The Revolution & Rich File - In Time
"Emotion and Morality in Psychopathy and Paraphilias"
Many sex offenders suffer from a paraphilia. Paraphilias are disorders characterized by recurrent and intrusive deviant sexual impulses. One paraphilia that shares some characteristics with psychopathy is sexual sadism.
Sadism, like psychopathy, is characterized by callousness, anger, and low empathy. Sadists derive sexual gratification from inflicting physical or emotional pain and suffering on others, and may thus represent the extreme end of the moral sensitivity spectrum” ranging from compassion to callousness. They show increased arousal (measured by penile plethsymograph responses) when perceiving people in pain, in sexual or nonsexual situations.
While this clearly represents profound moral insensitivity, the capacity for “normal” moral judgment has not been directly investigated in this disorder. Sadists may be less likely than other sex offenders to show cognitive distortions that justify moral transgressions, since an understanding of the immorality of their actions (causing harm) is precisely what facilitates sexual gratification. Thus, like psychopaths they appear to understand the wrongness of their actions. [via]
Unlike psychopaths who know right from wrong but just don’t care, I suggest that sadists, who also enjoy inflicting pain/suffering, would show increased activation in the domain specific frontoinsular (FI) cortex, hinting at a higher sense of a certain type of empathy (comparatively) and regulation of moral judgement, depending on amount of emotional processing exercised. Pleasure and reward centers should show similair activation. wah-psh.
Harenski, C., & Kiehl, K. (2011). Emotion and Morality in Psychopathy and Paraphilias Emotion Review, 3 (3), 299-301 DOI: 10.1177/1754073911402378
Greene JD, Sommerville RB, Nystrom LE, Darley JM, & Cohen JD (2001). An fMRI investigation of emotional engagement in moral judgment. Science (New York, N.Y.), 293 (5537), 2105-8 PMID: 11557895
![“Direct Brain Interventions to “Treat” Disfavored Human Behaviors: Ethical and Social Issues” - H.T. Greely. [via]
Where ought we to draw the line?
As neuroscience learns more about the causes of human behaviors, it will give us new ways to change those behaviors. When behaviors are caused by “brain diseases,” effective actions that intervene directly in the brain will be readily accepted, but what about direct brain interventions that treat brain-based causes of socially disfavored behaviors that are not generally viewed as diseases?
Neuroethics, you big studded masked beast..you just keep pulling me back in.](http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lybvg3QIuv1qan221o1_500.jpg)
“Direct Brain Interventions to “Treat” Disfavored Human Behaviors: Ethical and Social Issues” - H.T. Greely. [via]
Where ought we to draw the line?
As neuroscience learns more about the causes of human behaviors, it will give us new ways to change those behaviors. When behaviors are caused by “brain diseases,” effective actions that intervene directly in the brain will be readily accepted, but what about direct brain interventions that treat brain-based causes of socially disfavored behaviors that are not generally viewed as diseases?
Neuroethics, you big studded masked beast..you just keep pulling me back in.
267 plays
Are you on my wavelength?
You know how when you feel like you really connect with someone, you say you are on the same wavelength? When brain cells want to connect with each other, they synchronize their activity,” Colgin explains. “The cells literally tune into each other’s wavelength. We investigated how gamma waves in particular were involved in communication across cell groups in the hippocampus. What we found could be described as a radio-like system inside the brain. The lower frequencies are used to transmit memories of past experiences, and the higher frequencies are used to convey what is happening where you are right now. [via]
![“The price of your soul: How the brain decides whether to sell out”
An Emory University neuro-imaging study shows that personal values that people refuse to disavow, even when offered cash to do so, are processed differently in the brain than those values that are willingly sold.
The brain imaging data showed a strong correlation between sacred values and activation of the neural systems associated with evaluating rights and wrongs (the left temporoparietal junction) and semantic rule retrieval (the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex), but not with systems associated with reward.
The experiment also found activation in the amygdala region, a brain region associated with emotional reactions, but only in cases where participants refused to take cash to state the opposite of what they believe. “Those statements represent the most repugnant items to the individual,” Berns says, “and would be expected to provoke the most arousal, which is consistent with the idea that when sacred values are violated, that induces moral outrage.” [via]
[img]](http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly8ashIRF31qan221o1_r1_500.jpg)
“The price of your soul: How the brain decides whether to sell out”
An Emory University neuro-imaging study shows that personal values that people refuse to disavow, even when offered cash to do so, are processed differently in the brain than those values that are willingly sold.
The brain imaging data showed a strong correlation between sacred values and activation of the neural systems associated with evaluating rights and wrongs (the left temporoparietal junction) and semantic rule retrieval (the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex), but not with systems associated with reward.
The experiment also found activation in the amygdala region, a brain region associated with emotional reactions, but only in cases where participants refused to take cash to state the opposite of what they believe. “Those statements represent the most repugnant items to the individual,” Berns says, “and would be expected to provoke the most arousal, which is consistent with the idea that when sacred values are violated, that induces moral outrage.” [via]
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Déjà Vu
Tired of the same ol neuro posts over & over? I’m officially making a call for a more eclectic collaboration between topics/fields here…>jazz hands<.
For example: you know who doensn’t get enough love on tumblr, to my satisfaction? Dr. Michio Kaku …of the City Uni of New York, co-founder of string field theory, and popularizer of science. That’s who.
For your consideration: a 3 min. easy intro of déjà vu by a theoretical physicist. Why? Because it’s a phenomenon that dances around inner and outter space.
Ya got your memory, ya frequencies, the multiuniverse…it’s awesome and lordamercy, I’m not sure what else you people want.
![“Soon, You May Download New Skills to Your Brain”
It may someday be possible to use brain technology to learn to play the piano, reduce mental stress, or even master kung fu with little or no conscious effort. Lead author and BU neuroscientist Takeo Watanabe says in a statement: “Adult early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning.” [via]
One of the more interesting finding is pointed out in the same article, that the participants showed improvement in learning the visual task tests “especially when the subjects were unaware of the nature of what they were learning.” OooOoooOoo.
From the abstract of the study:
With an online-feedback method that uses decoded functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals, we induced activity patterns only in early visual cortex corresponding to an orientation without stimulus presentation or participants’ awareness of what was to be learned. The induced activation caused VPL specific to the orientation. These results suggest that early visual areas are so plastic that mere inductions of activity patterns are sufficient to cause VPL. This technique can induce plasticity in a highly selective manner, potentially leading to powerful training and rehabilitative protocols. [via]
Training is the keyword for me and how this technique could be used with sexual offenders.](http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly46tf0Sid1qan221o1_500.jpg)
“Soon, You May Download New Skills to Your Brain”
It may someday be possible to use brain technology to learn to play the piano, reduce mental stress, or even master kung fu with little or no conscious effort. Lead author and BU neuroscientist Takeo Watanabe says in a statement: “Adult early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning.” [via]
One of the more interesting finding is pointed out in the same article, that the participants showed improvement in learning the visual task tests “especially when the subjects were unaware of the nature of what they were learning.” OooOoooOoo.
From the abstract of the study:
With an online-feedback method that uses decoded functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals, we induced activity patterns only in early visual cortex corresponding to an orientation without stimulus presentation or participants’ awareness of what was to be learned. The induced activation caused VPL specific to the orientation. These results suggest that early visual areas are so plastic that mere inductions of activity patterns are sufficient to cause VPL. This technique can induce plasticity in a highly selective manner, potentially leading to powerful training and rehabilitative protocols. [via]
Training is the keyword for me and how this technique could be used with sexual offenders.
"Cross-Cultural Variation and fMRI Lie-Detection"
Welcome to a paper I’ll be referencing IRL. I was actually fighting with myself last night about populations to use for my fMRI study (I don’t want to use college students, since my study isn’t about college students), which Bruni brings up in the abstract:
On several basic features of perception and cognition, Western university students turn out to be outliers relative to the general human population, so that data based on them should be interpreted with caution.
So, I’m really glad I have this paper to base my request of special population off of now…since I’m not sure how easy it will be getting access to the population I need.
So big up to Tommaso Bruni, former ‘guest list neighbor’ at the Neuroethics and Law Blog! From Bruni’s conclusion:
The long and the short of this paper is that cross-cultural experiments on fMRI lie-detection should be performed before this technique enters courts, because the lab experiments with US citizens risk having an unacceptably low external validity. As a matter of fact, I suggest the technique cannot live up to the Daubert standards without such checks, because no error rate calculated in the lab can be projected onto real life without them. I do not take any position about the ethical acceptability of fMRI lie-detection, but argue that more neuroscientific research is needed (not only in the cross-cultural field) in order to assess its full potential both legally and morally. I therefore encourage and endorse more funding for fMRI lie-detection research. Only sound and carefully conducted empirical research can lead to new forensic technologies that can be useful to ascertain the truth and to justly determine legal proceedings. (via)
I ABSOLUTELY agree with him on why (technically) lie detection isn’t ready for courts.
Hey look internet, I agree with someone!
Mathing a Serial Killer
Researchers at UCLA have combined neuroscience and math in order to identify patterns in the acts of a notorious Russian serial killer, executed in 1994. The model makes several assumptions: 1) a certain threshold of neuronal firing has to be passed, at which point the desire to kill becomes impossible to ignore; 2) some time is subsequently required in order to plan and carry out a killing; 3) killing acts as a sort of sedative, calming the neurons temporarily. (via)
“The distribution of the intervals between murders (step length) follows a power law with the exponent of 1.4. We propose a model according to which the serial killer commits murders when neuronal excitation in his brain exceeds certain threshold. ” - via journal article here.
“Dehumanization is at the core of human evil, because it depicts a person as less than human.” - Reimann and Zimbardo, 2011.
Research proposal update #82: I don’t believe I’ll be making any friends with the direction I’m going with this, so \/\/. Also, why isn’t there a nice way to see experiments in progress?! In conclusion, if this doesn’t pan out, I’m joining a late 60’s biker gang that LOITERS and may, on occasion, cause a mild public nuisance from the hours of 3-8pm! Yeahman, take that.
More on deindividuation and dehumanization:
In the case of deindividuation, a decrease in activation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex could possibly result from a “feeling” of anonymity and a loss of personal accountability, because somatic states are not triggered by memories and knowledge of social norms and, thus, lead to disinhibited, antisocial behaviors.
In the case of dehumanization, decreased ventromedial prefrontal cortex activation could also be accompanied by an increase in amygdala activation (Harris & Fiske, 2006). Being excluded from the moral order of human beings (that is, being dehumanized) could pose an immediate threat that leads to increased processing in the amygdala, which in turn triggers somatic states in the viscera via the brainstem. (via)
…the influence of alcohol and other sharply controllable factors on our thoughts and activities should show very distinctly that determinism does not stop before the majesty of our human will.
Sometimes, saturday is about looking at results that may show the neurobiological markers of moral insensitivity in psychopaths.
