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In a new study, published in the journal Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, she and colleagues enlisted 39 people, 19 of whom were kidney donors.

 

The researchers first performed structural measurements to assess the size of different parts of their brains and then asked the participants to run through a series of computer tests while their brains were being scanned using functional MRI. The tests were designed to elicit an emotional response. One test, for instance, tasked the participants to look at pictures of different facial expressions, including happiness, fear, anger, sadness and surprise.

 

 

 

 

There wasn’t any significant difference between the brains of altruists and non-altruist, with one exception: the amygdala, which is considered the seat of processing emotions in the brain. The amygdala was significantly larger in the altruists compared to those who had never donated an organ – 8.1% larger to be more precise.
Additionally, the amygdala in the altruists was extremely sensitive to the pictures of people displaying fear or distress.

Previous research showed that, on the other end of the spectrum, psychopaths have significantly smaller, less active amygdalas. Practically, extreme altruists aren’t only the moral opposites of psychopaths – they’re biologically opposites as well! These recent findings seem to add to a growing body of evidence that suggests that the amygdala is a sort of emotional compass, that may actively guide people to be compassionate or, oppositely, insensitive to other people.

You might ask, however: are these people altruist because that’s how they’re built to be (it’s in their genes) or did these people just built character along the years after being exposed to various environmental stimuli? 

Source: 

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