to almonds.

    But are you allergic to almond-shaped non-almonds? That is the question.

    Amygdala != Almond

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  2. And you, have you ever kissed a girl? by Freshly+Exhumed · · Score: 2

    Get an amygdala!

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    1. Re:And you, have you ever kissed a girl? by Goldberg's+Pants · · Score: 5, Funny

      I have a wife... But I think after that my amygdala got removed. Socializing? What's that?

  3. Ah. HA! by Chas · · Score: 3, Funny

    So this explains that small, almond-shaped void space inside my head...

    GET OFF MY LAWN!

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    1. Re:Ah. HA! by Carnivorous+Vulgaris · · Score: 2

      The amygdala is also the proximity sensor for personal/social/public space. Your had no problem detecting people on your lawn.

    2. Re:Ah. HA! by mangu · · Score: 3, Funny

      Then again, he's talking to people on slashdot. Something tells me it's rather unlikely they're on his lawn....

      He's talking to me. I'm standing on his lawn right now, browsing Slashdot on my wifi-enabled netbook.

  4. so that's it... by Jafafa+Hots · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hmmm. Isn't the amygdala the part of the brain fucked up by PTSD? Maybe that would explain why I scare off all my friends.

    OK, by friends, I mean "the cashier at the supermarket" and such.

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    1. Re:so that's it... by Goldberg's+Pants · · Score: 2

      If that PTSD thing is true that's interesting as it's believed I'm suffering PTSD. (Seriously. Not trying to make a joke.)

    2. Re:so that's it... by Jafafa+Hots · · Score: 2

      Yes, supposedly PTSD can affect permanent change in the amygdala... causing a lifetime of stress, trouble coping in social situations, all that jazz.

      I have PTSD and it's a struggle. Best of luck to you - get to a therapist, get an actual diagnosis - you might just have a garden-variety anxiety disorder, easier to treat maybe. PTSD is such a beast to treat most therapists can't handle it. Takes a trauma specialist with experience.

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    3. Re:so that's it... by Psychotria · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I've often wondered about this. My IQ is high (this is relevant, I'm not just saying it for the sake of it) but in primary school (before year 8 in Australia) I had heaps of friends. From about year 9 in school until at least half way through year 12 (the final year in Australia) I was seriously bullied. In the final half of year 12 at school I beefed up a lot and kicked the shit out of a few of the bullies and they stopped attacking me. But my point is that for at least 3.5 years I was under constant stress and anxiety. Now I am in adulthood and I look back on my working career I can see quite clearly that although all my grades and my intellect is fine that I have under-performed mainly due to social ineptitude and constant anxiety and stress which, for the most part, has no underlying work conditions to provoke such a state. I wonder if during those traumatic years my amygdala went through some change. I wonder if I have PTSD!

    4. Re:so that's it... by mcgrew · · Score: 3, Informative

      Most of the people I know with PTSD are combat veterans. They were well past pubery when they were in Vietnam, several decades ago (and still suffering).

      You sound more like me when I was in school -- not that social interaction with other students was a hindrance, but interaction with the two digit IQ teachers and their BORING classes were the cause.

      I had the same experience in the 7th grade (besides Bringing a "hydrogen bomb" to school); the bully who stood a head taller than me and outweighed me by quite a bit that I beat bloody. Nobody fucked with me after that (well, the hydrogen thing probably garnered me some respect as well)

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    5. Re:so that's it... by rrohbeck · · Score: 2

      Sounds plausible. I was the same. And remember the woman without functioning amygdalas who has no fear whatsoever.
      Later in life, I must have toned down my amygdalas. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have raced motorbikes and jumped out of airplanes. And looking back I have reduced my social life quite a bit.

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  5. I wonder how that relates to spatial reasoning by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I can't help but be struck by the seemingly limited amount of spatial and mathematical reasoning capabilities of many who have exceptional social intelligence. In fact, there seems to be an inverse relationship between the two traits. The evidence seems enough to even posit that there is a maximal beyond which it is impossible to expand new intelligence and thus the capacity must be split between various capabilities.

    In some, the trait of sociability takes center stage whereas in others it is mathematical genius. Likewise, we see an exceptional ability of females to maximize their social circles. To whit, the mental capabilities of females and males being the same, it would seem that females would be more likely to develop large social circles and thrive within this mentally untaxing environment while males would thrive in problem solving and mental exercises requiring strenuous mental effort (such as in the hard sciences).

    Taking this further, it also explains the apparent inability of many computer engineers to interact in normal social circles. With much of their brain showing traits of strong mathematical acuity, their amygdala itself is underdeveloped. Perhaps it is this unbalance that is the root cause of "geekiness".

    Naturally, this is not the final word on all this, but it is an interesting step towards a more full biological understanding of character and intelligences.

    1. Re:I wonder how that relates to spatial reasoning by damaged_sectors · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I suspect it's a matter of time tradeoffs. People who like to bully devote a certain amount of time developing those skills - time others devote to developing other skills.

      Most of the plus 140 IQ (Stanford Binet) people I know had poor social skills until their thirties - they studied in class, and did homework while their classmates didn't.

      I've an idea that things might have been different if they hadn't been alienated in their early schooling years.

      Yes - I was one of them. By Form 4 (Year something these days) most of the people I spent my time around had more common ground with me and things changed. Though Slashdot posters will disagree - these days my social skills exceed those of my former school mates. I still bump into them - they don't travel much, they still associate with the same small group of people, most have divorced, and all of them speak only one language.

      I have no regrets or bitterness about those early years - I often give work to some of my former bullies. I long since developed the skills to be happy and comfortable in any social situation (and learnt to fight). Unlike those that developed their social skills early - my social group includes a large range of different people, age groups, ethnicity, income, opinions. From bikers to bankers. From adversity comes flexibility and strength.

      So Psycotria, our schooling was fucked - but have a look at where your bullies are now... do you really want to be like them? Chances are they now want to be like you.

  6. training by Tom · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My personal experience indicates that like so many things, social life is a matter of training, experience and desire. The people who have one actually make the effort and put the time into it, and unsurprisingly, get results. I'm fairly certain that geeks simply consider other things more important. I know if I want to, I can have a party every week and build up a good amount of friends. I know because I've been there, done it, and forgot to get a T-Shirt. But most of the time I simply don't care enough.

    A very good (female) friend said not too long ago that keeping her social life up and running is essentially her 2nd full-time job.

    Certainly brain structures make it easier for some people. Some people are just naturals, they make friends with the same ease I write a simple web-app. Evolution is great that way, giving some of us these talents and others those. But I'm afraid there will be way too many cheap cop-outs in the comments. "Ah that is why I have no friends." - no, lazybag. It is not that simple.

    --
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    1. Re:training by mangu · · Score: 4, Interesting

      My personal experience indicates that like so many things, social life is a matter of training, experience and desire.

      Training and experience, yes, but the real question is why do you have that desire?

      Think of an obvious analogy, a castrated animal has no desire for sex. Perhaps the amygdala produces some hormone that causes desire for social interaction. Social training and experience would be the result of that.

      Mathematical ability is the same way, one needs training, experience, and desire to become good at math. As a matter of fact, one needs these three elements to become good at *anything*. So, what's the element that causes one to have desire to be good at one field rather than another?

  7. The Truth. by CuteSteveJobs · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's right. There's a 1:1 correlation that Girls with big boobs have a big amygdala. Tall guys with high cheekbones and a chin you could trip over also have a big amygdala. I'm glad science has finally proved this.

    1. Re:The Truth. by nospam007 · · Score: 2

      There was a story recently about a woman with a damaged (missing?) amygdala who was not afraid of anything.
      Perhaps it regulates the fear of approaching strangers respectively the fear of rejection?

    2. Re:The Truth. by misexistentialist · · Score: 2

      Wasn't that the woman who said she wasn't afraid of muggers because angels would protect her? She was just a brain-damaged person being exploited by researchers.

  8. Re:Phrenology 2.0 by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    IIRC they do it the other way 'round. "He has trait Y, check brain area X for cancer".

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  9. Re:correlation is not causation by ACDChook · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Children with autism have been found to have enlarged amygdalas, and I wouldn't exactly call them social butterflies.

  10. Re:The ultimate coward by JustOK · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes, if I eat anything almond shaped I break out into a hives.

    That must really upset the bees.

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    rewriting history since 2109
  11. on the source by mapkinase · · Score: 2

    http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nn.2724.html

    Brief Communication? No reference to the concurrent larger study by the same authors?

    Major parameter indicating activity - volume?

    Fig 1 shows piss poor correlation that in my college physics lab would earn me a "redo".

    http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/extref/nn.2724-S1.pdf

    Supp Tab 2 shows surface area (again, dubious parameter) and some kind of anchor labeling (ROI) (my guess, distances between those labels, but feel free to google it up).

    Tab3 adds "mean cortical thickness" - again, integral parameter.

    Size of sample is pathetic: 58 healthy adults (22 females; mean age M = 52.6, s.d. = 21.2, range = 19–83 years)

    At this variation of age and God knows what other parameters, this is just plain unconvincing.

    Besides all the dubious quality of this "brief communication", the results are predictable:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala#Emotional_learning

    "In complex vertebrates, including humans, the amygdalae perform primary roles in the formation and storage of memories associated with emotional events."

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