[extropy-chat] Hardwired Feelings - what about antisocial feelings?

Wed Mar 10 21:40:37 UTC 2004

 Is developmental, epigenetic and genetic as well as neurochemical environment
involved in modulating the aggressive antisocial behaviour of sociopaths and
psychopaths.  Is there a genetic component to pre-dispose, an epigenetic
component (like fetal alcohol syndrome), as well as a
nutritional/nutraceutical/pharmaceutical
component?  Is it possible to offset the predisposition created by the first 2
by the environmental aspects of the third?

Eugen Leitl wrote:

> ----- Forwarded message from oxyryxo <oxyryxo at yahoo.com> -----
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> From: "oxyryxo" <oxyryxo at yahoo.com>
> Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 20:09:19 -0000
> To: transhumantech at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [>Htech] Empathy is a Hardwired Feeling
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> February 22, 2004
> Empathy is a Hardwired Feeling
> As I mentioned in emotions in art and the brain "emotions and
> feelings are mediated by distinct neural systems. Whereas emotions
> are automatic responses to sensory stimuli, feelings are 'private,
> sbjective experiences' that emerge from the cognitive processing of
> an emotion eliciting state."
>
> Providing hard evidence of this view is an excellent piece of
> research reported in this week's Science by University College London
> neuroscientists, Tania Singer and Ray Dolan (who showed videos of
> this research at the neuroesthetics conference).
>
> "Human survival depends on the ability to function effectively within
> a social context. Central to successful social interaction is the
> ability to understand others intentions and beliefs. This capacity to
> represent mental states is referred to as "theory of mind" or the
> ability to "mentalize". Empathy, by contrast, broadly refers to being
> able to understand what others feel, be it an emotion or a sensory
> state. Accordingly, empathic experience enables us to understand what
> it feels like when someone else experiences sadness or happiness, and
> also pain, touch, or tickling."
>
> An Overview of the Empathy Experiment: (A real stinger)
>
> ...But when their partners were zapped, regions physically mapping the
> pain were quiet while the AI and ACC and a few other regions lit up
> in the women's brains. And the signals from those two areas were
> stronger in women who reported a greater degree of empathy,
> suggesting these regions mediate empathy.
>
> Singer suspects that our brain's ability to intuit the emotional
> response of others could have been strongly selected during
> evolution. "If I do something, it tells me will it make you smash me,
> will you kill me or will you like it? Being able to predict how
> others feel might have been necessary for human survival," she says.
>
> I couldn't agree more, empathy is critical to human survival. This
> research is a great addition to the growing scientific literature on
> empathy and provides further evidence that animal models of human
> behavior are insufficient to undertand human behavior and to develop
> effective neuroceuticals.
>
> http://www.corante.com/brainwaves/
>
>
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> -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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