Human nature

[karlos768]

How is it that some members of our species are deep thinkers, considerate sensitive,empathetic or even just caring, with the ability to to comunicate in depth.

when some are just like brick walls.......opposing all of the above, with an appearance of overwhelming lack of emotion.

evolution?

I have been trying, for a short while over 20 years, to figure that out but need assitance.

anything views, opinions, beliefs or theories aprecciated, the deeper the better, 'hit me with complexity'

[Advent Shade]

In his book 'The Human Mind' Robert Winston talks about the physiological differences between different types of brains, for which he coins the phrases E-type and S-type, standing for Emotive-type brain and Systematic-type brain. Certain differences in the organisation of the human brain can change a persons character and nature completely.

For example, Richard talks about the need for communication between the two sides of the brain, being the left side and the right side. Both of these sides generally deal with different things. He mentions that people with E-type brains have a great deal of connections between the two sides, allowing them to absorb information into the side of the brain which sorts and collates ideas in their raw forms and then quickly consider them on the other side of the brain and take a much more personal edge on them. I won't get all technical, because to by honest... it's been a while since I read the book and regions of the brain are devilishly difficult to remember the names of!

One thing I do remember is that the section which seperates the left side of the brain from the right, called the Corpus Callosum plays a huge role in the number of these connections between the two sides of the brain. Women tend to be born with a much thicker Corpus Callosum; thus more connections, probably the reason why women tend to be more sensitive then their male counterparts, who are too busy sorting everything into mental filing cabinets

I could tell you some interesting stories about what happens when the Corpus Callosum gets severed. These sorts of things really highlight the brain as the truly odd organ that it can be.

[karlos768]

intersting stuff i must learn more, i once did some online test to see how my brain was balanced int the way of masculine/feminine apparatenly its exactly 50/50 which explains my enhanced sense of empathy and intuition i spose.

cheers i shall research this subject more

[Mark Lapierre]

Hmm, interesting stuff Advent Shade. I'll have to check out that book. Does he describe the many necessary variations in E-type or S-type which would account for all the differences demonstrated by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator? You said it's been a while since you read the book, so it's fine if you don't remember, I can wait until I read the book myself.

Karlos, as well as looking into Advent Shade's anecdotes about what happens the Corpus Callosum is severed, you might also be interested in what happens when people experience damage to their frontal lobes, particularly the prefrontal cortex which is associated with some types of higher-order brain function, including decision-making and predicting the outcome of actions, particularly in the social domain. The most well know case is Phineas Gage, though there's doubt regarding the validity of accounts of changes in his behaviour. But many more studies were done which showed definite changes.

You might also like to read up on the research done on Buddhist monks who were studied by scientists while they (the monks, not the scientists ) were meditating. The research showed that activity in certain parts of the frontal lobe, and in particular more activity in the left prefrontal cortex than the right, was associated with greater expression of positive emotions such as compassion. You can read about it on Wired or in Matthieu Ricard's book, Happiness.

I think Antonio Damasio's book, Descartes' Error, provides a good understanding of the way emotion and reason operate, though it doesn't discuss specific differences in individual expression of emotion/reason in "normal" humans.