Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
How our brains process admiration and compassion
When we feel admiration for the Mother Theresas of this world, or compassion for someone in great emotional or physical pain, we draw quite literally on gut feelings. As this paper by Hannah and Antonio Damasio, and others, shows, these sort of social stimuli are registered in the anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and precuneus - all parts of the brain dubbed "the social brain". The insula, in particular, is the place where gut feelings of pain, disgust etc. are translated into much higher-order social intelligence because nerve impulses from our viscera - visceral sensations - excited by external stimuli (called interoception), pass to the insula and cingulate and then on to prefrontal cortex where they are translated into appropriate emotional responses. See chapter 10 of NOT A CHIMP for more detail. Many of these areas have evolved uniquely in size or internal structure in humans.
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