Neuroscience and Free Will. Unconscious decisions in the brain. A team of scientists has unravelled how the brain unconsciously prepares our decisions April 14, 2008 Already several seconds before we consciously make a decision its outcome can be predicted from unconscious activity in the brain. This is shown in a study by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, in collaboration with the Charité University Hospital and the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin. The researchers from the group of Professor John-Dylan Haynes used a brain scanner to investigate what happens in the human brain just before a decision is made. "Many processes in the brain occur automatically and without involvement of our consciousness. This prevents our mind from being overloaded by simple routine tasks.
But when it comes to decisions we tend to assume they are made by our conscious mind. Zoom Image © John-Dylan Haynes. Limbic System: Amygdala (Section 4, Chapter 6) Neuroscience Online: An Electronic Textbook for the Neurosciences | Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy - The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. 6.1 Amygdala - General Considerations Amygdala is the integrative center for emotions, emotional behavior, and motivation. If the brain is turned upside down the end of the structure continuous with the hippocampus is called the uncus. If you peel away uncus you will expose the amygdala which abuts the anterior of the hippocampus. Just like with the hippocampus, major pathways communicate bidirectionally and contain both efferent and afferent fibers. 6.2 Inputs to the Amygdala As was the case with the hippocampus, fibers carrying inputs to the amygdala are in virtually all cases combined with fibers carrying outputs from the amygdala.
The amygdala receives inputs from all senses as well as visceral inputs. 6.3 Major Output Pathways of the Amygdala Ventral amygdalofugal pathway Stria terminalis Directly to the hippocampus Directly to the entorhinal cortex Directly to the dorsomedial nucleus of the thalamus 6.4 Ventral Amygdalofugal Pathway Ventral Amygdalofugal Pathway. The Role of the Amygdala in Fear and Panic. Biology 202 1998 Second Web Reports On Serendip Doug Holt The definition of fear has proved to be an elusive mystery plaguing scientists.
While there is much agreement as to the physiological effects of fear, the neural pathways and connections that bring upon these effects are not well understood. From the evolutionary standpoint, the theory is that fear is a neural circuit that has been designed to keep the organism alive in dangerous situations (1). How does it all work? Learning and responding to stimuli that warn of danger involves neural pathways that send information about the outside world to the amygdala, which in turn, determines the significance of the stimulus and triggers emotional responses like freezing or fleeing as well as changes in the inner workings of the body's organs and glands (1). There are important distinctions to make between emotions and feelings. In a related process, another responsibility of the amygdala is the suppression of the periaqueductal gray. 1.)
Is man free? On a speech last October 29, 2012 at the Bon Mot Book Club, which I was privy to watch on Youtube, Sam Harris argued that free will is an illusion, man is not really free as he is governed by uncontrollable variables like chemicals, genes, upbringing and life experiences. According to Sam Harris, there is no evidence for free will. He cited for example the case for serial killers, whose behavior to kill people is basically beyond their control as they are determined by their genes. They have the so-called "sociopathic soul. " And they really have no choice but to kill people as it is programmed in their genes that they will be so.
Harris cited as an example Charles Whitman who in 1966 killed his wife and mother plus 13 other people at the University of Texas and wounding 33 others. An autopsy later revealed that a glioblastoma was pressing upon his amygdala, the seat of passions and emotions. Harris also said we cannot control our thoughts as they just appear in our consciousness. Charles Whitman Biography. Synopsis Born on June 24, 1941, in Lake Worth, Florida, Charles Whitman served as a Marine before enrolling in the University of Texas.
Suffering from mental illness and acute fits of anger, Whitman killed his mother and wife and on August 1, 1966, went atop a 300-foot tower, targeting people in the vicinity. He would kill 16 and injure many others before he was killed by police, who stormed the tower. Early Life Mass murderer Charles Joseph Whitman was born on June 24, 1941, in Lake Worth, Florida. Taught at an early age to handle guns, Whitman was a model student and Eagle Scout who left home early to escape a violent father. He joined the Marine Corps to be a sharpshooter and then entered the University of Texas, where he met his future wife, Kathryn Leissner.
Concerns About Health After called back to active service because of poor academic performance, Whitman returned to the Marine Corps in 1963. Mass Murder After killing his mother, Whitman went home. Death. WHITMAN, CHARLES JOSEPH. WHITMAN, CHARLES JOSEPH (1941–1966). Charles Joseph Whitman, tower sniper, was born in Lake Worth, Florida, on June 24, 1941, the oldest of three sons of Margaret and Charles A. Whitman, Jr. He attended Sacred Heart grade and junior high schools, was an Eagle Scout at twelve, and graduated from St. Ann's High School in West Palm Beach in 1959. He enlisted in the Marine Corps on July 6, 1959, and was stationed for a year and a half at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He passed a test to enter officer training, was sent to a preparatory school in Bainbridge, Maryland, and then to the University of Texas at Austin in September 1961 to major in engineering. During the pre-dawn hours of August 1, 1966, Whitman killed his mother in her apartment and his wife at their residence.
Austin American, August 1–8, 1966. The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article. The Mind Of A Mass Murderer: Charles Whitman, Brain Damage, And Violence. On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman murdered his mother and his wife before traveling to the campus of the University of Texas, climbing inside the tower, and killing fourteen others.
He was dubbed the infamous UT sniper, but his story involves much more than Marine Corps training and a proclivity for violence. In fact, Whitman complained of headaches and an altered mental state in the days and weeks leading up to the killings. His own suicide note read that "I do not really understand myself these days. I am supposed to be an average reasonable and intelligent young man. However, lately (I cannot recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts.
" Whitman knew that something was wrong. His note further reads, "After my death I wish that an autopsy would be performed on me to see if there is any visible physical disorder. " To learn more about the link between brain damage and violence, I reached out to Dr. MALE VOICE: The time is 5:30. Sam Harris Speech on Free Will Given in Vancouver to the Bon Mot Book Club.