A dialogue on Philosophy of Mind and Related Matters
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Neural Rewards for Altruistic Behavior (Voluntary or Not)
This entry was posted on 6/19/2007 6:04 AM and is filed under Neuroscience,Ethics.
Results published in the last issue of Science, as reported in today's NYT.
6/23/2007 9:43 AMAnibal wrote:
de Quervain et al 2004, Science,1254-1258; also found activation of the neural systems processing reward for the case when someone punish another (for example torture).
So the considered by many, Guantanamo illegal detentions and torture , all of this against international conventions, also reward some people either the executors or the commanders or both, and can be conceptualize as altruistic punishment falling under the category of altruistic behaviour. What paradoxical can be the workings of the mind/brain. Reply to this