Psychopathy to Altruism: Neurobiology of the Selfish-Selfless Spectrum

Social interaction-induced fear memory reduction: exploring the influence of dopamine and oxytocin receptors on memory updating

It has been well established that a consolidated memory can be updated during the plastic state induced by reactivation. This updating process opens the possibility to modify maladaptive memory. In the present study, we evaluated whether fear memory could be updated to less-aversive level by incorporating hedonic information during reactivation. Thus, male rats were fear conditioned and, during retrieval, a female was presented as a social rewarding stimulus. We found that memory reactivation with a female (but not a male) reduces fear expression within-session and in the test, without presenting reinstatement or spontaneous recovery. Interestingly, this intervention impaired extinction. Finally, we demonstrated that this emotional remodeling to eliminate fear expression requires the activation of dopamine and oxytocin receptors during retrieval. Hence, these results shed new lights on the memory updating process and suggests that the exposure to natural rewarding information such as a female during retrieval reduces a previously consolidated fear memory.

Interdisciplinary research approach based on a mixed-methods design to explore patient altruism at the end of life: a study protocol

INTRODUCTION

In the end of life context, patients are often seen as somewhat passive recipients of care provided by health professionals and relatives, with little opportunity to be perceived as autonomous and active agents. Since studies show a very high prevalence of altruistic dispositions in palliative care patients, we strive to investigate the concept of patient altruism in a set of six interdisciplinary studies by considering three settings: (1) in the general palliative context-by studying to what extent patient altruism is associated with essential psychological outcomes of palliative care (subproject 1a), how altruism is understood by patients (subproject 1b) and how altruism expressed by patients is experienced by palliative care nurses (subproject 1c); (2) in two concrete decision-making contexts-advance care planning (subproject 2a) and assisted suicide (subproject 2b); and (3) through verbal and non-verbal patient communication in palliative care settings (subproject 3).

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

Subproject 1a: a cross-sectional study using validated and standardised questionnaires. Subprojects 1b and 1c: a constructivist grounded theory method aiming at developing a novel theory from semistructured interviews in both patients and nurses. Subproject 2a: a thematic analysis based on (1) audio-recordings of advance care planning encounters and (2) follow-up semidirective interviews with patients and their relatives. Subproject 2b: a qualitative study based on thematic analysis of interviews with patients actively pursuing assisted suicide and one of their relatives.Subproject 3: a conversation analysis based on audio and video-recorded interactions in two settings: (1) palliative inpatient unit and (2) advance care planning discussions.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

The study project was approved by the Ethics Committees of the Canton of Vaud, Bern and Ticino (no: 2023-00088). In addition to participation in national and international conferences, each project will be the subject of two scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals. Additional publications will be realised according to result triangulation between projects. A symposium opened to professionals, patients and the public will be organised in Switzerland at the end of the project.

Patient altruism at the end of life: A scoping review

OBJECTIVES

The concept of altruism is evidenced in various disciplines but remains understudied in end-of-life (EOL) contexts. Patients at the EOL are often seen as passive recipients of care, whereas the altruism of professionals and families receives more research and clinical attention. Our aim was to summarize the state of the scientific literature concerning the concept of patient altruism in EOL contexts.

METHODS

In May 2023, we searched 11 databases for scientific literature on patient altruism in EOL contexts in consultation with a health information specialist. The scoping review is reported using the PRISMA checklist for scoping reviews. We used a data charting form to deductively extract data from the selected articles and then mapped data into 4 themes related to our research questions: how authors describe and employ the concept of patient altruism; expressions of patient altruism; consequences of patients' altruistic acts; and possible interventions fostering patient altruism.

RESULTS

Excluding duplicates, 2893 articles were retrieved; 33 were included in the final review. Altruism was generally considered as an act or intention oriented toward the benefit of a specific (known) or non-specific (generic) recipient. Patients expressed altruism through care and support, decisions to withhold treatment or actively hasten death, and engagement in advance care planning. Consequences of altruism were categorized in patient-centered (contribution to meaning in life and quality of life), non-patient-centered (leaving a positive impact and saving money), and negative consequences (generating feelings of guilt, exposing individuals with low self-esteem). Interventions to encourage altruism comprised specific interventions, providing opportunities to plan for future care, and recognizing and respecting the patients' altruistic motivations.

SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS

We identified heterogeneous and limited research conceptualization of patient altruism and its operationalization in palliative care settings. A deeper conceptual, empirical, and theoretical exploration of patient altruism in EOL is necessary.

Understanding altruistic behavior: The joint role of prefrontal damage and OXTR genotype

Altruism is a type of prosocial behavior that is carried out in the absence of personal benefit or even at an expense to self. Trait altruism varies greatly across individuals, and the reasons for this variability are still not fully understood. Growing evidence suggests that altruism may be partly determined by the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene, which regulates the emotions underlying altruistic attitudes, such as empathy and trust. Neuroimaging and lesion studies have also implied several higher-order brain regions, including the prefrontal cortex, in altruistic behaviors. Yet the existing reports are contradictory and suggest that the top-down control exercised by the prefrontal cortex may promote both altruistic and self-interested behaviors and, thus, could obscure one's natural proclivity towards altruism encoded by OXTR. Here, we hypothesized that extensive prefrontal damage would result in an increased influence of the OXTR genotype on one's altruistic attitudes and actions. To test this hypothesis, we recruited 115 male combat veterans with penetrating traumatic brain injury to the prefrontal cortex and other brain regions, as well as 35 demographically matched control subjects without brain injury. Participants completed a self-report altruism questionnaire and were genotyped for four OXTR single nucleotide polymorphisms implicated in prosocial behavior, including rs53576, rs1042778, rs2254298 and rs7632287. Consistent with the previous studies, we found that individuals homozygotic for the G allele of rs53576 and rs7632287 were significantly more altruistic than carriers of at least one "vulnerable" A allele. Remarkably, in patients with prefrontal cortex damage, greater lesion extent was associated with significantly lower altruism scores in carriers of the A allele of rs7632287, but not in G-homozygotes, suggesting that significant disruption of the prefrontal cortex increased the influence of genetic polymorphisms on prosocial behavior. This study presents the first account of an interaction effect between the OXTR genotype and the location and extent of brain damage.

The bright and dark sides of egoism

Despite its negative reputation, egoism - the excessive concern for one's own welfare - can incite prosocial behavior. So far, however, egoism-based prosociality has received little attention. Here, we first provide an overview of the conditions under which egoism turns into a prosocial motive, review the benefits and limitations of egoism-based prosociality, and compare them with empathy-driven prosocial behavior. Second, we summarize studies investigating the neural processing of egoism-based prosocial decisions, studies investigating the neural processing of empathy-based prosocial decisions, and the small number of studies that compared the neural processing of prosocial decisions elicited by the different motives. We conclude that there is evidence for differential neural networks involved in egoism and empathy-based prosocial decisions. However, this evidence is not yet conclusive, because it is mainly based on the comparison of different experimental paradigms which may exaggerate or overshadow the effect of the different motivational states. Finally, we propose paradigms and research questions that should be tackled in future research that could help to specify how egoism can be used to enhance other prosocial behavior and motivation, and the how it could be tamed.

Neuroanatomy of the Will

Questions regarding the nature and source of consciousness and individual agency to make decisions have enormous practical implications that include human health and wellbeing, social policy, and economics. Ethical issues involving the ability for patients to make conscious, informed choices, such as in cases of dementia or coma, abound, and the health implications of individual choice on public wellbeing are becoming increasingly important as population densities increase. Furthermore, the use of animals for drug testing presents moral dilemmas related to our concepts of consciousness, pain, and consent. While philosophers have long debated aspects of consciousness, the means to scientifically address specific questions regarding regional and cellular functions of the brain are constantly emerging, as are new theories of physical laws and particle interactions which allow for the formation of new hypotheses of the source of consciousness. These emerging capabilities and hypotheses are increasingly able to be subjected to methodological scrutiny by the scientific community. To facilitate open discussion and advances in investigations regarding the nature of consciousness, this Topical Collection is intended to provide a peer-reviewed space to discuss or propose falsifiable hypotheses of consciousness in a full range of systems, using methods across disciplines of biology, physics, computer science, and philosophy of science that can inform such a discussion, while emphasizing the role that our conception of consciousness has on human health, society, and policy.

Animals in Animal-Assisted Services: Are They Volunteers or Professionals?

With the increasingly common practice of Animal-Assisted Services (AAS), whether in therapy, coaching, education, or volunteering programs, the concern over animal welfare has also risen. However, no standards have yet been established for good practices to ensure the animal’s mental health. This is largely due to the wide variety of roles played by animals in interventions and the lack of ‘job descriptions’ for the animal in diverse settings. Some professionals call their animal a ‘volunteer’, others mention that some directive guidance is given to the therapy animal, and some assistance animals are highly trained. Misunderstandings could be avoided if the integrated animal were to receive a justifiable label: volunteer or professional. Choosing either one comes with obligations for the owner, handler, or therapist. In this paper, we compare the roles of human volunteers and professionals to the roles of animals involved in therapy. We also demonstrate the obligations that come along with the decision to label animals as such either volunteers or professionals. Furthermore, we make a plea for animal-friendly interventions, whether in a volunteer position or as a professional, in order to stimulate the animal’s cooperation and motivation. Studying dopamine and translating the findings into context-ethograms can provide a way to judge behavior more objectively.

Role of anterior midcingulate cortex in self-reward representation and reward allocation judgments within social context

Evaluating rewards for the self and others is essential for social interactions. Previous research has probed the neural substrates signaling rewards in social decision-making tasks as well as the differentiation between self- and other-reward representations. However, studies with different designs have yielded mixed results. After analyzing and comparing previous designs, we differentiated three components in this study: task (reward representation vs. social judgment of reward allocation), agency (self vs. other), and social context (without vs. within). Participants were asked to imagine various share sizes as a proposer in a dictator game during fMRI, and then rated their willingness and preference for these offers in a post-scan behavioral task. To differentiate the regions involved in processing rewards without and within context, we presented the reward to each agent in two sequential frames. Parametric analyses showed that, in the second frame (i.e., within social context), the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC) signaled self-reward and preferences for the offer, whereas the right insula tracked the likelihood of proposing the offer. Belief in a just world is positively associated with aMCC responses to self-reward. These results shed light on the role of the aMCC in coding self-reward within the social context to guide social behaviors.

Psychological Selfishness

Selfishness is central to many theories of human morality, yet its psychological nature remains largely overlooked. Psychologists often draw on classical conceptions of selfishness from evolutionary biology (i.e., selfish gene theory), economics (i.e., rational self-interest), and philosophy (i.e., psychological egoism), but such characterizations offer limited insight into the psychology of selfishness. To address this gap, we propose a novel framework in which selfishness is recast as a psychological construction. From this view, selfishness is perceived in ourselves and others when we detect a situation-specific desire to benefit the self that disregards others' desires and prevailing social expectations for the situation. We argue that detecting and deterring such psychological selfishness in both oneself and others is crucial in social life-facilitating the maintenance of social cohesion and close relationships. In addition, we show how using this psychological framework offers a richer understanding of the nature of human social behavior. Delineating a psychological construct of selfishness can promote coherence in interdisciplinary research on selfishness and provide insights for interventions to prevent or remediate the negative effects of selfishness.

Neurobiological and epigenetic perspectives on hedonism, altruism and conscience

This article examines notions of hedonism, altruism and conscience in relation to the activity of four neurotransmitter pathways: the dopamine reward, noradrenaline fight or flight, serotonin calming and glutamine learning pathways. Associated brain areas that modulate behaviour are highlighted: the prefrontal cortex (activity planning, risk mitigation), the hippocampus (memory retrieval) and the insular cortex (integration of information to decide on action). Putative epigenetic changes influencing adult behaviours after childhood privation are discussed. Pharmacological and psychological means of mitigating harmful behaviours are summarised, alongside the ethics of epigenetic screening to predict future addictive and violent tendencies.

Children of ISIS: considerations regarding trauma, treatment and risk

The rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) brought with it a new wave of child soldier. This was characterised by media and propaganda circulating of children as young as four being exposed to detonators and rifles, along with perpetrating acts of violence. However, since the dismantling of ISIS, many of these children are now returning home to countries such as Australia and those in the United Kingdom and Europe; having been exposed to extremist Islamic ideology, radicalisation, and psychological and physical abuse. This review highlights that the trauma experienced by the child soldiers increases the possibility of symptomology associated with depression, anxiety, and externalising problems. Due to the complex and prolonged exposure to trauma, Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD) is considered. Alongside mental health symptomology, psychometric risk assessment tools are examined, and suitable psychological services are discussed as possible interventions and support systems for children.

Altruism: Scoping review of the literature and future directions for HIV cure-related research

INTRODUCTION

The question of what motivates people to participate in research is particularly salient in the HIV field. While participation in HIV research was driven by survival in the 1980's and early 1990's, access to novel therapies became the primary motivator with the advent of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) in the late 1990s. In the HIV cure-related research context, the concept of altruism has remained insufficiently studied.

METHODS

We conducted a scoping review to better contextualize and understand how altruism is or could be operationalized in HIV cure-related research. We drew from the fields of altruism in general, clinical research, cancer, and HIV clinical research-including the HIV prevention, treatment, and cure-related research fields.

DISCUSSION

Altruism as a key motivating factor for participation in clinical research has often been intertwined with the desire for personal benefit. The cancer field informs us that reasons for participation usually are multi-faceted and complex. The HIV prevention field offers ways to organize altruism-either by the types of benefits achieved (e.g., societal versus personal), or the origin of the values that motivate research participation. The HIV treatment literature reveals the critical role of clinical interactions in fostering altruism. There remains a dearth of in-depth knowledge regarding reasons surrounding research participation and the types of altruism displayed in HIV cure-related clinical research.

CONCLUSION

Lessons learned from various research fields can guide questions which will inform the assessment of altruism in future HIV cure-related research.

Social Cognition and White Matter: Connectivity and Cooperation

Humans are highly social animals whose survival and well-being depend on their capacity to cooperate in complex social settings. Advances in anthropology and psychology have demonstrated the importance of cooperation for enhancing social cohesion and minimizing conflict. The understanding of social behavior is informed by the notion of social cognition, a set of mental operations including emotion perception, mentalizing, and empathy. The social brain hypothesis posits that the mammalian brain has enlarged over evolution to meet the challenges of social life, culminating in a large human brain well adapted for social cognition. The structures subserving social cognition are mainly located in the frontal and temporal lobes, and although gray matter is critical, social cognition also requires white matter. Whereas the social brain hypothesis assumes that brain enlargement has been driven by neocortical expansion, cerebral white matter has expanded even more robustly than the neocortex, coinciding with the emergence of social cognition. White matter expansion is most evident in the frontal and temporal lobes, where it enhances connectivity between regions critical for social cognition. Myelination has, in turn, conferred adaptive social advantages by enabling prompt empathic concern for offspring and by strengthening networks that support cooperation and the related capacities of altruism and morality. Social cognition deficits related to myelinated tract involvement occur in many disorders, including stroke, Binswanger disease, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, glioma, and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia. The contribution of white matter to social cognition can be conceptualized as the enhancement of cooperation through brain connectivity.

Selflessness, Depression, and Neuroticism: An Interactionist Perspective on the Effects of Self-Transcendence, Perspective-Taking, and Materialism

Dominant theories of depression position self-concept as a central determinant of psychological functioning, but the relationship between the structure of self-concept and depression has not been extensively explored. The present study investigates the relationship between the structure of the self and psychopathological outcomes (depressive symptoms and neuroticism) with two methodological approaches. Using an established framework that draws insight from Buddhist psychology, the structure of the self is conceptualized in terms of selflessness and self-centeredness. Specifically, selflessness is construed as a multidimensional concept characterized by interdependence, outsider phenomenology, and impermanence. The three dimensions of the self were assessed at age 26 with inventories of self-transcendence, perspective-taking, and materialism, respectively (N = 814). First, a variable-centered approach was used to investigate potential interactions between the dimensions of selflessness. Self-transcendence negatively predicted depressive symptoms and neuroticism, whereas perspective-taking and materialism were positively associated with the outcomes. Self-transcendence moderated the relationship between perspective-taking and depressive symptoms. Perspective-taking was not statistically related to depressive symptoms for participants who exhibited higher levels of self-transcendence. The results clarify ambiguous associations between perspective-taking and depression found in previous research. Second, person-centered analyses were used to identify five profiles of self-structure: (1) Selfless, (2) Selfless Materialist, (3) Interdependent Insider, (4) Self-centered Non-materialist, and (5) Self-centered. As hypothesized, the Selfless cluster was associated with low levels of depressive symptoms and neuroticism, whereas the Self-centered cluster was associated with high levels. The profiles demonstrate the manifestation of several combinations of features of the self, which contributes to overall understanding of selflessness by complicating the traditional dichotomy between selflessness and self-centeredness.

Patient perspectives on interventional pain management: thematic analysis of a qualitative interview study

Background

Chronic pain is a widespread problem that is usually approached by focusing on its psychological aspects or on trying to reduce the pain from the pain generator. Patients report that they feel responsible for their pain and that they are disempowered and stigmatized because of it. Here, we explored interventional pain management from the patient’s perspective to understand the process better.

Methods

A purposive sample of 19 subjects was interviewed by an independent interviewer. The interviews were transcribed into text and thematic analysis was performed.

Results

The subjects’ perceptions covered three key themes: themselves as objects; the caregivers, including the process of tests and retests, the encounters and interactions with professionals, and the availability of the caregivers; and finally the outcomes, including the results of the tests and treatments and how these inspired them to think of other people with pain. Linking these themes, the subjects reported something best described as “gained empowerment” during interventional pain management; they were feeling heard and seen, they gained knowledge that helped them understand their problem better, they could ask questions and receive answers, and they felt safe and listened to.

Conclusions

Many of the themes evolved in relation to the subjects’ contact with the healthcare services they received, but when the themes were merged and structured into the model, a cohesive pattern of empowerment appeared. If empowerment is a major factor in the positive effects of interventional pain management, it is important to facilitate and not hinder empowerment.

Trial registration

Clinicaltrials.gov 2013-04-24 (Protocol ID SE-Dnr-2012-446-31 M-3, ClinicalTrials ID NCT01838603).

An investigation into the erroneous access and egress behaviours of building users and their impact upon building performance

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the behaviour of building users and how this impacts upon building energy performance. Specifically, the work examines the behavioural traits of able-bodied users of a large higher education building who erroneously access and egress the building using doorways intended for disabled users.

Design/methodology/approach

An inductive methodological approach is adopted that uses grounded theory to devise new insights into building users’ access and egress habits. Structured interviews are conducted to collect primary data from 68 building users of a large educational building over a four-week period. Responses to questions posed provide the basis for a tabularisation of behavioural traits.

Findings

Reasons for able-bodied building users’ preferences to using disabled access are identified and discussed; these are thematically grouped under the headings of apathy, convenience, emergency, ergonomics, ignorance and phobia. Building upon these findings, the research then offers insights into the approaches that could be adopted to change the erroneous behaviours. These approaches include education of building users on the impact their behaviour has upon building performance and environmental pollution, more stringent regulation to penalise repeat offenders and changes to building entrance design using obtrusive (i.e. radio frequency identification tags) and unobstrusive control measures (i.e. a second entrance doorway or slower opening mechanism).

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to investigate the rationale for able-bodied building users erroneously using disabled persons’ access and egress doorways within a building, which as a consequence, inadvertently reduces the building’s environmental performance.

Mindfulness versus Physical Exercise: Effects of Two Recovery Strategies on Mental Health, Stress and Immunoglobulin A during Lunch Breaks. A Randomized Controlled Trial

This research analyses the effects of mindfulness meditation (MM) and physical exercise (PE), practised as daily recovery activities during lunch breaks, on perceived stress, general mental health, and immunoglobin A (IgA). A three-armed randomized controlled trial with 94 employees was conducted for five weeks including two follow-up sessions after one and six months. Daily practice lasted 30 min maximum. Perceived stress and general mental health questionnaires and saliva samples were used. There were significant differences in time factor comparing pre- and post-test of Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ) both for PE [Mdiff = 0.10, SE = 0.03, p = 0.03], and for MM [Mdiff = 0.09, SE = 0.03, p = 0.03]. Moreover, there were significant differences of interaction factor when comparing MM vs. PE in total score at pre-post [F = −2.62 (6, 168.84), p = 0.02, ω² = 0.09], favoring PE with medium and high effect sizes. Regarding General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) variable, practicing MM showed significant effects in time factor compared to pre-Fup2. No significant differences were found for IgA. Thus, practicing both MM and PE as recovery strategies during lunch breaks could reduce perceived stress after five weeks of practice, with better results for PE. Moreover, practicing MM could improve mental health with effects for 6 months.

Superethics Instead of Superintelligence: Know Thyself, and Apply Science Accordingly

The human species is combining an increased understanding of our cognitive machinery with the development of a technology that can profoundly influence our lives and our ways of living together. Our sciences enable us to see our strengths and weaknesses, and build technology accordingly. What would future historians think of our current attempts to build increasingly smart systems, the purposes for which we employ them, the almost unstoppable goldrush toward ever more commercially relevant implementations, and the risk of superintelligence? We need a more profound reflection on what our science shows us about ourselves, what our technology allows us to do with that, and what, apparently, we aim to do with those insights and applications. As the smartest species on the planet, we don't need more intelligence. Since we appear to possess an underdeveloped capacity to act ethically and empathically, we rather require the kind of technology that enables us to act more consistently upon ethical principles. The problem is not to formulate ethical rules, it's to put them into practice. Cognitive neuroscience and AI provide the knowledge and the tools to develop the moral crutches we so clearly require. Why aren't we building them? We don't need superintelligence, we need superethics.

Justification of the Proposed Paradigm Shift

This chapter goes into the benefits of the proposed perspective and approach. Arguments from various disciplines are offered to show the impact of a holistic perspective, for the individual, the community he/she lives in, and wider Society. A summary of evidence is drawn from the perspective of psychology and mental health, from biology, personal leadership and self-development, from evolutionary theories, from sociological argumentation, and from an economic viewpoint.

Altruism, collective rationality, and extreme self-sacrifice

Puzzlement about extreme self-sacrifice arises from an unarticulated assumption of psychological egoism, according to which people invariably act in their own self-interests. However, altruism and collective rationality are well established experimentally: people sometimes act to benefit others or in the interests of groups to which they belong. When such social motives are sufficiently strong, extreme self-sacrifice presents no special problem of explanation and does not require out-group threats.