Neuroscience
Someone might [did] ask, "Why is it problematic to find that some of the neural correlates of X are the same as the neural correlates of a seemingly unrelated ability/state Y?"
Fair question.
It could be that the neural correlates of humor, hot flashes, and empathy are all the same. This would not be a problem for some cartographers of cognition (and emotion) who don't really care about phenomenology (i.e., laughing at a joke seems to be a different experience than "feeling someone else's pain" or having a hot flash, but some circuit in the brain can't distinguish between these experiences). In my opinion, this sort of result would mean that the methodology is entirely unsatisfactory in explaining mental states, if it turned out to be the case that statistically indistinguishable brain states were associated with watching Dave Chappelle vs. watching Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist. Of course, one might hope that this would be due to the crude level of analysis permitted by fMRI.
OR it could be that the similarly-located BOLD activations observed in fMRI studies of humor, hot flashes, and empathy for pain are driven by some underlying commonality (let's say an increase in autonomic functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, and sweating). There is some evidence that the brain areas mentioned below are, in fact, sensitive to increases in arousal and autonomic activation (see the post "More Lies... Damn Lies..."). If the degree of activation in the anterior cingulate cortex and frontoinsular cortex are correlated with autonomic activation, one would of course expect hot flashes to be the worst [NOTE: the scanner environment would preclude humor that induces guffawing and belly-laughing]. Anyway, one would need to test peri-menopausal women on humor and empathy for that comparison...
- The Empathic Powers Of Those Who Can't Feel Pain
A popular account for how we empathise with other people's physical pain involves the idea that we perform a mental simulation of their suffering, using the pain pathways of our own brain. Support for this comes from research showing that when I see...
- I Can't Feel Anything...
...and I can't describe it, either. from Jackson, Meltzoff, & Decety (2005) The Neurocritic has just noticed a new neuroimaging paper on empathy in individuals with alexithimia, which is an inability to describe one's own feelings. Coincidentally,...
- More Lies... Damn Lies...
Well, there's a lengthy new article on neuro-lie detection in the New York Times Magazine, which quotes the aforementioned Dr. Langleben (among others): Looking for the Lie By ROBIN MARANTZ HENIG Liars always look to the left, several friends say;...
- Men Are Torturers, Women Are Nurturers...
...tell it to Lynndie England!! All right, let's start at the beginning. My sound-byte-worthy headline was derived from a paper published this week in Nature: Singer T, Seymour B, O'doherty JP, Stephan KE, Dolan RJ, Frith CD. Empathic neural responses...
- Hlsa 391 - Humor Your Way To Good Health
WINTER TERM 2012 M, T, W, TH 12 PM - 3:30 PM 3 CREDITS Discover your own humor talents while exploring the many aspects of humor practices including jokes, performance arts, graphic expression, story telling, anecdotes, and games. Explore public...
Neuroscience
More on Humor and Hot Flashes
Someone might [did] ask, "Why is it problematic to find that some of the neural correlates of X are the same as the neural correlates of a seemingly unrelated ability/state Y?"
Fair question.
It could be that the neural correlates of humor, hot flashes, and empathy are all the same. This would not be a problem for some cartographers of cognition (and emotion) who don't really care about phenomenology (i.e., laughing at a joke seems to be a different experience than "feeling someone else's pain" or having a hot flash, but some circuit in the brain can't distinguish between these experiences). In my opinion, this sort of result would mean that the methodology is entirely unsatisfactory in explaining mental states, if it turned out to be the case that statistically indistinguishable brain states were associated with watching Dave Chappelle vs. watching Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist. Of course, one might hope that this would be due to the crude level of analysis permitted by fMRI.
OR it could be that the similarly-located BOLD activations observed in fMRI studies of humor, hot flashes, and empathy for pain are driven by some underlying commonality (let's say an increase in autonomic functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, and sweating). There is some evidence that the brain areas mentioned below are, in fact, sensitive to increases in arousal and autonomic activation (see the post "More Lies... Damn Lies..."). If the degree of activation in the anterior cingulate cortex and frontoinsular cortex are correlated with autonomic activation, one would of course expect hot flashes to be the worst [NOTE: the scanner environment would preclude humor that induces guffawing and belly-laughing]. Anyway, one would need to test peri-menopausal women on humor and empathy for that comparison...
- The Empathic Powers Of Those Who Can't Feel Pain
A popular account for how we empathise with other people's physical pain involves the idea that we perform a mental simulation of their suffering, using the pain pathways of our own brain. Support for this comes from research showing that when I see...
- I Can't Feel Anything...
...and I can't describe it, either. from Jackson, Meltzoff, & Decety (2005) The Neurocritic has just noticed a new neuroimaging paper on empathy in individuals with alexithimia, which is an inability to describe one's own feelings. Coincidentally,...
- More Lies... Damn Lies...
Well, there's a lengthy new article on neuro-lie detection in the New York Times Magazine, which quotes the aforementioned Dr. Langleben (among others): Looking for the Lie By ROBIN MARANTZ HENIG Liars always look to the left, several friends say;...
- Men Are Torturers, Women Are Nurturers...
...tell it to Lynndie England!! All right, let's start at the beginning. My sound-byte-worthy headline was derived from a paper published this week in Nature: Singer T, Seymour B, O'doherty JP, Stephan KE, Dolan RJ, Frith CD. Empathic neural responses...
- Hlsa 391 - Humor Your Way To Good Health
WINTER TERM 2012 M, T, W, TH 12 PM - 3:30 PM 3 CREDITS Discover your own humor talents while exploring the many aspects of humor practices including jokes, performance arts, graphic expression, story telling, anecdotes, and games. Explore public...