Scientists discover the 'kind' part of the brain
Last updated at 12:14pm on 22nd January 2007


Charity begins...in the posterior superior temporal sulcus, according to scientists who have traced the origins of altruism in the brain.

A study found that this part of the brain is more active in people who often engage in helpful behaviour.

The region, which lies in the top and back portion of the brain, is linked to sorting out social relationships.

.......... functional magnetic resonance imaging .............

At the same time, participants either played a computer game, or watched the computer play the game on its own. In either case, winning the game earned money for a chosen charity.

Volunteers were also questioned about how often they put others before themselves - in other words, how altruistic they were.

The brain scans revealed that the most charitable showed the most activity in the posterior superior temporal salcus when the computer game was being played.

Study leader Dr Scott Huettel, a neuroscientist from Duke University Medical Centre in Durham, North Carolina, said: ............

.........reported in the online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Comment 

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This test seems fundamentally flawed: you ask people how charitable they are, and the scientists assume that the part that lights up is the "kind" part of the brain. It could just as easily be the deceptive or guilt portion of the brain.
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