Greene Joshua David - Positive neuroscience

Positive Neuroscience

EDITED BY JOSHUA D. GREENE INDIA MORRISON MARTIN E. P. SELIGMAN

OXFORD

OXFORD

UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Oxford University Press 2016

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Greene, Joshua David, 1974- editor. | Morrison, India, editor. |

Seligman, Martin E. P., editor.

Title: Positive neuroscience / edited by Joshua D. Greene, India Morrison, and Martin E. P. Seligman.

Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2016. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015041438 (print) | LCCN 2015044606 (ebook) |

ISBN 9780199977925 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780199977932 (UPDF) | ISBN 9780199977949 (EPUB)

Subjects: LCSH: Affective neuroscience. | Neuropsychology. | Positive psychology. | Social psychology.

Classification: LCC QP401 .P68 2016 (print) | LCC QP401 (ebook) |

DDC 612.8dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015041438

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed by Sheridan, USA

CONTENTS

Joshua D. Greene and India Morrison

India Morrison

James K. Rilling and Jennifer Mascaro

Thalia Wheatley and Beau Sievers

Jamil Zaki and Jason P. Mitchell

5. Is Human Prosocial Behavior Unique? Insights and New Questions From Nonhuman Primates 73

Lindsey A. Drayton and Laurie R. Santos

Tony W. Buchanan and Stephanie D. Preston

Vincent Man, Daniel L. Ames, Alexander Todorov, and William A. Cunningham

Yoni K. Ashar, Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna, Sona Dimidjian, and Tor D. Wager

Abigail A. Marsh

Kateri McRae and Iris B. Mauss

Britta K. Hlzel, Sara W. Lazar, and Mohammed R. Milad

Psyche Loui

Hans L. Melo and Adam K. Anderson

The research described in these pages was supported by the Positive Neuroscience Project, spearheaded by Martin E. P. Seligman through the University of Pennsylvanias Positive Psychology Center and supported by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

Daniel L. Ames , University of California Los Angeles

Adam K. Anderson , Cornell University

Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna , University of Colorado Boulder

Yoni K. Ashar , University of Colorado Boulder

Tony W. Buchanan , St. Louis University

William A. Cunningham , University of Toronto

Sona Dimidjian , University of Colorado Boulder

Lindsey A. Drayton , Yale University

Joshua D. Greene , Harvard University

Britta K. Hlzel , Harvard Medical School

Sara W. Lazar , Harvard Medical School

Psyche Loui , Wesleyan University

Vincent Man , University of Toronto

Abigail A. Marsh , Georgetown University

Jennifer Mascaro , Emory University

Iris B. Mauss , University of California Berkeley

Kateri McRae , University of Denver

Hans L. Melo , University of Toronto

Mohammed R. Milad , Harvard Medical School

Jason P. Mitchell , Harvard University

India Morrison , Linkping University

Stephanie D. Preston , University of Michigan

James K. Rilling , Emory University

Laurie R. Santos , Yale University

Martin E. P. Seligman , University of Pennsylvania

Beau Sievers , Dartmouth College Alexander Todorov , Princeton University Tor D. Wager , University of Colorado Boulder Thalia Wheatley , Dartmouth College Jamil Zaki , Stanford University

JOSHUA D. GREENE AND INDIA MORRISON

As primates go, humans are pretty good. We do horrible things, of course, but increasingly less so (Pinker, 2011), thanks to our unmatched ability to form cooperative relationships, to value one anothers well-being, and to build social structures that expand the scope of human flourishing. Happily, these laudable behaviors are not rare occurrences, but rather the predictable products of healthy human brains. We seem built not just to survive, but to thriveeach of us born with a capacity for experiencing happiness and seeking meaning. How the brain produces these capacities and behaviors remains mysterious. This is largely because human flourishing is distinctively human, and most of what we know about brains comes from decades of research on nonhuman animals. Only in the last 20 years, with the advent of noninvasive functional neuroimaging, have healthy human brains become widespread objects of scientific study. And neuroscientific research aimed at understanding the biological bases of human flourishing is newer still. This volume brings together some of the most exciting new ideas and findings from this rapidly growing field.

Since this project began, the research from the scientists represented in this volume on the neuroscience of human flourishing has itself flourished, yielding surprising findings, deep insights, and new questions for each contributor and the next generation of positive neuroscience researchers. Most of this research has now been published in scientific journals (including some of the worlds top neuroscience and general science journals). Here we bring this work together in one place, and in a format suitable for both students and seasoned scientists. The research described herein falls into three broad categories.

Part I (Social Bonds) describes the mechanisms that enable humans to connect with one another. In Chapter 1, India Morrison discusses research on the

neuroscience of touch as a means for emotional communication, beginning with work on a newly discovered mammalian nerve type that may be specially attuned for touch in social interactions. In Chapter 2, James Rilling and Jennifer Mascaro describe research showing that the brains of men who are active parents differ from those of other men, consistent with patterns identified by research on nurturing behavior in nonhuman animals. In Chapter 3, Thalia Wheatley and Beau Sievers explain how human brains resonate with one another, enabling people to feel each others pain, communicate through music, and form social bonds.

Part II (Altruism) focuses on the neural mechanisms underlying our ability and willingness to confer costly benefits on others. In Chapter 4, Jamil Zaki and Jason Mitchell discuss research showing that human brains represent the value of altruistic behavior just as they represent the value of self-serving behavior, using general-purpose neural machinery that we share with other mammals. In Chapter 5, Lindsey Drayton and Laurie Santos consider the range of altruistic behaviors observed across animal species and conclude that human altruism has some features that are shared with other species but other features that appear to be uniquely human. In Chapter 6, Tony Buchanan and Stephanie Preston present a biologically based theory explaining why empathic feelings sometimes do and sometimes do not translate into altruistic action. In Chapter 7, Vincent Man, Daniel Ames, Alexander Todorov, and William Cunningham focus on the amygdala, a neural structure widely known for its role in fear and other forms of self-preserving behavior. They present evidence that, in humans, the amygdalas operations can be directed toward the goals of others, given the right motivation. In Chapter 8, Yoni Ashar, Jessica Andrews-Hanna, Sona Dimidjian, and Tor Wager present a model of compassion and compassionate behavior according to which distinct neural systems are responsible for the generation of compassion-related feelings, for inferring the contents of other minds, and for the representation of others suffering as related to oneself. In Chapter 9, Abigail Marsh discusses her research examining the distinctive neural and behavioral qualities of a group of extraordinary altruists, people who voluntarily donated kidneys to strangers.