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?
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Understanding Others' Regret: An fMRI Study
An article in this week's PLoS 1 journal from the Giacomo Rizzolatti stable in Italy. They used fMRI to measure activity in parts of the brain when subjects felt regret, or witnessed a regretful outcome for someone else, on a gambling task. The same parts of the brain were activated on both occasions - the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex and hippocampus. This "resonant" mechanism in this context, they believe, demonstrates mirror system action involving a complex, cognitively-generated emotion, rather than a basic emotion like fear or hate.
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