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Empathy prevents skepticism

15.11.2012

Even the most developed, analytical mind can accept the story of a fraudster on faith, even though it would be quite able to recognize the deception. Why is this so? Scientists at Case Western Reserve University have found that when the brain activates a network of neurons that allows us to empathize, it simultaneously suppresses the network used for analysis. And when our "internal analyst" is suppressed, the ability to soberly assess the situation and recognize the fraudster is drastically reduced.

In general, our brain activity is distributed between social drives and analytics. But when we face real-world challenges, the appropriate neural networks are activated in healthy adults. Research has shown for the first time that neurons have some "bandwidth" limitations, we can't be both empathetic and soberly analyze at the same time. The paper reports that existing theories about the competition of two neural networks in the brain should be revised. The study is published in Neuroimage.

A number of previous studies have shown that two large neural networks are active in the human brain. One of them operates "by default" at rest, and the other - in the purposeful solution of problems. However, other studies are divided on the mechanism of these activities. The first theory says that one of our networks is involved in solving problems, and the second one allows the mind to wander uncontrollably. Another theory is that one network is responsible for outward attention, while the other is for self-control.

A new study using functional magnetic resonance imaging has shown that all external stimuli - both "social" and "analytic" - sequentially occupy all neural pathways to resolve the problem. At this time, the rest of the neural pathways are suppressed.

"There is a gap between the empirical and scientific understanding of the problem, and it has long been known," said Anthony Jack, lead author of the study and assistant professor of cognitive science. - In 2006, the philosopher Filippo Robins and I put forward a completely crazy hypothesis that this "explanatory gap" is actually due to our neural structures. I was very surprised when I saw how the experimental results correspond to this theory."

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