Counseling/Biopsychology and Neuroscience

Empathy and neural functionality

When I recently retrieved my empathy undergrad learning in anticipation of this course, I realized that I had made many generalizations about the two purported empathy neurons, ===spindle=== and ===mirror===, that over-simplify their functions.

I first attempted to grasp the functions of the neurons, especially to see how the mirror neuron works, and quickly realized that I need a deep-seated knowledge of brain anatomy that was effectively a jolt because I have used my undergrad learning from a purely social perspective. Now I have to be technically expert in neuroanatomy. Another jolt was a "wake-up call" that mirror neurons are still highly theoretical. This was given to me by one of the Wikipedia "neuroscience editors" who says he is highly-technical brain researcher.

Neuroscience may, in the near future, clear up the conflicts between the different psychology theories--not to discount any, but to put help put them all in perspective.

Functional orientation, as an extension of object orientation

I am creating lists of neural functionality, of the brain parts that mirror and spindle neurons connect to, and I am attempting to link these two lists with components of the brain's structures. This brought me to an idea, which is probably not original, called "functional orientation" that borrows from object-oriented computer science. Rather than having objects that are "evoked," such as brain components, I have functions that have object components. Emotion, as a function, has the lymbic system as an object includes sub-objects, such as the olfactory bulbs -- a connection? I think there might be, but I don't know. And so far all my attempts at short cuts by making assumptions have been dead wrong!

Notes

Functionality

biological

• emotion
  • empathy, or emotional communication
• intelligence
• memory
• sense
• communication
• motor

technical

• neurotransmitters
• technology to determine brain activity
• brain anatomy
• medication

Emotion

Manifestation of emotions

• feelings
• actions
• physiological arousal
• motivational programs

Distinct emotions seen universally in facial expressions:

• anger
• sadness
• happiness
• fear
• disgust
• surprise
• contempt
• embarrassment

Emotion systems

Lymbic system structure

• nuclei
• tracts

amygdala

• emotional reactions
  • processing
  • memory

mammillary body

• recognition memory processing
• smell component of memories (connection to olafactory?)

hippocampus

• long-term memory
• spatial navigation
• episodic (autobiographical)
  • formation of new memories about experienced events
• new neurons continue to be created throughout life

cingulate cortex and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)

• relays neural signals between the right and left cerebral hemispheres
• autonomic functions
  • regulating blood pressure and heart rate
  • rational cognitive functions
    • empathy
    • emotion
    • reward anticipation
    • decision-making
    • home of spindle neuron

olafactory bulb

• transmits smell information from the nose to the brain
• process odor information, and there may be odor memory
• olfactory receptor cell, small bipolar cell

hypothalamus

• hormone transmitter link to the the pituitary gland that regulates the endocrine system with hormone transmitters:
  • body temperature
  • hunger
  • thirst
  • fatigue
  • circadian cycles

fornix

• bundle axons that carries signals from the hippocampus to
  • mammillary body
  • septal nuclei

Empathy

Sees another person experiencing an emotion

locations:

• anterior insula
• anterior cingulate cortex
• inferior frontal cortex

fMRI

• brain activity of two participants gesturing words to each other using hand gestures
• mirror neuron system of the receiver reflects the pattern of activity of the activity in the motor system of the sender
• motor concept associated with the words is transmitted using the mirror system

Special empathy neurons

Spindle

• postnatal development
• become connected with diverse parts of the brain
• focus on difficult problems
  • conceptualization
  • modeling
  • collaboration

locations:

• anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)
  • transports signals from amygdala to the frontal cortex
• fronto-insular cortex (FI)
  • insular cortex and limbic-related portion of the cerebral cortex
    • emotion
    • homeostasis
    • perception
    • motor control
    • self-awareness
    • cognitive functioning
    • interpersonal experience

• dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DL-PFC or DLPFC)
  • planning
  • organization
  • regulation

locations:

• inferior frontal cortex
• anterior inferior parietal lobe
• superior parietal lobe
• dorsal premotor cortex
• ventral premotor cortex
• supplementary motor area
• somatosensory cortex, primary
• medial temporal lobe
• midtemporal gyrus

functions:

• imitation
• language acquisition

• mediate understanding of other others' behavior:
  • fires with visual event
  • fires with sound cues of visual event

Neurons

• type
• function
  • between neurons and internal functions
  • in the scope of psychological function from the exterior

• pick-up and delivery transports and connections
  • reception
  • transport
  • internal processing(?binary intelligence)
  • conduction
    • exciting
    • inhibiting
• locations of the connections
• nature of the connections
  • what types of neurotransmitter connection
    • chemicals
    • other
• specifics about what is connected to
  • reception
  • transmission

Intelligence

Crystalized and fluid

Crystallized and fluid intelligence are separate neural and mental systems

Crystallized intelligence (Gc):

• skills that use knowledge and experience
• accessing information from long-term memory
• depth and breadth of general knowledge
• vocabulary
• reasoning using words and numbers
• educational and cultural experience
• not memory or knowledge without intelligent use

Fluid intelligence (Gf):

• logical problem solving
• patterns and relationships
• extrapolation using logic
• novel situations
• independent of acquired knowledge
• scientific mathematical
• inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning

Fluid may only exist as:

• component of crystallized intelligence
• laboratory environments
• purposes of human capital discrimination