Access to Medical Treatment Act (H.R. 2085/ S.1410)
Advocates for health freedom have been seeking federal legislation
to ensure access to nonconventional medical treatments since shortly
after the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education
Act of 1994. In May 2003, Dan Burton (R-IN) and Pete DeFazio (D-OR)
jointly introduced the Access to Medical Treatment Act (AMTA) to
the House of Representatives. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) presented
the same legislation to the Senate two months later. Some form
of AMTA has been introduced into four sessions of Congress. This
version is identical to legislation that died in the 107th Congress
AMTA includes many safeguards that address safety concerns. Potential
dangers posed by CAM treatments must be no greater than those posed
by a comparable prescription medicine. If practitioners discover
any dangers related to a treatment, they must stop using it and report
their findings to the manufacturer and to the CDC. If practitioners
discover any 'significant' benefits, they are to report
these findings to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative
Medicine. Only trained, licensed physicians or practitioners can
administer CAM therapies under AMTA. Practitioners must explain to
patients the treatment's benefits and side effects, and patients
must sign a thorough informed consent document before the treatment
is given. Although AMTA gives patients access to many treatments
now used in other countries throughout the world, it does not authorize
medical use of marijuana or assisted suicide.
American Association for Health Freedom (AAHF), founded in 1992,
has made the passage of AMTA its main priority. Staff and members
are busy educating and lobbying Congressional members for support,
and they urge citizens to contact their representatives. AAHF's
website (www.heathfreedom.net) contains information about AMTA and
other health-related bills before Congress, including FDA-proposed
regulations on dietary supplements.
Hill Brenna. May Update. Eye on Health Freedom.
Vol 04 Issue V
Office of Legislative Policy & Analysis. Access to Medical Treatment
Act (H.R. 2085/ S.1410) www.olpa.ed.nih.gov
ADHD & Nutritional
Deficiency
Retired public health scientists, Fred Ottoboni, MPH, PhD, and Alice
Ottoboni, PhD, recently raised the question "Can Attention
Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder Result from Nutritional Deficiency?" in
the Journal of American Physicians and
Surgeons (Summer 2003, pp.58–60).
They contend that major changes in the U.S. diet over the last
century have created a significant deficiency of omega-3 fatty
acids and an excess of omega-6 fatty acids. The heavily-promoted
vegetable oils sold in grocery stores contain high amounts of omega-6
fats and very little omega-3—a ratio of about 20 to 1. Our
bodies, however, evolved on diets that provided a maximum of 4
parts of omega-6 to 1 part of omega-3. Every year, Americans consume
about 66 pounds of the manufactured vegetable oils (safflower,
corn, canola, etc.) that began to replace traditional fats like
butter about a hundred years ago.
This radical change in diet has major consequences for infants.
Research has shown that high consumption of vegetable fats and
oils by pregnant
women corresponds to low blood levels of DHA in both mothers and
babies. Healthy development of the eyes and the brain require plenty
of DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid found primarily in the fat of cold-water
fish, and arachidonic acid (AA), an omega-6 fatty acid found in meat
and eggs. Brain growth speeds up during the third trimester of pregnancy
and continues until the child is about two years old. Infants whose
mothers lack DHA during pregnancy and/or while nursing or whose nourishment
consists of infant formula devoid of DHA or AA do not have the necessary
building blocks for healthy brain and eye development. DHA deficiency
afflicts much of the U.S. population. Average DHA levels found in
the breast milk of U.S. women rank among the world's lowest.
The negative effects of too little omega-3 and too much omega-6 is
compounded by the excessive consumption of starches and sugar. The
high insulin levels that result are known to disrupt essential fatty
acid metabolism. The Ottobonis also point out that high levels of
omega-6 fatty acids along with EPA and DHA deficiencies, and/or high
and unstable insulin levels, stimulate the enzyme delta-5 desaturase,
used to produce inflammatory eicosanoids. These eicosanoids tell
the body to produce more corticosteroids, such as cortisol. Cortisol
impairs short-term memory and increases feelings of stress. Inflammatory
eicosanoids also reduce brain levels of the neurotransmitters serotonin
and dopamine. Low levels of serotonin and dopamine are common among
people diagnosed with ADHD.
The Ottobonis give several examples of research literature that link
low levels of DHA and AA with ADHD. In a study of 56 children, for
example, LJ Stevens and colleagues found that the children with the
most severe symptoms had the lowest plasma levels of DHA and AA [Essential
fatty acid metabolism in boys with attention-deficit hyperactivity
disorder. Am J Clin Nutr 1995;62(4):761–768]. Despite the link
between attention deficit disorder and DHA deficiency, not all studies
of DHA supplementation have shown benefits. Barry Sears believes
that some studies used insufficient supplement doses. In addition,
he says that researchers need to control intake of high-glycemic
carbohydrates that quickly raise insulin levels and, thereby, disrupt
fatty acid metabolism and affect brain chemistry. He gave children
with ADHD 10–15 grams of DHA and EPA each day via pharmaceutical
grade fish oil. He also restricted their intake of high-glycemic
carbohydrates. The children's ability to concentrate and their
behavior improved within weeks.
"
The choice seems clear," the Ottobonis warn. "We can
either continue to depend on prescription drugs to mask the symptoms
of ADHD, or consider preventing ADHD by modifying the American diet,
particularly for childbearing women and their children. Should we
decide to continue to depend on prescription drugs, which do not
remedy the underlying causes of nutritional deficiency disease, we
can look forward to a country in which there will be more and more
children with undersized brains who cannot learn, use costly prescription
drugs, drop out of school, commit crimes, and cause anguish for their
parents."
Ottoboni, Fred, MPH, PhD & Ottoboni, Alice, PhD. Can Attention
Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder Result from Nutritional Deficiency?
Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Summer 2003. pp 58–60.
Baroque Music & Dementia
Australian psychiatrist and musician Christian Heim led a study testing
the effects of baroque music on 14 dementia patients living in
a Newcastle nursing home. During the six-week observational study,
specially-chosen Baroque music played at a low volume, for four
hours each evening on a speaker system that reached all bedrooms
and common areas. "Baroque" refers to music written
during the late-1600s to mid-1700s and includes the composers Handel,
Vivaldi, Bach, Corelli, and Telemann. Researchers chose slower
pieces with a tempo of about 60 beats/minute, such as J.S. Bach's "Sheep
May Safely Graze" or the second movements of many concerti.
Other studies have shown that such compositions produce alpha brain
waves and "a state of calm, relaxed alertness." Throughout
the six weeks, nursing staff took notes on patient behavior. The
researchers found a 40% reduction in adverse behaviors that included
wandering, distraction, inability to focus, calling out, verbal
abuse, and agitation.
Janelle Tavender, Director of Nursing at Maroba Nursing Home where
the study took place, described the effect that the music had on
one patient during an Australian Broadcasting Corp. interview. The
woman was very vocal and unable to focus long enough to eat. She
also wandered into all the bedrooms and would strip the beds and "often
herself." When the music was added to her environment, the
patient could sit for five-minute periods and eat some food. Although
she still wandered into other patients' bedrooms and would
lie down on their beds, she no longer stripped the beds or herself.
Because of the music's positive effect, staff has continued
to use slow baroque pieces of music to calm her.
Baroque Dementia. The National Interest. 11 July 2004. www.abc.net.au
Baroque music 'calms dementia.' Herald
Sun. 20 January
04. www.heraldsun.news.com.au
Caffeine Allergy
For over 25 years, Ruth Whalen, a medical lab technician, suffered
unexplained physical and mental deterioration. Her problems began
with a case of hives during her senior year of high school that
changed into an acute psychotic break when an emergency room doctor
injected her with epinephrine (adrenaline). It wasn't until
she was committed to a psychiatric ward that a doctor recognized
that she wasn't bipolar or schizophrenic; she was allergic
to the caffeinated products that she was ingesting.
Caffeine allergy causes reactions in brain tissue, particularly the
prefrontal cortex, producing a lack of focus and comprehension, lack
of organizational skills, and a loss of verbal and social inhibition.
Caffeine also raises catecholamine levels, which causes the body
to produce more dopamine and increases activity. Too much dopamine
leads to agitation. These symptoms can be mistaken for hyperactivity
and ADHD, anxiety neurosis, or panic disorders. If the allergy remains
undiagnosed, patients continue to ingest caffeine. Damage caused
by this masked cerebral allergy can eventually lead to dementia,
paranoia, and hallucinations. Patients with caffeine allergy are
often diagnosed as having bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.
Whalen warns that caffeine withdrawal can be difficult because both
noradrenaline levels and glucose levels drop when caffeine is stopped.
People feel a lack of motivation and lethargy that makes them think
they are depressed. Ingesting caffeine raises noradrenaline levels
again, turning on the "fight or flight" response and
increasing adrenaline, dopamine, and glucose levels.
Whalen's experience raises important questions: How common
is caffeine allergy? Is caffeine allergy a factor in the high numbers
of ADHD and other psychiatric disorders?
Whalen, Ruth, MLT. Caffeine Allergy: A Hidden Allergy and Toxic Dementia.
www.successfulschizophrenia.com/stories/whalen01.html
Whalen, Ruth, MLT, BA. Caffeine Anaphylaxis: A Progressive Toxic
Dementia. The Journal of Orthomolecular
Medicine, First Quarter 2003.
Antidepressants for Children
FDA drug safety analyst Andrew Mosholder first noticed that some
of GlaxoSmithKline's studies concerning its antidepressant
Paxil showed an increase in the incidents of 'emotional lability' among
patients under 18 years in Fall 2002. "Emotional lability" includes
suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts. The FDA requested more
information about the studies from the company and assigned Dr.
Mosholder to analyze the data. In the summer of 2003, both the
FDA and the British government, who had been performing its own
investigation, recommended that Paxil not be given to patients
under 18 years because of the increased risk of suicide.
The FDA extended its investigation of pediatric antidepressant
use in July 2003, by asking the manufacturers of eight other antidepressants
for information about their pediatric studies. Although Prozac is
the only one that has been FDA-approved for pediatric use, doctors
have also prescribed Zoloft, Luvox, Celexa, Wellbutrin, Effrexor,
Serzone and Remeron to children. By December 2003, Dr. Mosholder
told his colleagues that children taking antidepressants were more
likely than those on a placebo to have suicidal tendencies: "3.2
vs. 1.7%, according to data from more than 4,000 trial subjects." About
the same time, British regulators publicly recommended that doctors
not prescribe any SSRI antidepressants, except Prozac, to depressed
youngsters. Dr. Mosholder's superiors, however, were not eager
to follow Britain's lead.
Critics doubted Dr. Mosholder's conclusion because of the inherent
difficulty of determining if suicide is a side effect of the medication
or a consequence of depression for which a patient is receiving treatment.
In addition, they claimed that the definition of suicide behavior
or a 'suicide event' was too subjective in many of the
studies. Because of the subjective nature of classifying an incident
as 'suicidal,' there's the risk that some have
been misclassified. Even though his bosses considered the data in
the pediatric studies to be unreliable, Dr. Mosholder "believed
the mistakes ought to affect both the drug group and the placebo
group equally, leaving the bottom line unchanged," according
to a Wall Street Journal article (25 May 2004).
Dr. Mosholder asked for permission to present his findings to the
February 2004 advisory committee meeting of outside experts who were
scheduled to consider the possible risk. Permission was denied. Instead,
those advisory committee members heard more about the unreliability
of the data than Dr. Mosholder's analysis. Robert Temple, associate
director for medical policy in the FDA's drug-evaluation center,
explained that they didn't want to discourage potentially beneficial
drugs "when we weren't sure that was the right thing
to do, and it may be the wrong thing to do." The advisory committee
decided to schedule another meeting in late summer 2004, to consider
the results of an analysis performed at Columbia. On March 22, 2004,
the FDA did ask that the labels of 10 antidepressants include a warning
to watch for "worsening depression or the emergence of suicidality."
While published studies indicate that the benefits from using Prozac,
Paxil (Seroxat in Britain), Zoloft, Celexa, and Effexor outweigh
the risks, unpublished data tells another story. Britain's
The Guardian relayed the results of a Lancet review that looked at
unpublished data. The April 23, 2004, review found that only Prozac
provided benefits that outweighed risks. Other antidepressants that
the reviewers examined either showed no benefit when compared to
a placebo and/or produced an increased risk of suicide or suicide
thoughts. An editorial in the same issue of the Lancet pointed to
an internal memo from GlaxoSmithKline that "demonstrated how
it 'sought to manipulate the results of published research.'"
New York State attorney general Eliot Spitzer has filed a civil lawsuit
against the British drug company GlaxoSmithKline. The lawsuit charges
the company with fraud because it allegedly concealed the results
of studies that directly contradicted its claims of efficacy and
safety while actively marketing Paxil to U.S. doctors. At least four
studies, performed between 1998 and 2002, found Paxil was either
no more effective than the placebo and/or it had a higher risk of
suicidal behavior than the placebo.
Mathews, Anna Wilde. Debate Over Antidepressants, FDA Weighted Risk
of False Alarm. The Wall Street Journal 25 May 2004
SSRI dangers for children 'suppressed.' The
Guardian.
23 April 2004
Teather, David & Boseley, Sarah. Glaxo faces drug fraud lawsuit.
The Guardian. 3 June 2004
Genetics & Psychiatric
Disorders
Why do some individuals react more to stress than others? The answer—at
least partly—may lie in the genes. Researchers are investigating
the interaction of genes and environmental stress. In 2000, researchers
began studying mice that were genetically-altered to lack the serotonin
transporter gene (5-HTT). 5-HTT helps 'recycle' serotonin
after its release into the synapses between neurons. These mice behaved
normally until they were exposed to a stressful environment; then
they displayed "unusually fearful" behavior and had increased
levels of stress-related hormones. When rhesus macaques with a short
version of the serotonin transporter gene are raised in a stressful
environment, they also have impaired serotonin function. When raised
in a normal environment, however, macaques with a short version of
the gene have normal serotonin function.
Genes apparently have a role in human stress response as well. Avshalom
Caspi, Terrie Moffitt, and colleagues looked at the 5-HTT genes in
847 New Zealanders (Science, V01.301, No. 5631, July 18, 2003). They
found that only 17% carried two copies of the 'stress sensitive' short
version of the 5-HTT gene while 31% had two copies of the 'stress
protective' long version. Most of the people (51%) had one
of each. The researchers narrowed their study group to people who
had suffered multiple stressful life events between the ages of 21
and 26. Forty-three percent of this group had two copies of the stress-sensitive,
short version of the gene, and only 17% had two copies of the long
version. Those with two 'short' 5-HTT genes in this multiple-stressor
group were also more likely to have contemplated or attempted suicide:
11% compared to 4% of those with the long version.
Mice, monkeys offer clues to role of genes in violence and psychiatric
disorders. CRIMETimes, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2003.
Long-Lasting Effects of Meditation
When Western scientists first began studying the effects of meditation
in the 1970s, they noticed that heart rate, perspiration, and other
signs of stress decreased as the meditator relaxed. Scientists,
like Richard Davidson, PhD (University of Wisconsin), have also
been considering the long-term effects of meditation. In 1992,
Davidson received an invitation from the 14th Dalai Lama to come
to northern India and study the brains of Buddhist monks, the foremost
meditators in the world. Davidson traveled to India with laptop
computers, generators, and EEG recording equipment, thus initiating
an ongoing study. Now, Buddhist monks travel to his Wisconsin lab
where they meditate while in a magnetic imaging machine or they
watch disturbing visual images as EEGs record their responses to
see how they regulate emotional reactions.
Any activity—including meditation—will create new pathways
and strengthen certain areas of the brain. "This fits into
the whole neuroscience literature of expertise," says Stephen
Kosslyn, a Harvard neuroscientist, in a New
York Times article (14
September 2003), "where taxi drivers are studied for their
spatial memory and concert musicians are studied for their sense
of pitch. If you do something, anything, even play Ping-Pong, for
20 years, eight hours a day, there's going to be something
in your brain that's different from someone who didn't
do that. It's just got to be." Buddhist monks practice
three forms of meditation: 1) focused attention on a single object
for long time periods 2) cultivating compassion by thinking about
anger-causing situations and transforming the negative emotion into
compassion and 3) 'open presence,' "a state of
being acutely aware of whatever thought, emotion or sensation is
present without reacting to it."
Knowing the effects that meditation has on the monks' brains,
Davidson decided to see what effect meditation has on neophytes.
He set up a study with 41 employees at a nearby biotech company in
Wisconsin (Psychosomatic Medicine 65: 564–570, 2003). Twenty-five
of the participants learned 'mindfulness meditation,' a
stress-reducing form that promotes nonjudgmental awareness of the
present and is taught by Jon Kabat-Zinn. They learned the practice
during a 7-hour retreat and weekly classes. During that 8-week period,
these participants were asked to meditate for one hour each day,
six days a week. Brain measurements were taken before instruction,
at the end of the eight weeks, and four months later. Measurements
showed that meditation increased activity in the left frontal region
of the brain, "an area linked to reduced anxiety and a positive
emotional state." Also, at the end of the 8 weeks, the participants
and 16 controls who did not meditate received flu shots to test immune
responses. When researchers took blood samples from them one month
and two months after the injections, they found that the meditators
had more antibodies against the flu virus than the non-meditators.
Davidson and colleagues said that people with the strongest immune
response also had more left-sided brain activity.
Hall, Stephen S. Is Buddhism Good for Your Health? New
York Times.
September 14 2003
Meditation Helps with Anxiety and General Health. 7 February 2003.
www.healthyplace.com/Communities/Anxiety/treatment/meditation.asp
OCD & PANDAS
In an article published in Latitudes (Vol 6, Issue 2), Aristo Vojdani,
PhD, MT, discusses the difference between non-autoimmune obsessive
compulsive disorder (OCD) and PANDAS (pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric
disorder associated with Group A streptococcal infection). Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder involves an unintentional and uncontrollable
replay of thoughts or actions. In an attempt to reduce the anxiety
that arises when the obsession cannot be stopped, people with OCD
develop a set of actions or rituals that involve washing and cleaning,
checking (i.e., that the stove is off), symmetry, counting, repeating,
redoing, and hoarding in order to hold their fear at bay. In many
cases, OCD is preceded by a major stressor, such as a family member's
illness or job loss. Children with OCD tendencies have linked hearing
bad news about war or terrorism or seeing frightening movies to
their developing "full-blown" OCD. The rituals that
OCD patients use to calm their fears do not always have a noticeable
link to the obsessive thought(s) plaguing them, and scientists
do not understand why some have a compulsion to clean and others
turn to hoarding—or why these symptoms may change. Scientists
have discovered that adults with OCD have more activity in the
caudate nucleus, orbital frontal regions of the brain, and basal
ganglia. Basal ganglia, "the thought-filtering station," has
many serotonin receptors. OCD patients respond to selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitors and to behavior therapy, according to research
by Dr. J. Schwartz and colleagues at UCLA.
About 25% to 30% of children with OCD may actually have PANDAS,
a disorder in which the body's immune cells attack its own B-cells
or the basal ganglia while fighting streptococcus. Chiildren who
develop OCD, tic disorders, or anorexia nervosa after a streptococcal
infection need to be checked for serum antibodies against streptococcal
antigens and their cross-reactive epitopes on B-cells and nerve cells.
(Immunosciences Lab, phone 310–657–1077 or 800–950–4686,
offers a PANDAS panel.) In contrast to non-autoimmune OCD which may
take years to develop, PANDAS symptoms appear quickly. Also, OCD
symptoms increase and decrease sharply in PANDAS while changes in
OCD symptoms among non-autoimmune OCD patients are more gradual.
In addition to OCD, children with PANDAS may display numerous other
symptoms that include tics, trembling, twitches, grimacing, clumsiness,
loss of math skills, sensitivity to touch and clothing tags, poor
attention span, distractibility, irritability, impulsivity, separation
anxiety, and bedtime fears. Dr. Vojdani says that PANDAS treatments
being investigated include plasmapheresis to remove autoantibodies
reacting to B-cell receptors and basal ganglia cells, intravenous
immunoglobulin, and daily doses of amoxicillin as a prophylactic
measure.
Vojdani, Aristo, PhD, MT. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Differentiation
between Non-Autoimmune OCD and the Autoimmune version of the disease
called PANDAS. Latitudes, Vol. 6, Issue 2, 2003.
Photic Stimulation
Photic stimulation—whether from a strobe lamp or a device like
the Biolight or Little Calm Machine—affects brain wave frequency
and can be used to reduce anxiety and pain. Electromagnetic brain
waves are influenced through entrainment; they follow compatible
frequencies in the environment much like a tuning fork will vibrate,
without being struck, if a compatible pitch sounds. When people watch
a light that pulses at 10 cycles (Hz) per second, their brain waves
take on the calm, but alert, alpha frequencies (8 to 12 Hz). If the
pulse declines to 5 or 6 cycles per second, theta brain waves arise
bringing a deeply relaxed, dream-like state.
An Australian website (www.lifetools.com.au) lists several studies
involving photic stimulation devices and their ability to calm anxiety,
reduce pain, and relieve headaches. Dr. Norman Shealy and Dr. Richard
Cox used photic stimulation devices on more than 5,000 patients suffering
from chronic pain and stress symptoms during the 1980s. Their studies
found that 88 out of 92 patients responded to 30-minute sessions
at 10 Hz with significant relaxation. Thirty patients responded to
5 Hz after 5 minutes, reporting relaxation and pain relief. Relaxation
increased when photic stimulation was used in combination with relaxation
audio tapes. Dr. Thomas Budzynski programmed a device between 3 and
7 Hz and found that it induced a hypnotic state within 10 to 15 minutes.
Patients report feeling relaxed and having a sense of well-being
at the end of the session—an effect that lasts for 3–4
days for the majority. Dr. Norman Thomas and David Siever found that
stress and nervousness indicators (index skin temperature and muscular
tension measured with an EMG) showed greater levels of relaxation
in people using a photic stimulation device at 10 Hz for 15 minutes
than those using autosuggestion relaxation exercises.
What I find so interesting about this research is that we are so
responsive to environmental frequencies—light and sound. If
we can use pulsing light and Baroque music to calm brain waves intentionally,
what frequencies in our home and work environments are affecting
us unintentionally, perhaps even promoting stress and anxiety?
Budzynski, Thomas, PhD, et al. Academic Performance Enhancement with
Photic Stimulation and EDR Feedback. Journal
of Neurotherapy (3–3)2.
www.snr-jnt.org/JournalNT
Photic Stimulation Research. www.lifetools.com.au/littlecalmmachine/Research.html
Tracking Moral Choices
Philosopher Joshua Greene is working with neuroscientist Jonathan
Cohen and other scientists at Princeton's brain-imaging center
to understand how the brain responds to moral dilemmas. Greene
created three categories of questions for volunteers to consider
while a magnetic resonance imaging scanner generates images of
their brain's activity: non-moral questions (e.g., whether
to ride a bus or train to work), impersonal moral choices that
don't involve physical contact with another person, and personal
moral choices. In his article "Whose Life Would You Save?" (Discover,
April 2004), Carl Zimmer gives an example of an impersonal moral
choice that Greene's volunteers face: "Imagine you're
at the wheel of a trolley and the brakes have failed. You're
approaching a fork in the track at top speed. On the left side,
five rail workers are fixing the track. On the right side, there
is a single worker. If you do nothing, the trolley will bear left
and kill the five workers. The only way to save five lives is to
take the responsibility for changing the trolley's path by
hitting a switch. Then you will kill one worker. What would you
do?" In contrast, a personal moral dilemma involves physically
contacting another human being. Again, Zimmer uses the runaway
trolley scenario; but this time, instead of being at the wheel,
you are on a footbridge, watching the trolley fly down a single
track toward 5 workers. The only way to stop the trolley is to
push the large man standing next to you in front of the trolley
and blocking its motion. In both situations, one life may be sacrificed
to save five; but in the impersonal dilemma, you hit a switch and
condemn a man to his death. In the personal moral choice, you push
a man to his death.
As Greene accumulated data, he found that impersonal moral decisions
and personal moral decisions tend to stimulate different areas of
the brain. Impersonal moral decisions, like non-moral choices, activate
the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (on the surface of the brain near
the temples), an area that takes part in comparing several pieces
of information and logical thinking. Personal moral questions activate
brain areas that have to do with empathy for others, interpreting
body language, and strong emotions—i.e., the area behind the
center of the forehead, the superior temporal sulcus, the posterior
cingulate, and the precuneus. Greene believes that these areas form
a neural network that holds the emotional instincts that underlie
many of our moral judgments. In most people either the logical-reasoning
network or the emotional-intuitive areas predominate. When both areas
respond equally, however, people have difficulty making a decision.
Greene has noticed that his volunteers take about the same amount
of time to respond to a non-moral question and an impersonal moral
question. However, it takes them almost twice as long to say 'yes' to
a personal moral question (in which they are agreeing to personally
harm or kill another) as to say 'no.' Arriving at a 'yes' in
these cases means that logic and emotion battle it out. Brain scans
show that the logical network and the emotional network are both
active, as is the anterior cingulate cortex, an area of the brain
that mediates between conflicting input.
Greene is also finding evidence that cultural values, personal experience,
and genetics actually create different patterns in our "moral
circuitry." For example, moral questions involving purity activate
the emotional network in people from India whereas Americans tend
to react to questions involving individual autonomy. Researchers
believe that the emotional responses that underlie and guide our
moral decisions are learned at a young age. Greene hopes that this
research on moral judgments and brain responses will bring understanding
and more objectivity to people's discussions of moral issues.
Zimmer, Carl. Whose Life Would You Save? Discover April 2004
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