We have mirror neurons that fire in our brains when we see someone doing certain things, like smiling, for example. Even though we are not smiling our smiling centers fire in our brains. Sort of a cool monkey see monkey do type thing. They have the same neurons I presume since so much of our brain are similar. I think we are pretty much equal with chimps, brain cell for brain cell. They don't have as much myelin, the stuff that coats the neuron though. Apparently that is important. I read this at 4 am so I can't remember why. I'll reread it and relate it tomorrow. Anyway, these mirror neurons have captured my interest. Could this be the beginning of compassion? Is this how we can "know" what another feels because our neurons are firing at the same time when we witness something? Apparently Autistics lack this ability to one degree or another. That makes perfect sense. What is interesting to me and what I can't figure out is why we have what seems like a genetic tendency in some people to behave in ways that preclude their leaving descendants? Like autism. How has that survived? One would think something like that would have been selected out but natural processes long ago. There must have been some advantage to being autistic. One never knows. For example. sickle cell anemia, if processed correctly on a genetic level, causes immunity to malaria. Quite an advantage. Too much of a good thing is not an advantage however. Life is cool. Life is good.
posted by Anne Coe | 6:26 AM
2 Comments:
There are several things you need to remember in regard to genes. First, the gene itself (allele) will, in sexual reproduction, combine with another gene. One of the combined alleles may be dominant the other recessive. Both genes will not be expressed. Then you need to think about mutations. Mutations occur at a frequency of one. For a gene to become widespread, one can predict that it is not deleterious or even neutral (as it is always threatened with replacement by a gene that has a benefit). The next important thing to consider is the environment. The genes we have were selected within ancestral populations because those genes had an effect in that particular environment that promoted survival and reproduction or at least did not inhibit such (as autism may). When you have a trait (that is influenced strongly by underlying genes) what you need to consider is that the environment might have changed and the gene is not triggered in the same way as it was in the past. I wonder about this with the BRCA genes that are linked to breast cancer. This allele significantly increases the chances that young women in their reproductive prime will get breast cancer. While I would have to build up a long and complex argument, to cut to the chase in past environments women reproduced early in life. Pregnancy, and the release of placental hormones into the woman's body, changes the cells in the breast, making the DNA repair more efficient and making the cells resistent to the action of carcinogens. The environment has changed, in that young women are encouraged to delay reproduction, so a gene that may have had a positive effect in the past, now has a negative effect. Autism may work in a similar manner. The other interesting example is the gene for sickle cell. That requires a lecture, but it is a very interesting phenomenon.
Consider, also, reading family systems geneology by Bowen that shows the emotional state of parents, when a child is conceived, is passsed genetically to the child. Just as predisposition to mental illness can be passed, so can anger, compassion, and other emotions. For example, a child who has difficulty with anger may have been conceived at a time when the mother, angry about her life mated with the father who was angry about a business decison. Thus we have much to deal with prior to birth.
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