MSNBC Are you a giver? Brain scan tells the truth

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>

>Are you a giver? Brain scan tells the truth

>Altruism, one of the most difficult human

>behaviors to define, can be detected in brain

>scans, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.

>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16740765/

>

Are you a giver? Brain scan tells the truth

MRI pinpoints area of the brain involved in altruistic behaviors

Reuters

Updated: 12:48 p.m. AKT Jan 21, 2007

 

WASHINGTON - Altruism, one of the most difficult

human behaviors to define, can be detected in

brain scans, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.

 

They found activity in a specific area of the

brain could predict altruistic behavior - and

people's own reports of how selfish or giving

they are.

 

" Although understanding the function of this

brain region may not necessarily identify what

drives people like Mother Theresa, it may give

clues to the origins of important social

behaviors like altruism, " said Scott Huettel, a

neuroscientist at Duke University in North

Carolina who led the study.

 

They set up an experiment in which they put 45

college students into a functional magnetic

resonance imaging scanner, which can take

real-time images of brain activity.

 

They gave the students various games to play, and

told them that winning earned cash for either

themselves or for a charity. The students had

chosen the charities beforehand from a list, the

researchers report in the journal Nature

Neuroscience.

 

The students reacted differently depending on

whether they won for themselves or for charity

with the ones who described themselves as

altruistic responding more strongly.

 

" The game involved reacting as fast as one can to

the appearance of a target; if one responds fast

enough, then money was earned, " Huettel said.

 

The task was fairly simple, and the students did

not give up any payments to themselves to give to

the charities. But it cost enough effort that

Huettel believes it did represent altruistic

intent.

 

" It's challenging and requires them to focus, "

Huettel said in a telephone interview. " They are

lying in a tube, and it is a little tiring for

them. Even though it doesn't cost them anything

monetarily, it costs them their effort. "

 

Rewards for the brain

And the researchers were surprised by their

findings. Some other studies had predicted that

giving would activate the reward systems in the

brain.

 

In fact, another center was activated when the

students either won money for charity, or watched

the computer win money for charity.

 

" This area we saw was the posterior superior

temporal cortex, " Huettel said. " It's part of the

parietal lobe. What this brain area seems to be

involved in is extracting meaning from things you

see. "

 

" If you see a rock move because someone picked it

up, you can recognize that they have a goal. That

would activate this region. If you saw a leaf

fluttering in the wind, there is no intention in

that leaf. " And this brain region would not

activate.

 

" We think altruism might help others understand

the intentions of others, " Huettel said.

 

His team asked the students how altruistic they

were, and found the test strongly correlated with

their own reports of unselfish activity, such as

helping a stranger or comforting a friend.

 

Hard to measure

He admits it is very difficult to measure altruism.

 

" If done in the laboratory, it would be difficult

to know whether subjects were trying to impress

the experimenter with their actions, and thus one

could not be sure of the validity of any

measurements, " Huettel said.

 

" Conversely, trying to watch people in their

daily lives would make data collection nearly

impossible. So, we settled on self-reports as a

good, albeit imperfect, measure. "

 

Huettel believes it is valid to try to assess altruism scientifically.

 

" It is hardly the case that all altruistic acts

come from people who are religiously faithful;

there are undoubtedly many altruistic atheists, "

He said.

 

" And, a religious explanation would have

considerable difficulty explaining why some

animals help others of their species at

significant cost or danger to themselves. "

 

Next his team hopes to test children, and find

out how and when altruism develops.

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