Researchers Uncover Brain Region Associated With Generosity

A tiny chunk of brain may partly determine whether someone is generous or stingy, new research suggests. This particular brain region seems to makes some people quicker to learn empathy for others, the study found. “A specific part of the brain called the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex was the only part of the brain that was activated when [the person was] learning to help other people,” study co-author Patricia Lockwood, an experimental psychologist at the University of Oxford in England, said in a statement. “The subgenual anterior cingulate seems to be especially tuned to benefiting other people.” [10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Brain] Brain roots of empathy Previous research has shown that this same brain region is smaller in those suffering from major depression or bipolar disorder. In the new study, Lockwood and her colleagues were interested in determining the roots of altruistic or so-called prosocial behaviors, and why some people are so giving whereas others are so self-focused, Lockwood said.   “Empathy, the capacity to vicariously experience and understand another person’s feelings, has been put forward as a critical motivator of prosocial behaviors, but we wanted to test why and how they [empathy and prosocial behaviors] might be linked,” Lockwood said. To get at the brain roots of altruistic behavior, the team asked volunteers to play a game while inside a magnetic resonance imaging machine that...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news