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Logically, when the amygdala wants to mobilize a behavior--say, fleeing--it talks to the frontal cortex, seeking its executive approval. But if sufficiently aroused, the amygdala talks directly to subcortical, reflexive motor pathways. Again, there's a trade-off--increased speed by bypassing the cortex, but decreased accuracy. Thus the input shortcut may prompt you to see the cell phone as a gun. And the output shortcut may prompt you to pu..
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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Something roughly akin to love is needed for proper biological development, and its absence is among the most aching, distorting stressors that we can suffer.
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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9738a89
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If you have to boil this book down to a single phrase, it would be "it's complicated." --
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human-behavior
neuroscience
environment
psychology
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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0d6c818
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The final misconception is that evolution is "just a theory." I will boldly assume that readers who have gotten this far believe in evolution. Opponents inevitably bring up that irritating canard that evolution is unproven, because (following an unuseful convention in the field) it is a "theory" (like, say, germ theory). Evidence for the reality of evolution includes: Numerous examples where changing selective pressures have changed gene fr..
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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caaf0e2
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Beginning in the early 1980s, various researchers, including myself, showed that this "glucocorticoid neurotoxicity" was not just a pharmacological effect, but was relevant to normal brain aging in the rat. Collectively, the studies showed that lots of glucocorticoid exposure (in the range seen during stress) or lots of stress itself would accelerate the degeneration of the aging hippocampus. Conversely, diminishing glucocorticoid levels (b..
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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97cb26f
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Major depression. As will be detailed in chapter 14, major depression is utterly intertwined with prolonged stress, and this connection includes elevated glucocorticoid levels in about half the people with major depression. Yvette Sheline of Washington University and others have shown that prolonged major depression is, once again, associated with a smaller hippocampus. The more prolonged the history of depression, the more volume loss. Fur..
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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67653bb
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In other cases the challenge is to appreciate how, though human physiology resembles that of other species, we use the physiology in novel ways.
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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f33a7c7
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If people around you smell scared, your brain tilts toward concluding that you are too.25
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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acute stress strengthens connectivity between the frontal cortex and motoric areas, while weakening frontal-hippocampal connections; the result is decision making that is habitual, rather than incorporating new information.
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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7e4846e
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It is the ambiguity of violence, that we can pull a trigger as an act of hideous aggression or of self-sacrificing love, that is so challenging.
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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d901158
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The shape of women's faces changes subtly during their ovulatory cycle, and men prefer female faces at the time of ovulation.
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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57a55ce
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The human olfactory system is atrophied; roughly 40 percent of a rat's brain is devoted to olfactory processing, versus 3 percent in us.
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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9590c95
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If people around you smell scared, your brain tilts toward concluding that you are too.
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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7f181d7
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In other words, pain makes aggressive people more aggressive, while doing the opposite to unaggressive individuals.27
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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when the frontal cortex labors hard on some cognitive task, immediately afterward individuals are more aggressive and less empathic, charitable, and honest.
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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And behavior is altered by "situational labels"--call the game the "Wall Street Game," and people become less cooperative. Calling it the "Community Game" does the opposite."
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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23f408e
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If they're told, "The drug has a 95 percent survival rate," people, including doctors, are more likely to approve it than when told, "The drug has a 5 percent death rate."
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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9d20b10
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The cognitive capacities of near-term fetuses are even more remarkable. For example, fetuses can distinguish between two pairs of nonsense syllables ("biba" versus "babi"). How do you know? Get this--Mom says "Biba, biba, biba" repeatedly while fetal heart rate is monitored. "Boring (or perhaps lulling)," thinks the fetus, and heart rate slows. Then Mom switches to "babi." If the fetus doesn't distinguish between the two, heart rate deceler..
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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1f01fc7
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The opposite of love is not hate; its opposite is indifference." The biologies of strong love and strong hate are similar in many ways, as we'll see."
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Robert M. Sapolsky |
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46efdc9
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If you pay lots of attention to where boundaries are, you pay less attention to complete pictures.
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Robert M. Sapolsky |