PANEL: Socio-Biological Perspectives of Neuroscience
Master of Ceremonies:
Dr. Eric R. Kandel, Professor of Neuroscience, Psychiatry and Physiology at Columbia University
Panelists:
Dr. Cori Bargmann, Torsten N. Wiesel Professor, The Rockefeller University
Dr. Stephen Kosslyn, John Linsley Professor of Psychology and Dean of Social Science at Harvard
Dr. Antonio Damasio, David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience, University of Southern California
Dr. Gerald Fischbach, Scientific Director, Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative
Panel summary by Mary Kate Nevin, World Policy Journal
How does the human mind function, and what are the implications for human behavior? Dr. Kandel, who won the Nobel Prize in 2000 for his research on memory storage in neurons, began by introducing neuroscience as the “common language” between the humanities and the sciences. The study of the functioning of the human brain can offer insight into decision-making processes, peer bonding, aesthetics, and aggression patterns. As we address global issues, he said, it is critical to understand
the biological processes driving the human beings involved.
He turned to Dr. Cori Bargmann of the Rockefeller University, who studies the relationship between specific neuro-circuits and specific behaviors. “Humans are a social species,” she said, but “humans are also animals” and certain factors underlying human behavior are “built into our genes” by biology. Take mammalian childbirth, for example, when chemicals are released during labor that “profoundly changes the brain of the female to induce maternal behavior,” Bargmann explained. When it comes to aggression, biology is also an impetus. The unequal distribution of resources can trigger primal conflicts between creatures, noted Bargmann, but the environment in which a creature is raised—in a group or in isolation, for example—also plays a role.
Dr. Stephen Kosslyn began by asking what seemed a simple question: “what shape are a German Shepherd’s ears?” How people go about trying to answer the question, has been a major part of his work. “People differ vastly in their abilities” to visualize things in their mind and how people make up for what they lack perceptually impacts the way they interact with each other. “By looking at how those individual brains interact when they’re in groups,” he said, we can better understand the principles of social interaction.
Dr. Gerald Fischbach, who directs the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative, first described his work with autism. People with autism display cognitive symptoms in three primary areas, he explained: language and perception disabilities, and marked, restrictive interests. It is a disease in which genes play an enormously important role; identical twins have a 90 percent accordance rate. His foundation tries to identify the genetics and risk factors involved in autism with the “hope that neurocorrelates can be approached and reversed,” and it and other researchers are making serious progress. “Within 5 years, we will know a great number of autism risk factors,” Fischbach said. “And then the real work will really be before us.”
Fischbach then explained the phenomenon of mirror neurons, a cutting-edge research topic in interactive behavior. The brain encodes movement with a specific neuron discharge, he said, and with different movements or actions—for example, tapping your finger, reaching for a pen, or jumping in the air—different neurons are discharged. In 1996, an Italian group made an astonishing discovery: when studying this nueron discharge in monkeys, it found that these neurons also discharge when simply watching another monkey perform these movements. Thus, cognitively, it appeared that sympathetic neuron firings allowed monkeys to anticipate the movement’s correct intention. Whether or not this finding will be applicable to humans is still unclear. But if so, it would revolutionize the theory of mind and enrich our understanding of how, biologically, we come to identify others. One could sense the panelists’ excitement at this possibility, and Fischbach’s engaging manner made it easy for the lay person (your correspondent!) to grasp its consequence.
Dr. Antonio Damasio spoke about the “human social brain,” as he called it, and the commonalities of embarrassment, compassion, guilt, and pride that are all present in other primates. Most importantly, there is a neural basis for emotions, and if those neurons are disturbed, the emotions can be altered. Advances in imaging techniques have given researchers greater insight into the specific regions of the brain that control emotion. These studies, Damasio said, reveal the intimate linkage between brain function and mind function, which is critical in the study of social interaction. He also called for more research on admiration and compassion, two emotions “absolutely fundamental to create a moral system.”
Kandel concluded the seminar with a timely query to the panel: what can biology contribute towards understanding the greatest threat facing our world—evil? It is not yet clear whether there are biological forces that drive large social groups to deem certain actions as normatively good and bad. But Bargmann noted the importance of understanding the biology that underpins social functioning, thus better to “know when you’re working with biology and when you’re working against it.”
In the end, said Kandel, it comes down to a mutually malleable partnership of nature and nurture, and “it is the social fabric—the social ethos—that determines how most people behave.”