CAS behavior

This page describes the organizational forces that limit change. It explains how to overcome them when necessary.

This page uses an example to illustrate how:

A business can gain focus from targeting key customers,
Business planning activities performed by the whole organization can build awareness, empowerment and coherence.
A program approach can ensure strategic alignment.

This page uses the example of HP's printer organization freeing itself from its organizational constraints to sell a printer targeted at the IBM pc user.
The constraints are described.
The techniques to overcome them are implied.

This web frame introduces example real world complex adaptive systems (CAS): Assumptions of randomness & equilibrium allowed the wealthy & powerful to expand the size and leverage of stock markets, by placing at risk the insurance and retirement savings of the working class. The assumptions are wrong but remain entrenched. The US nation was built from two divergent political views of: Jefferson and Hamilton. It also reflects the development of competing ancient ideas of Epicurus and Cyril. But the collapse of Bretton Woods forced Wall Street into a position of power, while the middle and working class were abandoned by the elites. Housing financed with cash from oil and derivative transactions helped hide the shift. Most US health care is still operating the way cars built in the 1940s did. Geisinger is an example of better solution. But transforming the whole network is a challenge. And public health investment has proved far more beneficial. Helping our children learn to be effective adults is part of our humanity, but we have created a robust but deeply flawed education system. Better alternatives have emerged. Reading and writing emerged allowing our good ideas to become a second genetic material. The emergence of the global economy in the 1600s and its subsequent development; It explains how the examples relate to each other, why we all have trouble effectively comprehending these systems and explains how our inexperience with CAS can lead to catastrophe. It outlines the items we see as key to the system and why. Example systems frame
Dietrich Dorner argues complex adaptive systems (CAS) are hard to understand and manage. He provides examples of how this feature of these systems can have disastrous consequences for their human managers. Dorner suggests this is due to CAS properties psychological impact on our otherwise successful mental strategic toolkit. To prepare to more effectively manage CAS, Dorner recommends use of: Effective iterative planning and Practice with complex scenario simulations; tools which he reviews. Complexity catastrophes
E. O. Wilson reviews the effect of man on the natural world to date and explains how the two systems can coexist most effectively. Adaptive ecology
Barton Gellman details the strategies used by Vice President Cheney to align the global system with his economics, defense, and energy goals. US vds alignment
Kevin Kruse argues that from 1930 onwards the corporate elite and the Republican party have developed and relentlessly executed strategies to undermine Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. Their successful strategy used the credibility of conservative religious leaders to: Demonstrate religious issues with the New Deal. Integrate the corporate elite and evangelicals. Use the power of corporate advertising and Hollywood to reeducate the American people to view the US as historically religious and the New Deal and liberalism as anti-religious socialism. Focus the message through evangelicals including Vereide and Graham. Centralize the strategy through President Eisenhower. Add religious elements to mainstream American symbols: money, pledge; Push for prayer in public school Push Congress to promote prayer Make elections more about religious positions. Following our summary of his arguments RSS frames them from the perspective of complex adaptive system (CAS) theory. Strategy is the art of the possible. But it also depends on persistence. Inventing Christian America
Charles Ferguson argues that the US power structure has become highly corrupt. Ferguson identifies key events which contributed to the transformation: Junk bonds, Derivative deregulation, CMOs, ABS and analyst fraud, Financial network deregulation, Financial network consolidation, Short term incentives Subsequently the George W. Bush administration used the situation to build a global bubble, which Wall Street leveraged. The bursting of the bubble: managed by the Bush Administration and Bernanke Federal Reserve; was advantageous to some. Ferguson concludes that the restructured and deregulated financial services industry is damaging to the American economy. And it is supported by powerful, incentive aligned academics. He sees the result being a rigged system. Ferguson offers his proposals for change and offers hope that a charismatic young FDR will appear. Following our summary of his arguments, RSS comments on them framed by complex adaptive system (CAS) theory. Once the constraints are removed from CAS amplifiers, it becomes advantageous to leverage the increased flows. And it is often relatively damaging not to participate. Corruption and parasitism can become entrenched. Financial WMD
Matt Taibbi describes the phenotypic alignment of the American justice system. The result he explains relentlessly grinds the poor and undocumented into resources to be constrained, consumed and ejected. Even as it supports and aligns the financial infrastructure into a potent weapon capable of targeting any company or nation to extract profits and leave the victim deflated. Taibbi uses five scenarios to provide a broad picture of the: activities, crimes, policing, prosecutions, court processes, prisons and deportation network. The scenarios are: Undocumented people's neighborhoods, Poor neighborhoods, Welfare recipients, Credit card debtors and Financial institutions. Following our summary of his arguments, RSS comments on them framed by complex adaptive system (CAS) theory. The alignment of the justice system reflects a set of long term strategies and responses to a powerful global arms race that the US leadership intends to win. Aligned justice
Jonathan Powell describes how the government of, the former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, actually operated. Powell was Blair's only chief of staff. Mechanics of power
H. A. Hayek compares and contrasts collectivism and libertarianism. Libertarianism
John Doerr argues that company leaders and their organizations, hugely benefit from Andy Grove's OKRs. He promotes strategies that help OKR success: Focus, Align, Track, Stretch; replaces yearly performance reviews, and provides illustrative success stories. Doerr stresses Dov Seidman's view that employees are adaptive and will respond to what they see being measured. He asserts culturally supported OKRs/CFR processes will be transformative. Following our summary of his arguments, RSS comments on them framed by complex adaptive system (CAS) theory. Doerr's architecture is tailored for the startups KPCB invests in. It is a subset of the general case of schematic plans, genetic operators and Shewhart cycles that drive all CAS. Doerr's approach limits support of learning and deemphasizes the association to planning. Startup PDCA
David Bodanis illustrates how disruptive effects can take hold. While the French revolution had many driving forces including famine and oppression the emergence of a new philosophical vision ensured that thoughtful leaders were constrained and conflicted in their responses to the crisis. Voltaire's disruptive network
An epistatic meme suppressed for a thousand years reemerges during the enlightenment. It was a poem encapsulating the ideas of Epicurus rediscovered by a humanist book hunter. Greenblatt describes the process of suppression and reemergence. He argues that the rediscovery was the foundation of the modern world. Complex adaptive system (CAS) models of the memetic mechanisms are discussed. Constraining happiness
Isaacson uses the historic development of the global cloud of web services to explore Ada Lovelace's ideas about thinking machines and poetic science. He highlights the value of computer augmented human creativity and the need for liberal arts to fulfill the process. Complex adaptive system (CAS) models of agent networks and collaboration are discussed. Arts technology & intelligence
Haikonen juxtaposes the philosophy and psychology of consciousness with engineering practice to refine the debate on the hard problem of consciousness. During the journey he describes the architecture of a robot that highlights the potential and challenges of associative neural networks. Complex adaptive system (CAS) theory is then used to illustrate the additional requirements and constraints of self-assembling evolved conscious animals. It will be seen that Haikonen's neural architecture, Smiley's Copycat architecture and molecular biology's intracellular architecture leverage the same associative properties. Associatively integrated robots
Good ideas are successful because they build upon prior developments that have been successfully implemented. Johnson demonstrates that they are phenotypic expressions of memetic plans subject to the laws of complex adaptive systems (CAS). Developing ideas
A government sanctioned monopoly supported the construction of a superorganism American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T). Within this Bell Labs was at the center of three networks: The evolving global scientific network. The Bell telephone network. And The military industrial network deploying 'fire and missile control' systems. Bell Labs strategically leveraged each network to create an innovation engine. They monitored the opportunities to leverage the developing ideas, reorganizing to replace incumbent opposition and enable the creation and growth of new ideas. Once the monopoly was dismantled, AT&T disrupted. Complex adaptive system (CAS) models of the innovation mechanisms are discussed. Strategic innovation
Roger Cohen's New York Times opinion about the implications of BREXIT is summarized. His ideas are then framed by complex adaptive system (CAS) theory and reviewed. BREXIT
Scott Galloway argues that Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google are monopolists that trade workers for technology. Monopolies that he argues should be broken up to ensure the return of a middle class. Following our summary of his arguments, RSS comments on these arguments assuming they relate to a complex adaptive system (CAS). While Scott's issue is highly significant his analysis conflicts with relevant CAS history and theory. Monopoly job killers
The IPO of Netscape is defined as the key emergent event of the New Economy by Michael Mandel. Following the summary of Mandel's key points the complex adaptive system (CAS) aspects are highlighted. New economy
Ed Conway argues that Bretton Woods produced a unique set of rules and infrastructure for supporting the global economy. It was enabled by the experience of Keynes and White during and after the First World War, their dislike of the Gold Standard, the necessity of improving the situation between the wars and the opportunity created by the catastrophe of the Second World War. He describes how it was planned and developed. How it emerged from the summit. And he shows how the opportunity inevitably allowed the US to replace the UK at the center of the global economy. Like all plans there are mistakes and Conway takes us through them and how the US recovered the situation as best it could. And then Conway describes the period after Bretton Woods collapsed. He explains what followed and also compares the relative performance of the various periods before during and after Bretton Woods. Following our summary of his arguments RSS comments from the perspective of Complex Adaptive System (CAS) theory. Conway's book illustrates the rule making and infrastructure that together build an evolved amplifier. He shows the strategies at play of agents that were for and against the development and deployment of the system. And The Summit provides a key piece of the history of our global economic CAS. Bretton woods
A key agent in the 1990 - 2008 housing expansion Countrywide is linked into the residential mortgage value delivery system (VDS) by Paul Muolo and Mathew Padilla. But they show the VDS was full of amplifiers and control points. With no one incented to apply the brakes the bubble grew and burst. Following the summary of Muolo and Padilla's key points the complex adaptive system (CAS) aspects are highlighted. Housing amplifiers
Satyajit Das uses an Indonesian company's derivative trades to introduce us to the workings of the international derivatives system. Das describes the components of the value delivery system and the key transactions. He demonstrates how the system interacted with emerging economies expanding them, extracting profits and then moving on as the induced bubbles burst. Following Das's key points the complex adaptive system (CAS) aspects are highlighted. Derivative systems
Johnson & Kwak argue that expanding the national debt provides a hedge against unforeseen future problems, as long as creditors are willing to continue lending. They illustrate different approaches to managing the debt within the US over its history and of the eighteenth century administrations of England and France. The US embodies two different political and economic systems which approach the national debt differently: Taxes to support a sinking fund to ensure credit to leverage fiscal power in: Wars, Pandemics, Trade disputes, Hurricanes, Social programs; Starting with Hamilton, Lincoln & Chase, Wilson, FDR; Low taxes, limited infrastructure, with risk assumed by individuals: Advocated by President's Jefferson & Madison, Reagan, George W. Bush (Gingrich); Johnson & Kwak develop a model of what the US government does. They argue that the conflicting sinking fund and low tax approaches leaves the nation 'stuck in the middle' with a future problem. And they offer their list of 'first principles' to help assess the best approach for moving from 2012 into the future. They conclude the question is still political. They hope it can be resolved with an awareness of their detailed explanations. They ask who is willing to push all the coming risk onto individuals. Following our summary of their arguments RSS frames them from the perspective of complex adaptive system (CAS) theory. Historically developing within the global cotton value delivery system, key CAS features are highlighted. National debt
Robert Gordon argues that the inventions of the second industrial revolution were the foundation for American economic growth. Gordon shows how flows of people into difficult rural America built a population base which then took the opportunity to move on to urban settings: Houses, Food in supermarkets, Clothes in department stores; that supported increasing productivity and standard of living. The deployment of nationwide networks: Rail, Road, Utilities; terminating in the urban housing and work places allowing the workers to leverage time saving goods and services, which helped grow the economy. Gordon describes the concomitant transformation of: Communications and advertising Credit and finance Public health and the health care network Health insurance Education Social and welfare services Counter intuitively the constraints introduced before and in the Great Depression and the demands of World War 2 provide the amplifiers that drive the inventions deeply and fully into every aspect of the economy between 1940 and 1970 creating the exceptional growth and standard of living of post war America. Subsequently the rate of growth was limited until the shift of women into the workplace and the full networking of voice and data supported the Internet and World Wide Web completed the third industrial revolution, but the effects were muted by the narrow reach of the technologies. The development of Big Data, Robots, and Artificial Intelligence may support additional growth, but Gordon is unconvinced because of the collapse of the middle class. Following our summary of Gordon's book RSS frames his arguments from the perspective of complex adaptive system (CAS) theory. American growth
Carl Menger argues that the market induced the emergence of money based on the attractive features of precious metals. He compares the potential for government edicts to create money but sees them as lacking. Following our summary of his arguments RSS frames his arguments from the perspective of complex adaptive system (CAS) theory. With two hundred years of additional knowledge we conclude that precious metals are not as attractive as Menger asserts. Government backed promissory notes are analogous to: Other evolved CAS forms of ubiquitous high energy transaction intermediates and Schematic strategies that are proving optimal in supporting survival and replication in the currently accessible niches. Emergence of money
Eric Beinhocker sets out to answer a question Adam Smith developed in the Wealth of Nations: what is wealth? To do this he replaces traditional economic theory, which is based on the assumption that an economy is a system in equilibrium, with complexity economics in which the economy is modeled as a complex adaptive system (CAS). He introduces Sugerscape to illustrate an economic CAS model in action. And then he explains the major features of a CAS economy: Dynamics, Agents, Networks, Emergence, and Evolution. Building on complexity economics Beinhocker reviews how evolution applies to the economy to build wealth. He explains how design spaces map strategies to instances of physical and social technologies. And he identifies the interactors and selection mechanism of economic evolution. This allows Beinhocker to develop a new definition of wealth. In the rest of the book Beinhocker looks at the consequences of adopting complexity economics for business and society: Strategy, Organization, Finance, & Politics & Policy. Following our summary of his arguments, RSS explores his conclusions and aligns Beinhocker's model of CAS with the CAS theory and evidence we leverage. Economic complexity
Sven Beckert describes the historic transformation of the growing, spinning, weaving, manufacture of cotton goods and their trade over time. He describes the rise of a first global commodity, its dependence on increasing: military power, returns for the control points in the value delivery system(VDS), availability of land and labor to work it including slaves. He explains how cotton offered the opportunity for industrialization further amplifying the productive capacity of the VDS and the power of the control points. This VDS was quickly copied. The increased capacity of the industrialized cotton complex adaptive system (CAS) required more labor to operate the machines. Beckert describes the innovative introduction of wages and the ways found to mobilize industrial labor. Beckert describes the characteristics of the industrial cotton CAS which made it flexible enough to become globally interconnected. Slavery made the production system so cost effective that all prior structures collapsed as they interconnected. So when the US civil war blocked access to the major production nodes in the American Deep South the CAS began adapting. Beckert describes the global reconstruction that occurred and the resulting destruction of the traditional ways of life in the global countryside. This colonial expansion further enriched and empowered the 'western' nation states. Beckert explains how other countries responded by copying the colonial strategies and creating the opportunities for future armed conflict among the original colonialists and the new upstarts. Completing the adaptive shifts Beckert describes the advocates for industrialization in the colonized global south and how over time they joined the global cotton CAS disrupting the early western manufacturing nodes and creating the current global CAS dominated by merchants like Wal-Mart pulling goods through a network of clothing manufacturers, spinning and weaving factories, and growers competing with each other on cost. Following our summary of Beckert's book, RSS comments from the perspective of CAS theory. The transformation of disconnected peasant farmers, pastoral warriors and their lands into a supply chain for a highly profitable industrial CAS required the development over time: of military force, global transportation and communication networks, perception and representation control networks, capital stores and flows, models, rules, standards and markets; along with the support at key points of: barriers, disruption, and infrastructure and evolved amplifiers. The emergent system demonstrates the powerful constraining influence of extended phenotypic alignment. Globalization from cotton
The complexity and problems of the US Health network is described in terms of complex adaptive system (CAS) theory. The network: Is deeply embedded in the US nation state. It reflects the conflict between two opposing visions for the US: high tax with safety net or low tax without. The emergence of a parasitic elite supported by tax policy, further constrains the choices available to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the network. The US is optimized to sell its citizens dangerous levels of: salt, sugar, cigarettes, guns, light, cell phones, opioids, costly education, global travel, antibacterials, formula, foods including endocrine disrupters; Accepting the US controlled global supply chain's offered goods & services results in: debt, chronic stress, amplified consumption and toxic excess, leading to obesity, addiction, driving instead of walking, microbiome collapse; Is incented to focus on localized competition generating massive & costly duplication of services within physician based health care operations instead of proven public health strategies. This process drives increasing research & treatment complexity and promotes hope for each new technological breakthrough. Is amplified by the legislatively structured separation and indirection of service development, provision, reimbursement and payment. Is impacted by the different political strategies for managing the increasing cost of health care for the demographic bulge of retirees. Is presented with acute and chronic problems to respond to. As currently setup the network is tuned to handle acute problems. The interactions with patients tend to be transactional. Includes a legislated health insurance infrastructure which is: Costly and inefficient Structured around yearly contracts which undermine long-term health goals and strategies. Is supported by increasingly regulated HCIT which offers to improve data sharing and quality but has entrenched commercial EHR products deep within the hospital systems. Health care
Deaton describes the wellbeing of people around the world today. He explains the powerful benefit of public health strategies and the effect of growth in material wellbeing but also the corrosive effects of aid. Following our summary of Deaton's arguments RSS comments from the perspective of complex adaptive system (CAS) theory. The situation he describes is complex including powerful amplifiers, alignment and incentives that overlap broadly with other RSS summaries of adaptations of: The biosphere, Politics, Economics, Philosophy and Health care. Improving wellbeing
Donald Barlett and James Steele write about their investigations of the major problems afflicting US health care as of 2006. Problems of US health care
Glenn Steele & David Feinberg review the development of the modern Geisinger healthcare business after its near collapse following the abandoned merger with Penn State AMC. After an overview of the business, they describe how a calamity unfolding around them supported building a vision of a better US health care network. And they explain: How they planned out the transformation, Leveraging an effective governance structure, Using a strategy to gain buy in, Enabling reengineering at the clinician patient interface. Implementing the reengineering for acute, chronic & hot spot care; to help the patients and help the physicians. Geisinger's leverage of biologics. Reengineering healing with ProvenExperience. Where Geisinger is headed next. Following our summary of their arguments RSS comments on them. We frame their ideas with complex adaptive system (CAS) theory. E2E insured quality care
Robert Pearl explains the perspectives of a health care leader and son who know that the current health care network interacts with human behavior to induce a poorly performing system that caused his father's death. But he is confident that these problem perceptions can be changed. Once that occurs he asserts the network will become more integrated, coordinated, collaborative, better led, and empathetic to their patients. The supporting technology infrastructure will be made highly interoperable. All that will reduce medical errors and make care more cost effective. Following our summary of his arguments RSS comments on them. We frame his ideas with complex adaptive system (CAS) theory including synergistic examples of these systems in operation. The health care network is built out of emergent human agents. All agents must model the signals they perceive to represent and respond to them. Pinker explains how this occurs. Sapolsky explains why fear and hierarchy are so significant. He includes details of Josh Green's research on morality and death. Charles Ferguson highlights the pernicious nature of financial incentives. Bad medical models
US healthcare is ripe for disruption. Christensen, Grossman and Hwang argue that technologies are emerging which will support low cost business models that will undermine the current network. Applying complex adaptive system (CAS) theory to these arguments suggests that the current power hierarchy can effectively resist these progressive forces. Disrupting health care
Atul Gawande writes about the opportunity for a thirty per cent improvement in quality in medicine by organizing to deploy as agent based teams using shared schematic plans and distributed signalling or as he puts it the use of checklists. With vivid examples from a variety of situations including construction, air crew support and global health care Gawande illustrates the effects of complexity and how to organize to cope with it. Following the short review RSS additionally relates Gawande's arguments to its models of complex adaptive systems (CAS) positioning his discussion within the network of US health care, contrasting our view of complexity, comparing the forces shaping his various examples and reviewing facets of complex failures. Complexity checklists
Friedman and Martin leverage the lifelong data collected on 1,528 bright individuals selected by Dr. Lewis Terman starting in 1921, to understand what aspects of the subjects' lives significantly affected their longevity. Looking broadly across each subject's: Personality, Education, Parental impacts, Energy levels, Partnering, Careers, Religion, Social networks, Gender, Impact from war and trauma; Friedman and Martin are able to develop a set of model pathways, which each individual could be seen to select and travel along. Some paths led to the traveler having a long life. Others were problematic. The models imply that the US approach to health and wellness should focus more on supporting the development and selection of beneficial pathways. Following our summary of their arguments RSS comments from the perspective of CAS theory. The pathways are most applicable to bright individuals with the resources and support necessary to make and leverage choices they make. Striving to enter and follow a beneficial pathway seems sensible but may be impossible for individuals trapped in a collapsing network, starved of resources. Promoting longevity
Gawande uses his personal experience, analytic skills and lots of stories of innovators to demonstrate better ways of coping with aging and death. He introduces the lack of focus on aging and death in traditional medicine. And goes on to show how technology has amplified this stress point. He illustrates the traditional possibility of the independent self, living fully while aging with the support of the extended family. Central planning responded to the technological and societal changes with poorly designed infrastructure and funding. But Gawande then contrasts the power of bottom up innovations created by experts responding to their own family situations and belief systems. Gawande then explores in depth the challenges that unfold currently as we age and become infirm. He notes that the world is following the US path. As such it will have to understand the dilemma of integrating medical treatment and hospice strategies. He notes that all parties involved need courage to cope. He proposes medicine must aim to assure well being. At that point all doctors will practice palliative care. Complex adaptive system (CAS) models of agency, death, evolution, cooperation and adaptations to new technologies are discussed. Agent death
Sonia Shah reviews the millennia old (500,000 years) malarial arms race between Humanity, Anopheles mosquitoes and Plasmodium. 250 - 500 million people are infected each year with malaria and one million die. Malaria
Peter Medawar writes about key historic events in the evolution of medical science. Medical science events
Using John Holland's theory of adaptation in complex systems Baldwin and Clark propose an evolutionary theory of design. They show how this can limit the interdependencies that generate complexity within systems. They do this through a focus on modularity. Modular designed systems
Lou Gerstner describes the challenges he faced and the strategies he used to successfully restructure the computer company IBM. Compartmented systems
Grady Booch advocates an object oriented approach to computer software design. Object based systems
Bertrand Meyer develops arguments, principles and strategies for creating modular software. He concludes that abstract data types and inheritence make object orientation a superior methodology for software construction. Complex adaptive system (CAS) theory suggests agents provide an alternative strategy to the use of objects. Software construction
Tools and the businesses that produce them have evolved dramatically. W Brian Arthur shows how this occurred. Tools
Matt Ridley demonstrates the creative effect of man on the World. He highlights: A list of preconditions resulting in Additional niche capture & more free time Building a network to interconnect memes processes & tools which Enabling inter-generational transfers Innovations that help reduce environmental stress even as they leverage fossil fuels Memetic trading networks
Brynjolfsson and McAfee explore the effects of Moore's law on the economy. They argue it has generated exponential growth. This has been due to innovation. It has created a huge bounty of additional wealth. But the wealth is spread unevenly across society. They look at the short and long term implications of the innovation bounty and spread and the possible future of technology. Following our summary of their arguments RSS comments from the perspective of CAS theory. Brilliant technologies
Salman Khan argues that the evolved global education system is inefficient and organized around constraining and corralling students into accepting dubious ratings that lead to mundane roles. He highlights a radical and already proven alternative which offers effective self-paced deep learning processes supported by technology and freed up attention of teams of teachers. Building on his personal experience of helping overcome the unjustified failing grade of a relative Khan: Iteratively learns how to teach: Starting with Nadia, Leveraging short videos focused on content, Converging on mastery, With the help of neuroscience, and filling in dependent gaps; resulting in a different approach to the mainstream method. Assesses the broken US education system: Set in its ways, Designed for the 1800s, Inducing holes that are hidden by tests, Tests which ignore creativity. The resulting teaching process is so inefficient it needs to be supplemented with homework. Instead teachers were encouraging their pupils to use his tools at home so they could mentor them while they attended school, an inversion that significantly improves the economics. Enters the real world: Builds a scalable service, Working with a real classroom, Trying stealth learning, At Khan Academy full time, In the curriculum at Los Altos, Supporting life-long learning. Develops The One World Schoolhouse: Back to the future with a one room school, a robust teaching team, and creativity enabled; so with some catalysis even the poorest can become educated and earn credentials for current jobs. Wishes he could also correct: Summer holidays, Transcript based assessments, College education; Concludes it is now possible to provide the infrastructure for creativity to emerge and to support risk taking. Following our summary of his arguments RSS frames them from the perspective of complex adaptive system (CAS) theory. Disruption is a powerful force for change but if its force is used to support the current teachers to adopt new processes can it overcome the extended phenotypic alignment and evolutionary amplifiers sustaining the current educational network? Education versus guilds
Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld's New York Times opinion based on The Triple Package is summarized. Their ideas are then framed by CAS theory and reviewed. What drives success
Peter Turchin describes how major pre-industrial empires developed due to effects of geographic boundaries constraining the empires and their neighbors' interactions. Turchin shows how the asymmetries of breeding rates and resource growth rates results in dynamic cycles within cycles. After the summary of Turchin's book complex adaptive system (CAS) theory is used to augment Turchins findings. Warrior groups
Through the operation of three different food chains Michael Pollan explores their relative merits. The application of complex adaptive system (CAS) theory highlights the value of evolutionary testing of the food chain. Natural systems
E. O. Wilson & Bert Holldobler illustrate how bundled cooperative strategies can take hold. Various social insects have developed strategies which have allowed them to capture the most valuable available niches. Like humans they invest in specialization and cooperate to subdue larger, well equipped competitors. Insect superorganisms
Computational theory of the mind and evolutionary psychology provide Steven Pinker with a framework on which to develop his psychological arguments about the mind and its relationship to the brain. Humans captured a cognitive niche by natural selection 'building out' specialized aspects of their bodies and brains resulting in a system of mental organs we call the mind. He garnishes and defends the framework with findings from psychology regarding: The visual system - an example of natural selections solutions to the sensory challenges of inverse modeling of our environment; Intensions - where he highlights the challenges of hunter gatherers - making sense of the objects they perceive and predicting what they imply and natural selections powerful solutions; Emotions - which Pinker argues are essential to human prioritizing and decision making; Relationships - natural selection's strategies for coping with the most dangerous competitors, other people. He helps us understand marriage, friendships and war. These conclusions allow him to understand the development and maintenance of higher callings: Art, Music, Literature, Humor, Religion, & Philosophy; and develop a position on the meaning of life. Complex adaptive system (CAS) modeling allows RSS to frame Pinker's arguments within humanity's current situation, induced by powerful evolved amplifiers: Globalization, Cliodynamics, The green revolution and resource bottlenecks; melding his powerful predictions of the drivers of human behavior with system wide constraints. The implications are discussed. Computationally adapted mind
CAS behavior
Carlo Rovelli resolves the paradox of time. Rovelli initially explains that low level physics does not include time: A present that is common throughout the universe does not exist Events are only partially ordered. The present is localized The difference between past and future is not foundational. It occurs because of state that through our blurring appears particular to us Time passes at different speeds dependent on where we are and how fast we travel Time's rhythms are due to the gravitational field Our quantized physics shows neither space nor time, just processes transforming physical variables. Fundamentally there is no time. The basic equations evolve together with events, not things Then he explains how in a physical world without time its perception can emerge: Our familiar time emerges Our interaction with the world is partial, blurred, quantum indeterminate The ignorance determines the existence of thermal time and entropy that quantifies our uncertainty Directionality of time is real but perspectival. The entropy of the world in relation to us increases with our thermal time. The growth of entropy distinguishes past from future: resulting in traces and memories Each human is a unified being because: we reflect the world, we formed an image of a unified entity by interacting with our kind, and because of the perspective of memory The variable time: is one of the variables of the gravitational field. With our scale we don't register quantum fluctuations, making space-time appear determined. At our speed we don't perceive differences in time of different clocks, so we experience a single time: universal, uniform, ordered; which is helpful to our decisions Emergence of time
Consciousness has confounded philosophers and scientists for centuries. Now it is finally being characterized scientifically. That required a transformation of approach. Realizing that consciousness was ill-defined neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene and others characterized and focused on conscious access. In the book he outlines the limitations of previous psychological dogma. Instead his use of subjective assessments opened the window to contrast totally unconscious brain activity with those including consciousness. He describes the research methods. He explains the contribution of new sensors and probes that allowed the psychological findings to be correlated, and causally related to specific neural activity. He describes the theory of the brain he uses, the 'global neuronal workspace' to position all the experimental details into a whole. He reviews how both theory and practice support diagnosis and treatment of real world mental illnesses. The implications of Dehaene's findings for subsequent consciousness research are outlined. Complex adaptive system (CAS) models of the brain's development and operation introduce constraints which are discussed. Conscious access
Reading and writing present a conundrum. The reader's brain contains neural networks tuned to reading. With imaging a written word can be followed as it progresses from the retina through a functional chain that asks: Are these letters? What do they look like? Are they a word? What does it sound like? How is it pronounced? What does it mean? Dehaene explains the importance of education in tuning the brain's networks for reading as well as good strategies for teaching reading and countering dyslexia. But he notes the reading networks developed far too recently to have directly evolved. And Dehaene asks why humans are unique in developing reading and culture. He explains the cultural engineering that shaped writing to human vision and the exaptations and neuronal structures that enable and constrain reading and culture. Dehaene's arguments show how cellular, whole animal and cultural complex adaptive system (CAS) are related. We review his explanations in CAS terms and use his insights to link cultural CAS that emerged based on reading and writing with other levels of CAS from which they emerge. Evolved reading
Read Montague explores how brains make decisions. In particular he explains how: Evolution can create indirect abstract models, such as the dopamine system, that allow Life changing real-time decisions to be made, and how Schematic structures provide encodings of computable control structures which operate through and on incomputable, schematically encoded, physically active structures and operationally associated production functions. Receptor indirection
Richard Dawkin's explores how nature has created implementations of designs, without any need for planning or design, through the accumulation of small advantageous changes. Accumulating small changes
Russ Abbott explores the impact on science of epiphenomena and the emergence of agents. Autonomous emergence
Terrence Deacon explores how constraints on dynamic flows can induce emergent phenomena which can do real work. He shows how these phenomena are sustained. The mechanism enables the development of Darwinian competition. Constraint based phenomena

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This page introduces the complex adaptive system (CAS) theory frame. The theory is positioned relative to the natural sciences. It catalogs the laws and strategies which underpin the operation of systems that are based on the interaction of emergent agents.
John Holland's framework for representing complexity is outlined. Links to other key aspects of CAS theory discussed at the site are presented.

Theory

This web frame introduces example real world complex adaptive systems (CAS):

Assumptions of randomness & equilibrium allowed the wealthy & powerful to expand the size and leverage of stock markets, by placing at risk the insurance and retirement savings of the working class. The assumptions are wrong but remain entrenched.
The US nation was built from two divergent political views of: Jefferson and Hamilton. It also reflects the development of competing ancient ideas of Epicurus and Cyril. But the collapse of Bretton Woods forced Wall Street into a position of power, while the middle and working class were abandoned by the elites. Housing financed with cash from oil and derivative transactions helped hide the shift.
Most US health care is still operating the way cars built in the 1940s did. Geisinger is an example of better solution. But transforming the whole network is a challenge. And public health investment has proved far more beneficial.
Helping our children learn to be effective adults is part of our humanity, but we have created a robust but deeply flawed education system. Better alternatives have emerged.
Reading and writing emerged allowing our good ideas to become a second genetic material.
The emergence of the global economy in the 1600s and its subsequent development;

It explains how the examples relate to each other, why we all have trouble effectively comprehending these systems and explains how our inexperience with CAS can lead to catastrophe. It outlines the items we see as key to the system and why.

Examples

This page presents a search result list covering each linked region of rob's strategy studio.

Search

Rob's Strategy Studio aims to celebrate and illuminate complex adaptive systems (CAS) just as an art studio does art.

By way of introduction it notes the complex interactions that led to the partnership that discovered the DNA double helix and genetic code.

The page introduces the RSS vision 'I act, therefore I think' approach and the RSS mission.

It describes how many key aspects of the world are CAS including businesses.

Finally the page explains each of the framed pictures displayed at the studio including the other aspects explored in this vision frame.

Vision

This page introduces the programs that the Adaptive Web Framework (AWF) develops and uses to deploy Rob's Strategy Studio (RSS).
The programs are structured to obey complex adaptive system (CAS) principles. That allows AWF to experiment and examine the effects.
A production program generates the web pages.
A testing system tests the production program. It uses a framework to support the test programs. This is AWF's agent programming framework as described in the agent-based programming presentation.
An example of the other AWF agent-based programs that are also described in the frame is the virtual robot.
Finally a strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats assessment is presented.

Perl

This page introduces a series of asymmetries which encourage different strategic approaches.
The differences found in business, sexual selection, gamete structure, as well as in chess encourage escalations in the interactions.
And yet the systems including these asymmetries can be quite stable.

Asymmetries

This web frame includes a set of presentations about complex adaptive systems (CAS)

Presentations

CAS behavior

Summary

The complexity of behavior is explored through Sapolsky developing scenarios of our best and worst behaviors across time spans, and scientific subjects including: anthropology, psychology, neuroscience, sociology. The rich network of adaptive flows he outlines provides insights and highlight challenges for scientific research on behavior.

Complex adaptive system (CAS) theory builds on Sapolsky's details highlighting the strategies that evolution has captured to successfully enter niches we now occupy.

Behave

In Robert Sapolsky's book 'Behave' he binds his research on baboons to the complex adaptive systems (

CAS) that influence their and our behavior.

The Behavior

Sapolsky explains the approach of the book. In the first part some good or bad behavior occurs driven by selection of a strategy. Typically the context and meaning of the behavior are more complex than the mechanics. The complexity can only be understood by incorporating all of the following aspects:

In the second part of the book Sapolsky looks at realms of behavior where the strategies already described are most important. This includes behaviors that are:

On a continuum with other species, but in unique contexts, our evolved architecture seeks to identify us from them! And to make us favor in-group people who are close in hierarchic rank to us.
Uniquely human - nature of moral decisions.
Associated with capabilities we share with animals such as feeling pain, which helps us develop empathy is the capability to relate to another person from their perspective. It is implemented by spindle neurons. It is context dependently mediated by estrogen. It develops over time: Piaget's preoperational stage includes rudimentary empathy, Theory of mind supports the development; initially feeling someone's pain as one integrated being, then for them and eventually as them. In adults, when someone else is hurt the anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala & insula activates projecting [scapegoating] to the vmPFC. If the pain is physical the PAG activates and motor neurons for the area where the other person was injured. The intertwining of the ACC amygdala & insula in adults results in attribution of fault even when there is none which can make it hard to step in and actually help. But in seven-year-olds the activation is concrete: PAG and sensory & motor cortexes with minimal coupling to the rudimentary vmPFC. In older children the vmPFC is coupled to limbic structures. Ten to twelve year olds abstract empathy to classes of people. By adolescence the vmPFC is coupled to theory of mind regions and intentional harm induces disgust via the amygdala. Sapolsky explains adolescent boys are utilitarian and tend to accept inequality more than girls do. But both sexes accept inequality as the way it is. Sociopaths do not develop empathy. - but Sapolsky asks who does it benefit?
Driven by language including metaphorical
The agents in complex adaptive systems (CAS) must model their environment to respond effectively to it. Samuel modeling is described as an approach.

models: pain, disgust; but they are bound to visceral signals.
Nonsensical - free will is the subjective assessment of one's ability to make decisions and perform independent actions. Philosophers note that causal chains linking physical phenomena with conscious decisions would undermine the idea of independent free will. RSS views the architecture of CAS agency as requiring indirect associations between phenomena and agent's models. Evolution captures these associations within the genetic structures of the emergent agents, removing any epistemological or complementarity constraints. Sapolsky concludes that this evolved agency severely limits the potential contribution of free will.
and the criminal justice system
Improving with time: Fewer awful acts are committed today making the world safer.

He concludes by summarizing that nothing seems to cause anything; instead everything just modulates something else. But he says we lucky educated humans must try to cope with complexity and be our best. We can be scientific and compassionate indicates an emotional state where resonance with someone else's distress leads one to help them.
.

And he notes the challenges in developing these complex descriptions:

One Second Before

Sapolsky explores the neurobiology of the brain that commanded the muscles to act in the second before the behavior. He leverages Maclean's Triune brain is Dr. Paul MacLean's popular but discredited 1940s theory of the brain. He proposed a three layer structure:

Reptilian inner brain containing circuits for basic survival; which is interfaced to layer 2 through the hypothalamus and together with the brain stem, spine and projections into the body make up the autonomic nervous system.
Limbic middle brain containing emotional circuits which signal layer 1 through the hypothalamus.
Rational outer brain which is uniquely human.

because while wrong it provides a good organizing metaphor for the automaticity, emotion are low level agents distributed across the brain and body which associate, via the amygdala and rich club hubs, important environmental signals with encoded high speed sensors, and distributed programs of action to model: predict, prioritize guidance signals, select and respond effectively, coherently and rapidly to the initial signal. The majority of emotion centered brain regions interface to the midbrain through the hypothalamus. The most accessible signs of emotions are the hard to control and universal facial expressions. Emotions provide prioritization for conscious access given that an animal has only one body, but possibly many cells, with which to achieve its highest level goals. Because of this emotions clash with group goals and are disparaged by the powerful. Evolutionary psychology argues evolution shaped human emotions during the long period of hunter-gatherer existence in the African savanna. Human emotions are universal and include: Anger, Appreciation of natural beauty, Disgust, Fear, Gratitude, Grief, Guilt, Happiness, Honor, Jealousy, Liking, Love, Rage, Romantic love, Lust for revenge, Passion, Sadness, Self-control, Shame, Sympathy, Surprise; and the sham emotions and distrust induced by reciprocal altruism. and cognition is the ability to orchestrate thought and action in accordance with internal goals according to Princeton's Jonathan Cohen.
aspects of behaviors. What were the crucial proximate

Plans are interpreted and implemented by agents. This page discusses the properties of agents in a complex adaptive system (CAS).
It then presents examples of agents in different CAS. The examples include a computer program where modeling and actions are performed by software agents. These software agents are aggregates.
The participation of agents in flows is introduced and some implications of this are outlined.

agents?

The limbic system supports emotional circuits: Amygdala, Hippocampus, Septum, Habenula, Mammillary bodies; all of which signals the midbrain through the hypothalamus. The broad interconnections of these regions with a part of the frontal lobe suggested to Walle Nauta that it (ventromedial prefrontal cortex) is a quasi-member of the limbic network. is layer 2 of the triune
The agents in complex adaptive systems (CAS) must model their environment to respond effectively to it. Samuel modeling is described as an approach.

model, a focus of the emotions of our best and worst behaviors. It processes the important sensory stimuli: smell for rats, vision for primates; with
complex
, M. Mitchell Waldrop describes a vision of complexity via:
- Rich interactions that allow a system to undergo spontaneous self-organization
- Systems that are adaptive
- More predictability than chaotic systems by bringing order and chaos into
- Balance at the edge of chaos
excitatory & inhibitory
circuits
, a network of interconnected neurons which perform signalling, modeling and control functions. In Cajal's basic neural circuits the signalling is unidirectional. He identified three classes of neurons in the circuits:
- Sensory, Interneurons, Motor; which are biochemically distinct and suffer different disease states.
.

It interfaces to layer 1 regulatory aspects of the autonomic nervous system through the hypothalamus is essential to many operations of the body. It has many small sub-regions whose main functions are to regulate hunger, thirst, temperature, sexual behavior, and similar body operations. Its (paraventricular nucleus) is closely connected to the pituitary which secrets hormones into the bloodstream ( => acth -> adrenal cortex => cortisol (+)-> amygdala & (-)-> hippocampus). . The autonomic nervous system supports both fight/flight and calm. The hypothalamus also regulates the release of hormones are signalling molecules: ACTH, TRH, Melanocyte stimulating hormone, Testosterone, Oxytocin, Vasopressin, Insulin, Growth hormone, Estrogen, Progesterone, Angiotensin II, Asprosin, EPO, Irisin, Leptin, FGF21 hormone, Prostaglandins, TSH, Thyroxine, Glococorticoids; that are transported by the circulatory system to interact with target organs having appropriate receptors. The levels of hormones can fluctuate massively, as in pregnancy.
. And these state changes feed back to the brain influencing behavior.
It interfaces to layer 3 of the triune brain

The cortex includes the paleocortex a thin sheet of cells that mostly process smell, archicortex and the neocortex. The cerebral cortex is a pair of large folded sheets of brain tissue, one on either side of the top of the head connected by the corpus callosum. It includes the occipital, parietal, temporal and frontal lobes. is layer 3 of the triune model. Most sensory signals, is an emergent capability which is used by cooperating agents to support coordination & rival agents to support control and dominance. In eukaryotic cells signalling is used extensively. A signal interacts with the exposed region of a receptor molecule inducing it to change shape to an activated form. Chains of enzymes interact with the activated receptor relaying, amplifying and responding to the signal to change the state of the cell. Many of the signalling pathways pass through the nuclear membrane and interact with the DNA to change its state. Enzymes sensitive to the changes induced in the DNA then start to operate generating actions including sending further signals. Cell signalling is reviewed by Helmreich. Signalling is a fundamental aspect of CAS theory and is discussed from the abstract CAS perspective in signals and sensors. In AWF the eukaryotic signalling architecture has been abstracted in a codelet based implementation. To be credible signals must be hard to fake. To be effective they must be easily detected by the target recipient. To be efficient they are low cost to produce and destroy.
flow there to be interpreted. It supports thought. But Sapolsky emphasizes its models are tightly influenced by the emotional signals projected in through the frontal cortex of the cerebral cortex is at the front of the brain. It includes the: prefrontal cortex, motor cortex. Sapolsky asserts it makes you do the harder thing when it's the right thing to do. The frontal cortex supports working memory to sustain focus on a task. It also coordinates the strategic actions necessary to achieve success. It provides impulse control, regulation of emotion, and willpower. The prefrontal cortex maintains focus by deprioritizing currently irrelevant streams of information. The frontal cortex tracks rules. Over a lifetime, that builds into a costly activity. Once it tires, responses become less prosocial. But practice shifts operation of tasks to the cerebellum. The frontal cortex signals the tegmentum and accumbens with the conclusions of its expectancy/discrepancy calculations. The frontal lobe provides executive function, considering bits of information, assessing patterns and then prioritizing the strategies. The frontal lobe is the most recent part of the brain to evolve and involves a disproportionate percentage of primate-unique genes in its development and operation. It does not complete development until the mid-20s. It includes spindle neurons. It is easily damaged. Sapolsky (Nauta) notes that its ventromedial prefrontal cortex is a quasi-member of the limbic system.
and back to the limbic areas.

Within this representation Sapolsky calls out three brain regions that are the most significant contributors to this final common pathway that funnels all the factors of the overall

CAS, described in subsequent chapters of Behave, to converge and create our best and worst behaviors. The main

agents are the: Amygdala contains > 12 distinct areas: Central, Lateral. It receives simple signals from the lower parts of the brain: pain from the PAG; and abstract complex information from the highest areas: Disgust from the insula cortex. It sends signals to almost every other part of the brain, including to the decision-making circuitry of the frontal lobes. It has high levels of D(1) dopamine receptors. During extreme fear the amygdala drives the hippocampus into fear learning. It outputs directly to subcortical reflexive motor pathways when speed is required. Its central nucleus projects to the BNST. It signals the locus ceruleus. The amygdala:

Promotes aggression. Stimulating the amygdala promotes rage. It converts anger into aggression and when impaired it impacts the ability to detect angry facial expressions.
Participates in disgust
Perceives fear promoting stimuli. In PTSD sufferers the Amygdala overreacts to mildly fearful stimuli and is slow to calm down and the amygdala expands in size over a period of months. Fear is processed by the lateral nucleus which serves as the input from various senses, and the central nucleus which outputs to the brain stem (central grey - freezing, lateral hypothalamus - blood pressure, activates paraventricular hypothalamus => crf -> hormone adjustments).
Has lots of receptors for and is highly sensitive to glucocorticoids. Stress inhibits the GABA interneurons in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) allowing the excitatory glutamate releasing neurons to excite more.
Is sensitive to unsettling/uncertain social situations where it promotes anxiety. It is also interested in uncertain but potentially painful situations. The amygdala contributes to social and emotional decision making where the BLA supports rejecting an unacceptable offer, as allowed in the Ultimatum Game, by injecting implicit mistrust and vigilance, generating an anger driven rejection that is used as punishment. The amygdala is very rapidly excited by subliminal signals from the thalamus of outgroup skin color. The amygdala subsequently tips social emotions against outgroups unless restrained by the frontal lobe or influenced by subliminal priming to prioritize inclusion. The fast path from the thalamus rapidly but inaccurately signals its identified a weapon.
Promotes male, but not female, sexual motivation when it is an uncertain potential pleasure.
Responds to the longing for uncertain potential pleasures and fear that the reward will not be worth it if it happens. The amygdala turns off during orgasm.
Uses but is not directly involved in vision.

, Frontal cortex, mesolimbic includes projections between the tegmentum and the accumbens, amygdala, hippocampus;
/mesocortical dopamine pathways includes projections between the tegmentum and the prefrontal cortex;
; with other occasional bit players. And their contributions alter as the agent's adapt depending on the other factors of the

CAS. This then affects the other factors: fusiform is a region of the brain which supports advanced mechanisms of shape recognition and implements the early stages of reading. Subliminal priming with words did not depend on the shape of the word. The fusiform gyrus was able to process the abstract identity of a word without caring if it was upper or lower case. While high up in the cortex it can operate below the level of conscious experience. It contributes to social emotions with:

Its face area being more activated by faces with in-group skin color.
It activating when shown pictures of cars in automobile aficionados.
It activating when shown pictures of birds in birdwatchers; since it really recognizes examples of items from an individual's emotionally salient categories.

pays attention to what ever has become highly salient to that individual.

The Amygdala

The amygdala is strongly associated with aggression, fear is an emotion which prepares the body for time sensitive action: Blood is sent to the muscles from the gut and skin, Adrenalin is released stimulating: Fuel to be released from the liver, Blood is encouraged to clot, and Face is wide-eyed and fearful. The short-term high priority goal, experienced as a sense of urgency, is to flee, fight or deflect the danger. There are both 'innate' - really high priority learning - which are mediated by the central amydala and learned fears which are mediated by the BLA which learns to fear a stimulus and then signals the central amygdala.
, anxiety is manifested in the amygdala mediating inhibition of dopamine rewards. Major anxiety results in elevated glucocorticoids and reduces hippocampal dendrite & spine density. Some estrogen receptor variants are associated with anxiety in women. Michael Pollan concludes anxiety is fear of the future.
, social & emotional are emotions that are induced in response to other people's signals, are implemented by specific brain regions including: Prefrontal cortex, Insula cortex, Anterior cingulate cortex, Amygdala; receive lots of projections from interoceptive networks. Sapolsky asserts in the moments just before we prioritize a consequential act the process is less rational and autonomous than we assume. There are many significant signals from the prior seconds to minutes that effect social emotions:

Our brains respond subliminally to skin color very quickly: Amygdala activates, Fusiform face area activates; prior to the conscious stream activating the anterior cingulate and DLPFC which then inhibit the amygdala.
Social dominance is culture independent and accurately subliminally assessed after a 40-millisecond exposure. Stable status relations activate the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and DLPFC, while a dynamic situation also activates the amygdala.
People who are subliminally judged attractive by the medial orbitofrontal cortex are considered kinder, smarter and more honest. They are given more breaks.
Faces and eyes in particular are most important subliminal cues. They are monitored by the fusiform. People respond more appropriately under the subliminal influence of eyes.
Olfactory sensors send more direct projections to the limbic network than other sensory networks. Pheromones signal fear activating the amygdala.
Observing pain responses in others results in empathy even among young children.
Words are important emotional signals providing unconscious priming of social responses. Kahneman & Tversky demonstrated how the phrase '95% survival rate' is found to be a more acceptable choice than '5% death rate'. Sapolsky notes that prosocial word priming fosters cooperation with antisocial word priming doing the opposite.
Cultural objects such as visible: flags, team badges; subliminally modify in-group outgroup decisions.
The presence of women in a situation alters the responses of men: Increased risk-taking, more focus on luxuries, increased aggression; in circumstances where conflict is already encouraged but not when status is achieved prosocially.
Physical environment shapes behavior as demonstrated by Philip Zimbardo and leveraged in broken windows policing.
Bodily adjustments to sensory structures introduce adaptive complexity, with the brain being influenced to become more sensitive and alter the sensor networks to make some more sensitive. But these adaptations also vary culturally. Collectivist cultures focus on a visual scene's surrounding contextual information while people from individualistic cultures focus on the focal object!

decision making, social reflects the amygdala's particular sensitivity to unsettling social circumstances that stimulate anxiety because of uncertainty. Being unsure of your place in a hierarchy is unsettling activating the amygdala. Rationally going against a counter-factual but group agreed judgement stimulates the amygdala. uncertainty is when a factor is hard to measure because it is dependent on many interconnected agents and may be affected by infrastructure and evolved amplifiers. This is different from Risk. , [moral] disgust is a universal human emotion. Pinker notes it has its own facial expression and is codified in food taboos. The mind must be associated with the proximate environment and parents minimize the risk for their omnivorous children by teaching them what foods to eat and what to avoid. The children's minds are initially receptive to trying all foods but their brains subsequently lock in on the foods they have experienced. These parental choices are affected by schematic influence on what has been beneficial. Adolescent's brain developments undermine these constraints enabling intergroup transfers. Disgust is modulated by the insula cortex which projects signals to the amygdala.
; with lots of supporting experimental evidence. It gets signals from all sensory systems. It is especially signalled about: pain amplifies the aggression response of people by interoceptive signalling of brain regions providing social emotions including the PAG projecting to the amygdala; making aggressive people more so and less aggressive people less so. Pain is the main reason people visit the ED in the US. , disgust. It sends alarms throughout the brain & body and has fast circuits to stimulate movement. Sapolsky explains how learning allows signals interpreted in sub-regions (e.g. auditory in the BLA is the basolateral amygdala, a relatively recently evolved part of the amygdala which learns stimuli to fear and then signals the central amygdala. It recieves inputs from all sensory networks. Some are fast pathways that allow the BLA to detect and respond when the sensory cortex is unaware. But it is far less accurate than the cortex. The BLA's learning involves increased excitability of synapses coupling the BLA and central amygdala. This is due to gene driven: Increased levels of growth factors promoting new connections, more receptors for excitatory neurotransmitters in dendritic spines. The BLA also responds to signals from the frontal cortex that a stimulus no longer appears frightening. This subset of BLA cells respond inhibiting the associating subset. Stress and glucocorticoids increase levels of CRH and BDNF encouraging the building of new dendrites and synapses.
) of the amygdala to be bound: synaptic, a neuron structure which provides a junction with other neurons. It generates signal molecules, either excitatory or inhibitory, which are kept in vesicles until the synapse is stimulated when the signal molecules are released across the synaptic cleft from the neuron. The provisioning of synapses is under genetic control and is part of long term memory formation as identified by Eric Kandel. Modulation signals (from slow receptors) initiate the synaptic strengthening which occurs in memory.
, growth factor are chemical signals which stimulate cellular growth. In the brain they induce plasticity.
changes refers to lasting changes to the brain that occur throughout the life span of the organism. Many aspects of the brain can be altered into adulthood. Almost anything in the nervous system can change in response to sustained stimulus. And in a different environment the changes will often reverse. The changes include:

The strength of dendritic input alters due to genetic, neural and hormonal signals

Hebb notes that memories require strengthening of preexisting synapses. Glutamate responsive neurons' post synaptic dendritic spines have two types of receptor: non-NMDA and NMDA. NMDA channels are responsible for this strengthening mechanism. LTP then occurs to prolong the increase in excitability of the synapse.
The LTP operation results in calcium diffusion which triggers new spine formation in adjacent parts of the dendrite. Eventually that can stimulate dentrite growth enabling more neurons to connect.
Short term stress promotes hippocampal LTP.
Sustained stress promotes:

Hippocampal & frontal cortex LTD & suppresses LTP. Subsequent reductions in NCAM then reduce dendrite and synapse density.
Amygdala LTP and suppresses LTD boosting fear conditioning. It increases BDNF levels and expands dendrites in the BLA.

Depression and anxiety reduce hippocampal dendrite and spine number by reducing BDNF.

The axon's conditions for

Initiating an action potential.

Progesterone boosts GABA-ergic neurons response to GABA decreasing the excitability of other neurons over a period of hours.

Duration of a neuron's refractory period. Testosterone shortens the refractory period of amygdala and amygdala target neurons over a period of hours.

Synaptic connections being constantly removed and recreated
Synapses being created or destroyed. Stimulation generates additional dendritic spines which become associated with a nearby axon terminal and within weeks a synapse forms. The synapse then contributes calcium diffusion through LTP triggering more spine formation. When dendritic spines recede synapses disappear.
Cortical maps change to reflect alterations in the inputs and outputs from the body.
Birth of brain cells in many areas of adult brains: the hippocampus (where 3% are replaced each month) and olfactory bulb and lesser amounts in the cortex.
Restructuring after brain damage including axonal plasticity. Distant rerouting of axons is observed but no mechanism has been identified yet.
Vision is plastic in predators, where the eyes are moved during final development. Dehaene argues for neuronal recycling supporting reading.

; to the central area is a relatively ancient evolved part of the amygdala which processes 'innate' fears. It projects to the BNST to raise the heart rate and blood pressure in preparation for fight and flight.
linking the signals to fear. And signals from the frontal cortex can teach the amygdala not to fear some bound signal any more: medial PFC in Buckner's fMRI based analysis is part of the brain's default mode network. It facilitates the flexible use of information during the construction of self-relevant mental simulations. Nauta considered its ventromedial part as participating in the limbic system. With the medial temporal lobe it converges on important integration nodes: posterior cingulate cortex. signals to the inhibitory circuits of the BLA that a sound is not to be feared. Even when involved in pleasure is the outcome of the dopamine reward system, argues UCSF professor Robert Lustig. He, like the early Christians, contrasts [addiction oriented] pleasure with serotonin driven happiness & contentment.
the amygdala actually contributes awareness of the uncertainty of a potential pleasure and anxiety, fear & anger is an emotion which protects a person who has been cheated by a supposed friend. When the exploitation of the altruism is discovered, Steven Pinker explains, the result is a drive for moralistic aggression to hurt the cheater.
that the reward may not happen. And feedback from the autonomic nervous system does not alter what is felt but does change the intensity. Fear and aggression are not inevitably intertwined by the amygdala but typically become so for people who are already prone to this and when aggression is reactive and frenzied.

The Frontal Cortex

Sapolsky stresses the frontal cortex of the cerebral cortex is at the front of the brain. It includes the: prefrontal cortex, motor cortex. Sapolsky asserts it makes you do the harder thing when it's the right thing to do. The frontal cortex supports working memory to sustain focus on a task. It also coordinates the strategic actions necessary to achieve success. It provides impulse control, regulation of emotion, and willpower. The prefrontal cortex maintains focus by deprioritizing currently irrelevant streams of information. The frontal cortex tracks rules. Over a lifetime, that builds into a costly activity. Once it tires, responses become less prosocial. But practice shifts operation of tasks to the cerebellum. The frontal cortex signals the tegmentum and accumbens with the conclusions of its expectancy/discrepancy calculations. The frontal lobe provides executive function, considering bits of information, assessing patterns and then prioritizing the strategies. The frontal lobe is the most recent part of the brain to evolve and involves a disproportionate percentage of primate-unique genes in its development and operation. It does not complete development until the mid-20s. It includes spindle neurons. It is easily damaged. Sapolsky (Nauta) notes that its ventromedial prefrontal cortex is a quasi-member of the limbic system.
makes you do the harder thing when it's the right thing to do. It is significant that it is the last brain region to fully mature. This only happens during the mid-twenties. The frontal cortex is highly distinctive: evolution, size, complexity. There are many unique, highly individuated, primate genes active in the frontal cortex. And one unique cell type: the von Economo neuron are also called spindle neurons and are:

Found only in: Primates, Whales, Dolphins, Elephants;
Present in the: Insula, Anterior cingulate - focused on empathy; integrating and repurposing these basic facilities into high level capabilities such as moral disgust.
First neurons destroyed by FTD.

which is central to empathy is the capability to relate to another person from their perspective. It is implemented by spindle neurons. It is context dependently mediated by estrogen. It develops over time: Piaget's preoperational stage includes rudimentary empathy, Theory of mind supports the development; initially feeling someone's pain as one integrated being, then for them and eventually as them. In adults, when someone else is hurt the anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala & insula activates projecting [scapegoating] to the vmPFC. If the pain is physical the PAG activates and motor neurons for the area where the other person was injured. The intertwining of the ACC amygdala & insula in adults results in attribution of fault even when there is none which can make it hard to step in and actually help. But in seven-year-olds the activation is concrete: PAG and sensory & motor cortexes with minimal coupling to the rudimentary vmPFC. In older children the vmPFC is coupled to limbic structures. Ten to twelve year olds abstract empathy to classes of people. By adolescence the vmPFC is coupled to theory of mind regions and intentional harm induces disgust via the amygdala. Sapolsky explains adolescent boys are utilitarian and tend to accept inequality more than girls do. But both sexes accept inequality as the way it is. Sociopaths do not develop empathy. (ACC is either the

Anterior cingulate cortex which:

Is a central focus of empathy supporting people relating to other's pain. This is dependent on oxytocin.
In non-human mammals it processes interoceptive signals. The ACC focuses the internal signals into high level 'gut intuitions.' Pain catches the ACC's attention.
Performs discrepancy detection from the outcome that was predicted - at a high level. The ACC cares about the meaning of what is predicted.

If the ACC has been convinced that a pain killer placebo has inhibited pain signals, the ACC will stay silent about actual pain that is signalled from interoceptive networks.
The ACC will signal: physical pain, emotional pain, metaphorical pain, anxiety, disgust, embarrassment, social exclusion especially in adolescence; as one and the same. The ACC's abnormalities being associated with major depression.

Has a bridging role between the empathetic and self-interested pain monitor. Sapolsky notes the ACC is essential for learning fear and conditioned avoidance by observation alone through an intermediate step of shared representation of self. He concludes "At its core the ACC is about self-interest, with caring about the other person in pain as an add-on."

American College of Cardiology

) and binding the insula to moral disgust. The frontal cortex looks for patterns in its situational models and selects from strategic actions. It partners with the cerebellum is involved with the efficiency of fine movement. It modulates the force and range of motion and is involved in motor coordination and the learning of motor skills. Damage to the cerebellum impairs standing, walking, or performance of coordinated movements. A virtuoso pianist or other performing musician depends on their cerebellum. The cerebellum receives visual, auditory, vestibular, and somatosensory information. It also receives information about individual muscular movements being directed by the brain. The cerebellum integrates this information and modifies the motor outflow, exerting a coordinating and smoothing effect on the movements. However, patients born without a cerebellum have survived reasonably well. The cerebellum is part of the implicit learning mechanism. It is required for the rabbit eye-blink to be classically conditioned to respond to a sound, and puff of air (threat to eye). It integrates the sound and puff and outputs the response to the motor area (blink).
which takes over repeated strategies including: bravery, honesty; making them automatic and rapid. Within the frontal cortex the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is

The front part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. It evolved most recently. During adolescence when the PFC is still deploying, older brain agents provide equivalent strategies: ventral striatum. The PFC has been implicated in planning, working memory: dorsolateral; decision making: Orbitofrontal cortex; and social behavior. Different PFC circuits track internal reward driven strategies and externally signalled advice. The PFC chooses between conflicting options, letting go or restraint, especially between cognition and emotions. It imposes an overarching strategy for managing working memory. It is essential for thinking about multiple items with different labels. It includes neurons that are interested in particular sub-categories: Dog, Cat. Once it has made a decision it signals the rest of the frontal lobe just behind it. Glucocorticoids decrease excitability of the PFC.

(PFC) sub-region is the decider, but it gets tired easily after which decisions become less prosocial is prioritizing benefiting others through: Help, Charity, Truth; even if many are acts of restitution to balance out antisocial acts. Due to the Insula's binding of physical and metaphorical disgust, physically washing your hands can be enough to reduce the need for a prosocial act.
. Social complexity expands the frontal cortex. FTD is frontotemporal degeneration, the most common form of dementia for people under age 60. It results from progressive loss of neurons from the frontal or temporal lobes. The first neurons known to die are von Economo neurons. Tau and TDP43 proteins both congregate in these areas. People with FTD display behavioral disinhibition and socially inappropriate behaviors. They appear apathetic and don't make decisions because the PFC is being destroyed. There are three main types: Behavioral variant, primary progressive aphasia, Disturbances of motor function;
destroys it. The dorsolateral PFC is dorsolateral prefrontal cortex which is:

At the heart of decision making - highly rational, unsentimental
A major agent of working memory
The most recently evolved part of the prefrontal cortex.
Mainly interconnected with other parts of the cortex.

is the most socially rational part of the prefrontal cortex. It inhibits the amygdala contains > 12 distinct areas: Central, Lateral. It receives simple signals from the lower parts of the brain: pain from the PAG; and abstract complex information from the highest areas: Disgust from the insula cortex. It sends signals to almost every other part of the brain, including to the decision-making circuitry of the frontal lobes. It has high levels of D(1) dopamine receptors. During extreme fear the amygdala drives the hippocampus into fear learning. It outputs directly to subcortical reflexive motor pathways when speed is required. Its central nucleus projects to the BNST. It signals the locus ceruleus. The amygdala:

Promotes aggression. Stimulating the amygdala promotes rage. It converts anger into aggression and when impaired it impacts the ability to detect angry facial expressions.
Participates in disgust
Perceives fear promoting stimuli. In PTSD sufferers the Amygdala overreacts to mildly fearful stimuli and is slow to calm down and the amygdala expands in size over a period of months. Fear is processed by the lateral nucleus which serves as the input from various senses, and the central nucleus which outputs to the brain stem (central grey - freezing, lateral hypothalamus - blood pressure, activates paraventricular hypothalamus => crf -> hormone adjustments).
Has lots of receptors for and is highly sensitive to glucocorticoids. Stress inhibits the GABA interneurons in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) allowing the excitatory glutamate releasing neurons to excite more.
Is sensitive to unsettling/uncertain social situations where it promotes anxiety. It is also interested in uncertain but potentially painful situations. The amygdala contributes to social and emotional decision making where the BLA supports rejecting an unacceptable offer, as allowed in the Ultimatum Game, by injecting implicit mistrust and vigilance, generating an anger driven rejection that is used as punishment. The amygdala is very rapidly excited by subliminal signals from the thalamus of outgroup skin color. The amygdala subsequently tips social emotions against outgroups unless restrained by the frontal lobe or influenced by subliminal priming to prioritize inclusion. The fast path from the thalamus rapidly but inaccurately signals its identified a weapon.
Promotes male, but not female, sexual motivation when it is an uncertain potential pleasure.
Responds to the longing for uncertain potential pleasures and fear that the reward will not be worth it if it happens. The amygdala turns off during orgasm.
Uses but is not directly involved in vision.

's out-grouping responses. The ventromedial PFC (vmPFC) is:

Focused on the impact of emotion on decision making
A participant in limbic system operations
Many human behaviors involve interactions between the vmPFC, the limbic system & the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Part of decision making is for the limbic system to internally simulate (often with the help of the sympathetic nervous system) what alternative outcomes of a decision will feel like with the results of these somatic marker analyses being reported to the vmPFC.
Damage to the vmPFC results in bad decision making: Poor judgement in choosing friends & partners, Failure to respond to negative feedback; because they can't feel the issues.

imparts essential decision making to social/emotional challenges and tightly integrates with limbic structures supports emotional circuits: Amygdala, Hippocampus, Septum, Habenula, Mammillary bodies; all of which signals the midbrain through the hypothalamus. The broad interconnections of these regions with a part of the frontal lobe suggested to Walle Nauta that it (ventromedial prefrontal cortex) is a quasi-member of the limbic network. . These two subparts are inversely correlated but typically collaborate: both are needed in different situations to be prosocial. Stress is a multi-faceted condition reflecting high cortisol levels. Dr. Robert Sapolsky's studies of baboons indicate that stress helps build readiness for fight or flight. As these actions occur the levels of cortisol return to the baseline rate. A stressor is anything that disrupts the regular homeostatic balance. The stress response is the array of neural and endocrine changes that occur to respond effectively to the crisis and reestablish homeostasis.

The short term response to the stressor

activates the amygdala which: Stimulates the brain stem resulting in inhibition of the parasympathetic nervous system and activation of the sympathetic nervous system with the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine deployed around the body, Activates the PVN which generates a cascade resulting in glucocorticoid secretion to: get energy to the muscles with increased blood pressure for a powerful response. The brain's acuity and cognition are stimulated. The immune system is stimulated with beta-endorphin and repair activities curtail. But when the stressor is

long term: loneliness, debt; and no action is necessary, or possible, long term damage ensues. Damage from such stress may only occur in specific situations: Nuclear families coping with parents moving in. Sustained stress provides an evolved amplifier of a position of dominance and status. It is a strategy in female aggression used to limit reproductive competition. Sustained stress:

Stops the frontal cortex from ensuring we do the harder thing, instead substituting amplification of the individual's propensity for risk-taking and impairing risk assessment!
Activates the integration between the thalamus and amygdala.

Acts differently on the amygdala in comparison to the frontal cortex and hippocampus: Stress strengthens the integration between the Amygdala and the hippocampus, making the hippocampus fearful.
BLA & BNST respond with increased BDNF levels and expanded dendrites persistently increasing anxiety and fear conditioning.

Makes it easier to learn a fear association and to consolidate it into long-term memory. Sustained stress makes it harder to unlearn fear by making the prefrontal cortex inhibit the BLA from learning to break the fear association and weakening the prefrontal cortex's hold over the amygdala. And glucocorticoids decrease activation of the medial prefrontal cortex during processing of emotional faces. Accuracy of assessing emotions from faces suffers. A terrified rat generating lots of glucocorticoids will cause dendrites in the hippocampus to atrophy but when it generates the same amount from excitement of running on a wheel the dendrites expand. The activation of the amygdala seems to determine how the hippocampus responds.
Depletes the nucleus accumbens of dopamine biasing rats toward social subordination and biasing humans toward depression.
Disrupts working memory by amplifying norepinephrine signalling in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala to prefrontal cortex signalling until they become destructive. It also desynchronizes activation in different frontal lobe regions impacting shifting of attention.
Increases the risk of autoimmune disease (Jan 2017)

During depression, stress inhibits dopamine signalling.
Strategies for stress reduction include: Mindfulness.

impacts the frontal cortex: like distraction and heavy cortical load, it can dissociate the frontocortical importance signal about some action from the Boolean do/don't do it signal, explaining why you may do exactly the wrong thing under stress.

Emotion are low level agents distributed across the brain and body which associate, via the amygdala and rich club hubs, important environmental signals with encoded high speed sensors, and distributed programs of action to model: predict, prioritize guidance signals, select and respond effectively, coherently and rapidly to the initial signal. The majority of emotion centered brain regions interface to the midbrain through the hypothalamus. The most accessible signs of emotions are the hard to control and universal facial expressions. Emotions provide prioritization for conscious access given that an animal has only one body, but possibly many cells, with which to achieve its highest level goals. Because of this emotions clash with group goals and are disparaged by the powerful. Evolutionary psychology argues evolution shaped human emotions during the long period of hunter-gatherer existence in the African savanna. Human emotions are universal and include: Anger, Appreciation of natural beauty, Disgust, Fear, Gratitude, Grief, Guilt, Happiness, Honor, Jealousy, Liking, Love, Rage, Romantic love, Lust for revenge, Passion, Sadness, Self-control, Shame, Sympathy, Surprise; and the sham emotions and distrust induced by reciprocal altruism. can be controlled to some extent by thought. There are two strategies:

Sapolsky argues the frontal cortex gets its metaphorical motivation to do the harder thing from the brains dopaminergic reward systems.

The Mesolimbic/Mesocortical Dopamine System

Dopamine is a synaptic signal supporting generalized goal-directed behavior & anticipation of reward. Its significance is that the receptors that detect the signal are of the slow acting type and are used to alter (modulate) the response of fast acting dopaminergic neural circuits in which the receptors are deployed (LTP). The signal detects significant changes including predictions of models and actual results which differ unexpectedly. The dopamine network architecture is designed to signal the possibility of any type of reward: Norm violation punishment, Winning a lottery, & Misfortune of an envied competitor. Dopamine signalling:

Rescales continuously to accommodate the range of intensity offered by different stimuli. So dopamine's responses to any reward habituate. GABA is released by some tegmental neurons to induce habituation.
Reflects the anticipation of reward. It supports establishment of a relationship between a signal, working for a reward and obtaining the reward, but subsequently dopamine is mainly released encouraging the work, right after the signal supporting anticipation of the reward. Anticipation requires learning and is reflected in hippocampus activity. That explains context dependent cravings. And the learning architecture means reliable cues become rewarding. The accumbens supports willpower. And dopamine
Promotes goal-oriented behavior needed to obtain & likely to achieve the reward - through the dopamine projections to the prefrontal cortex. That makes dopamine central to:

Motivation. This binding fails in depression - due to stress and in anxiety - due to signals from the amygdala.
The prefrontal cortex's mesocortically stimulated support for willpower to act to delay rewards. To sustain work for delayed rewards additional dopamine is released based on the length of the delay and the rewards uncertainty (modelled in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex - which promotes the long term and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex - which promotes the short term) and the anticipated size of the reward (modelled in the accumbens). Impulsiveness in ADHD is reflected in abnormal dopamine processing. Addictive drugs bias the dopamine network towards impulsiveness.

Is lowered by certain gene variants which induce: less dopamine in the synapse, fewer receptors, lower responsiveness of receptors; associated with (as tiny effects in hugely varying social scenarios): sensation seeking, risk taking, attentional problems, extroversion; where:

The receptor D4's gene shows high variability. The D47R form is relatively unresponsive to dopamine.
Dopamine is degraded by COMT. The COMT gene includes a variant which is highly efficient reducing dopamine signalling but with complicating gene/environment interactions.
Dopamine is removed from the synapse by a reuptake transporter DAT.

is central to

Read Montague explores how brains make decisions. In particular he explains how:

Evolution can create indirect abstract models, such as the dopamine system, that allow
Life changing real-time decisions to be made, and how
Schematic structures provide encodings of computable control structures which operate through and on incomputable, schematically encoded, physically active structures and operationally associated production functions.

motivated pursuit of goals. Sapolsky explains the best and the worst behaviors involve the projections from the ventral tegmentum is part of the tegmentum which contains dopamine long system cell bodies (high levels of D(2)). Their axons branch extensively and reach many areas including: Mesolimbic to the limbic system: amygdala, hippocampus; Tegmentostriatal to the nucleus accumbens, Mesocortical to the forebrain including the prefrontal cortex. The terminals are fairly evenly distributed through out layers 1 - 6. So dopamine can modulate input and output excitatory and inhibitory transmissions. If a rodent wins a fight on his home territory, there are long-lasting increases in levels of testosterone receptors enhancing pleasurable effects. The lateral ventral tegmental area is now known to be one of two large adrenergic pathways, along with the locus ceruleus. During child birth the ventral tegmentum deploys more oxytocin receptors increasing its sensitivity to the neuropeptide.
to the:

Social interactions are affected by dopamine rewards:

Punishing norm violations is rewarded
Social domination is rewarded
When someone who is envied gets hurt there is a dopamine reward.
Habituation in the tegmentum is involved in homeostatic and reflex pathways in the brain. It includes: ventral; areas. It forms the base of the midbrain. It projects via the: mesolimbic dopamine pathway to limbic structures, mesocortical dopamine pathway to the prefrontal cortex. Sapolsky explains that Wolfram Schultz demonstrated that following a reward, the dopamine system codes for discrepancy from expectation--get what you expected, and there's a steady-state dribble of dopamine. Get more reward and/or get it sooner than expected, and there's a big burst; less and or later a decrease. Some tegmental neurons respond to positive discrepancy from expectation, others to negative; appropriately, the latter are local neurons that release inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. Those same neurons participate in habituation, where the reward that once elicited a big dopamine response becomes less exciting. These coding neurons get projections from the frontal cortex where the expectancy/discrepancy calculations occur.
enables dopamine to reward a vast range of activities through
Rather than oppose the direct thrust of some environmental flow agents can improve their effectiveness with indirect responses. This page explains how agents are architected to do this and discusses some examples of how it can be done.

indirect relative assessment of outcomes by the prefrontal cortex.

The Anticipation of Reward

The dopamine is a synaptic signal supporting generalized goal-directed behavior & anticipation of reward. Its significance is that the receptors that detect the signal are of the slow acting type and are used to alter (modulate) the response of fast acting dopaminergic neural circuits in which the receptors are deployed (LTP). The signal detects significant changes including predictions of models and actual results which differ unexpectedly. The dopamine network architecture is designed to signal the possibility of any type of reward: Norm violation punishment, Winning a lottery, & Misfortune of an envied competitor. Dopamine signalling:

Rescales continuously to accommodate the range of intensity offered by different stimuli. So dopamine's responses to any reward habituate. GABA is released by some tegmental neurons to induce habituation.
Reflects the anticipation of reward. It supports establishment of a relationship between a signal, working for a reward and obtaining the reward, but subsequently dopamine is mainly released encouraging the work, right after the signal supporting anticipation of the reward. Anticipation requires learning and is reflected in hippocampus activity. That explains context dependent cravings. And the learning architecture means reliable cues become rewarding. The accumbens supports willpower. And dopamine
Promotes goal-oriented behavior needed to obtain & likely to achieve the reward - through the dopamine projections to the prefrontal cortex. That makes dopamine central to:

Motivation. This binding fails in depression - due to stress and in anxiety - due to signals from the amygdala.
The prefrontal cortex's mesocortically stimulated support for willpower to act to delay rewards. To sustain work for delayed rewards additional dopamine is released based on the length of the delay and the rewards uncertainty (modelled in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex - which promotes the long term and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex - which promotes the short term) and the anticipated size of the reward (modelled in the accumbens). Impulsiveness in ADHD is reflected in abnormal dopamine processing. Addictive drugs bias the dopamine network towards impulsiveness.

Is lowered by certain gene variants which induce: less dopamine in the synapse, fewer receptors, lower responsiveness of receptors; associated with (as tiny effects in hugely varying social scenarios): sensation seeking, risk taking, attentional problems, extroversion; where:

The receptor D4's gene shows high variability. The D47R form is relatively unresponsive to dopamine.
Dopamine is degraded by COMT. The COMT gene includes a variant which is highly efficient reducing dopamine signalling but with complicating gene/environment interactions.
Dopamine is removed from the synapse by a reuptake transporter DAT.

network architecture ensures once reward contingencies are learned, dopamine release is associated with anticipation. Mastery, expectation & confidence of the result are rewarded until the binding fails! The learning involves a circuit of excited hippocampus is a part of the brain involved in the temporary storage or coding of long-term episodic memory. Memory formation in the cells of the hippocampus uses the MAP kinase signalling network which is impacted by sleep deprivation. The hippocampus dependent memory system is directly affected by cholinergic changes throughout the wake-sleep cycle. Increased acetylcholine during REM sleep promotes information attained during wakefulness to be stored in the hippocampus by suppressing previous excitatory connections while facilitating encoding without interference from previously stored information. During slow-wave sleep low levels of acetylcholine cause the release of the suppression and allow for spontaneous recovery of hippocampal neurons resulting in memory consolidation. It was initially associated with memory formation by McGill University's Dr. Brenda Milner, via studies of 'HM' Henry Molaison, whose medial temporal lobes had been surgically destroyed leaving him unable to create new memories. The size of neurons' dendritic trees expands and contracts over a female rat's ovulatory cycle, with the peak in size and cognitive skills at the estrogen high point. Adult neurogenesis occurs in the hippocampus (3% of neurons are replaced each month) where the new neurons integrate into preexisting circuits. It is enhanced by learning, exercise, estrogen, antidepressants, environmental enrichment, and brain injury and inhibited by various stressors explains Sapolsky. Prolonged stress makes the hippocampus atrophy. He notes the new neurons are essential for integrating new information into preexisting schemas -- learning that two things you thought were the same are actually different.
amygdala contains > 12 distinct areas: Central, Lateral. It receives simple signals from the lower parts of the brain: pain from the PAG; and abstract complex information from the highest areas: Disgust from the insula cortex. It sends signals to almost every other part of the brain, including to the decision-making circuitry of the frontal lobes. It has high levels of D(1) dopamine receptors. During extreme fear the amygdala drives the hippocampus into fear learning. It outputs directly to subcortical reflexive motor pathways when speed is required. Its central nucleus projects to the BNST. It signals the locus ceruleus. The amygdala:

Promotes aggression. Stimulating the amygdala promotes rage. It converts anger into aggression and when impaired it impacts the ability to detect angry facial expressions.
Participates in disgust
Perceives fear promoting stimuli. In PTSD sufferers the Amygdala overreacts to mildly fearful stimuli and is slow to calm down and the amygdala expands in size over a period of months. Fear is processed by the lateral nucleus which serves as the input from various senses, and the central nucleus which outputs to the brain stem (central grey - freezing, lateral hypothalamus - blood pressure, activates paraventricular hypothalamus => crf -> hormone adjustments).
Has lots of receptors for and is highly sensitive to glucocorticoids. Stress inhibits the GABA interneurons in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) allowing the excitatory glutamate releasing neurons to excite more.
Is sensitive to unsettling/uncertain social situations where it promotes anxiety. It is also interested in uncertain but potentially painful situations. The amygdala contributes to social and emotional decision making where the BLA supports rejecting an unacceptable offer, as allowed in the Ultimatum Game, by injecting implicit mistrust and vigilance, generating an anger driven rejection that is used as punishment. The amygdala is very rapidly excited by subliminal signals from the thalamus of outgroup skin color. The amygdala subsequently tips social emotions against outgroups unless restrained by the frontal lobe or influenced by subliminal priming to prioritize inclusion. The fast path from the thalamus rapidly but inaccurately signals its identified a weapon.
Promotes male, but not female, sexual motivation when it is an uncertain potential pleasure.
Responds to the longing for uncertain potential pleasures and fear that the reward will not be worth it if it happens. The amygdala turns off during orgasm.
Uses but is not directly involved in vision.

Receptive element - dendrites
Transmitting element - axon and synaptic terminals
Highly variable DNA schema using transposons.

projecting to dopamine neurons. This ensures the return of context-dependent cravings in addiction. And it means more dopamine will be generated when the result becomes uncertain.

University of Michigan's Huda Akil showed reliable cues to an impending reward eventually become rewarding. Rats eventually enjoy the cue. This is the foundation of fetishes.

Crucially, dopamine binds the value of a reward to the strategic action that attains the result. This is implemented in the dopaminergic projections to the PFC is prefrontal cortex which is:

The front part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. It evolved most recently. During adolescence when the PFC is still deploying, older brain agents provide equivalent strategies: ventral striatum. The PFC has been implicated in planning, working memory: dorsolateral; decision making: Orbitofrontal cortex; and social behavior. Different PFC circuits track internal reward driven strategies and externally signalled advice. The PFC chooses between conflicting options, letting go or restraint, especially between cognition and emotions. It imposes an overarching strategy for managing working memory. It is essential for thinking about multiple items with different labels. It includes neurons that are interested in particular sub-categories: Dog, Cat. Once it has made a decision it signals the rest of the frontal lobe just behind it. Glucocorticoids decrease excitability of the PFC.

which decides on the strategy to execute.

Dopamine still operates effectively when the work is prolonged and the reward is delayed. To maintain the action a second gradual increase in dopamine occurs. The increase is a function of the length of the delay and the anticipated size of the reward. The level of the increase in dopamine is controlled by the accumbens is a region of the basal forebrain rostral to the preoptic area and immediately adjacent to the septum. The nucleus accumbens was closely associated with the limbic system and plays an important role in reinforcement. If a rodent wins a fight on his home territory, there are long-lasting increases in levels of testosterone receptors enhancing pleasurable effects. When prairie voles first mate, epi-genetic state changes are induced in the accumbens to support pair-bonding. The accumbens projects to brain regions associated with movement. The major pathways of dopaminergic neurons begin in the substantia nigra and the ventral tegmental area. The amygdala projects back to the accumbens. The tegmentostriatal system begins in the ventral tegmental area and projects to the nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens includes high levels of D1, D2 and D3 dopamine receptors located on the spine & shafts of dendrites of excitatory cells reduce the transfer of excitation from the dendrites to the cell bodies, so only especially strong excitatory inputs get through to the cell body to elicit excitation. It also has D4 dopamine receptors which are highly variable. The accumbens responds differently to rewards depending on maturity: In juveniles all reward levels result in the same response activity level, During adolescence the accumbens responds to small rewards negatively, and large rewards hugely, In adults the rewards result in measured scaled positive responses. Chronic stress depletes dopamine from the nucleus accumbens biasing humans towards depression. while dlPFC is dorsolateral prefrontal cortex which is:

At the heart of decision making - highly rational, unsentimental
A major agent of working memory
The most recently evolved part of the prefrontal cortex.
Mainly interconnected with other parts of the cortex.

& vmPFC is ventromedial prefrontal cortex which is:

Focused on the impact of emotion on decision making
A participant in limbic system operations
Many human behaviors involve interactions between the vmPFC, the limbic system & the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Part of decision making is for the limbic system to internally simulate (often with the help of the sympathetic nervous system) what alternative outcomes of a decision will feel like with the results of these somatic marker analyses being reported to the vmPFC.
Damage to the vmPFC results in bad decision making: Poor judgement in choosing friends & partners, Failure to respond to negative feedback; because they can't feel the issues.

neurons assess the time delay. A flexible arrangement that supports delayed gratification. Differences in the volume of these different agents in different people results in the variations in effectiveness of performing delayed gratification. Sapalsky adds that humans can delay gratification for huge amounts of

Carlo Rovelli resolves the paradox of time.
Rovelli initially explains that low level physics does not include time:

A present that is common throughout the universe does not exist
Events are only partially ordered. The present is localized
The difference between past and future is not foundational. It occurs because of state that through our blurring appears particular to us
Time passes at different speeds dependent on where we are and how fast we travel
Time's rhythms are due to the gravitational field
Our quantized physics shows neither space nor time, just processes transforming physical variables.
Fundamentally there is no time. The basic equations evolve together with events, not things

Then he explains how in a physical world without time its perception can emerge:

Our familiar time emerges

Our interaction with the world is partial, blurred, quantum indeterminate
The ignorance determines the existence of thermal time and entropy that quantifies our uncertainty
Directionality of time is real but perspectival. The entropy of the world in relation to us increases with our thermal time. The growth of entropy distinguishes past from future: resulting in traces and memories
Each human is a unified being because: we reflect the world, we formed an image of a unified entity by interacting with our kind, and because of the perspective of memory
The variable time: is one of the variables of the gravitational field. With our scale we don't register quantum fluctuations, making space-time appear determined. At our speed we don't perceive differences in time of different clocks, so we experience a single time: universal, uniform, ordered; which is helpful to our decisions

time in pursuit of abstract goals. It has not yet been determined exactly how this is done.

A Final Small Topic: Serotonin

Sapolsky notes that serotonin is a neurotransmitter. it is:

Inversely associated with: human impulsive, cricket, mollusk, crustacean; aggression. Low levels of serotonin are associated with impulsive aggression ranging from psychological measures of hostility to overt violence and cognitive impulsivity and impulsive suicide.
Nearly all synthesized in the Raphe nucleus. Tryptophan hydroxylase makes serotonin from the amino-acid tryptophan. Monoamine oxidase degrades serotonin. The serotonin receptor binds serotonin to initiate cross membrane signalling. The serotonin transporter actively removes serotonin from synapses. Serotonin levels can be increased with: exercise, high light levels, consumption of chickpeas and traditional lime boiled corn tortillas. Reuptake is inhibited by SSRIs. Variants of the genes coding for these various enzymes alter the strength of their effects.
Increasing serotonin signalling does not lessen impulsiveness in normal subjects but did in those prone to impulsivity. However, such experiments are fraught with complexity:

Transient changes induced by drugs may adjust the immediate levels of serotonin but may not demonstrate structural effects.
Gene variants likely produce structural changes in the developing brain.
Effects monitored in experiments are often tiny.
Behavioral changes: Violence, Arson, Exhibitionism; seen in different test subjects may be difficult to compare.
Monoamine oxidase has high gene/environment interactions undermining heritability estimates. Its gene promotor is regulated by stress and glucocorticoids. So non genetic factors such as childhood adversity and adult provocation appear to be significant.

effects impulsivity. The raphe nucleus consists of a group of nuclei running through the core of the brain stem from the medulla to the back of the midbrain. It projects to the tegmentum, accumbens, prefrontal cortex, & amygdala where serotonin enhances dopamine's effects on goal-directed behavior. The raphe is associated with:

Neural mechanisms of sleep and waking. Jouvet and Renault produced large lesions that destroyed 80 - 90 % of the raphe in cats inducing complete insomnia for 3-4 days. Slow-wave, but not REM sleep, gradually returned, but never exceeded 2.5 hours a day. Sleep amount correlates to the 5-HT concentration. The neurons of the raphe nuclei are rich in serotonin (5-HT). It is suspected that the dorsal raphe nuclei inhibit the phasic components of REM sleep and thus prevent them from occurring at inappropriate times. The activity of serotonergic neurons is low during REM sleep and higher at other times. The dorsal raphe nucleus has been associated with
Depression.
Impulsive aggression which is associated with relatively low serotonin levels.

projects serotonin signals, is an emergent capability which is used by cooperating agents to support coordination & rival agents to support control and dominance. In eukaryotic cells signalling is used extensively. A signal interacts with the exposed region of a receptor molecule inducing it to change shape to an activated form. Chains of enzymes interact with the activated receptor relaying, amplifying and responding to the signal to change the state of the cell. Many of the signalling pathways pass through the nuclear membrane and interact with the DNA to change its state. Enzymes sensitive to the changes induced in the DNA then start to operate generating actions including sending further signals. Cell signalling is reviewed by Helmreich. Signalling is a fundamental aspect of CAS theory and is discussed from the abstract CAS perspective in signals and sensors. In AWF the eukaryotic signalling architecture has been abstracted in a codelet based implementation. To be credible signals must be hard to fake. To be effective they must be easily detected by the target recipient. To be efficient they are low cost to produce and destroy.
to the tegmentum is involved in homeostatic and reflex pathways in the brain. It includes: ventral; areas. It forms the base of the midbrain. It projects via the: mesolimbic dopamine pathway to limbic structures, mesocortical dopamine pathway to the prefrontal cortex. Sapolsky explains that Wolfram Schultz demonstrated that following a reward, the dopamine system codes for discrepancy from expectation--get what you expected, and there's a steady-state dribble of dopamine. Get more reward and/or get it sooner than expected, and there's a big burst; less and or later a decrease. Some tegmental neurons respond to positive discrepancy from expectation, others to negative; appropriately, the latter are local neurons that release inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. Those same neurons participate in habituation, where the reward that once elicited a big dopamine response becomes less exciting. These coding neurons get projections from the frontal cortex where the expectancy/discrepancy calculations occur.
, accumbens is a region of the basal forebrain rostral to the preoptic area and immediately adjacent to the septum. The nucleus accumbens was closely associated with the limbic system and plays an important role in reinforcement. If a rodent wins a fight on his home territory, there are long-lasting increases in levels of testosterone receptors enhancing pleasurable effects. When prairie voles first mate, epi-genetic state changes are induced in the accumbens to support pair-bonding. The accumbens projects to brain regions associated with movement. The major pathways of dopaminergic neurons begin in the substantia nigra and the ventral tegmental area. The amygdala projects back to the accumbens. The tegmentostriatal system begins in the ventral tegmental area and projects to the nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens includes high levels of D1, D2 and D3 dopamine receptors located on the spine & shafts of dendrites of excitatory cells reduce the transfer of excitation from the dendrites to the cell bodies, so only especially strong excitatory inputs get through to the cell body to elicit excitation. It also has D4 dopamine receptors which are highly variable. The accumbens responds differently to rewards depending on maturity: In juveniles all reward levels result in the same response activity level, During adolescence the accumbens responds to small rewards negatively, and large rewards hugely, In adults the rewards result in measured scaled positive responses. Chronic stress depletes dopamine from the nucleus accumbens biasing humans towards depression. , prefrontal cortex (PFC) is

The front part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. It evolved most recently. During adolescence when the PFC is still deploying, older brain agents provide equivalent strategies: ventral striatum. The PFC has been implicated in planning, working memory: dorsolateral; decision making: Orbitofrontal cortex; and social behavior. Different PFC circuits track internal reward driven strategies and externally signalled advice. The PFC chooses between conflicting options, letting go or restraint, especially between cognition and emotions. It imposes an overarching strategy for managing working memory. It is essential for thinking about multiple items with different labels. It includes neurons that are interested in particular sub-categories: Dog, Cat. Once it has made a decision it signals the rest of the frontal lobe just behind it. Glucocorticoids decrease excitability of the PFC.

and amygdala contains > 12 distinct areas: Central, Lateral. It receives simple signals from the lower parts of the brain: pain from the PAG; and abstract complex information from the highest areas: Disgust from the insula cortex. It sends signals to almost every other part of the brain, including to the decision-making circuitry of the frontal lobes. It has high levels of D(1) dopamine receptors. During extreme fear the amygdala drives the hippocampus into fear learning. It outputs directly to subcortical reflexive motor pathways when speed is required. Its central nucleus projects to the BNST. It signals the locus ceruleus. The amygdala:

Promotes aggression. Stimulating the amygdala promotes rage. It converts anger into aggression and when impaired it impacts the ability to detect angry facial expressions.
Participates in disgust
Perceives fear promoting stimuli. In PTSD sufferers the Amygdala overreacts to mildly fearful stimuli and is slow to calm down and the amygdala expands in size over a period of months. Fear is processed by the lateral nucleus which serves as the input from various senses, and the central nucleus which outputs to the brain stem (central grey - freezing, lateral hypothalamus - blood pressure, activates paraventricular hypothalamus => crf -> hormone adjustments).
Has lots of receptors for and is highly sensitive to glucocorticoids. Stress inhibits the GABA interneurons in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) allowing the excitatory glutamate releasing neurons to excite more.
Is sensitive to unsettling/uncertain social situations where it promotes anxiety. It is also interested in uncertain but potentially painful situations. The amygdala contributes to social and emotional decision making where the BLA supports rejecting an unacceptable offer, as allowed in the Ultimatum Game, by injecting implicit mistrust and vigilance, generating an anger driven rejection that is used as punishment. The amygdala is very rapidly excited by subliminal signals from the thalamus of outgroup skin color. The amygdala subsequently tips social emotions against outgroups unless restrained by the frontal lobe or influenced by subliminal priming to prioritize inclusion. The fast path from the thalamus rapidly but inaccurately signals its identified a weapon.
Promotes male, but not female, sexual motivation when it is an uncertain potential pleasure.
Responds to the longing for uncertain potential pleasures and fear that the reward will not be worth it if it happens. The amygdala turns off during orgasm.
Uses but is not directly involved in vision.

where the serotonin enhances dopamine is a synaptic signal supporting generalized goal-directed behavior & anticipation of reward. Its significance is that the receptors that detect the signal are of the slow acting type and are used to alter (modulate) the response of fast acting dopaminergic neural circuits in which the receptors are deployed (LTP). The signal detects significant changes including predictions of models and actual results which differ unexpectedly. The dopamine network architecture is designed to signal the possibility of any type of reward: Norm violation punishment, Winning a lottery, & Misfortune of an envied competitor. Dopamine signalling:

Rescales continuously to accommodate the range of intensity offered by different stimuli. So dopamine's responses to any reward habituate. GABA is released by some tegmental neurons to induce habituation.
Reflects the anticipation of reward. It supports establishment of a relationship between a signal, working for a reward and obtaining the reward, but subsequently dopamine is mainly released encouraging the work, right after the signal supporting anticipation of the reward. Anticipation requires learning and is reflected in hippocampus activity. That explains context dependent cravings. And the learning architecture means reliable cues become rewarding. The accumbens supports willpower. And dopamine
Promotes goal-oriented behavior needed to obtain & likely to achieve the reward - through the dopamine projections to the prefrontal cortex. That makes dopamine central to:

Motivation. This binding fails in depression - due to stress and in anxiety - due to signals from the amygdala.
The prefrontal cortex's mesocortically stimulated support for willpower to act to delay rewards. To sustain work for delayed rewards additional dopamine is released based on the length of the delay and the rewards uncertainty (modelled in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex - which promotes the long term and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex - which promotes the short term) and the anticipated size of the reward (modelled in the accumbens). Impulsiveness in ADHD is reflected in abnormal dopamine processing. Addictive drugs bias the dopamine network towards impulsiveness.

Is lowered by certain gene variants which induce: less dopamine in the synapse, fewer receptors, lower responsiveness of receptors; associated with (as tiny effects in hugely varying social scenarios): sensation seeking, risk taking, attentional problems, extroversion; where:

The receptor D4's gene shows high variability. The D47R form is relatively unresponsive to dopamine.
Dopamine is degraded by COMT. The COMT gene includes a variant which is highly efficient reducing dopamine signalling but with complicating gene/environment interactions.
Dopamine is removed from the synapse by a reuptake transporter DAT.

Read Montague explores how brains make decisions. In particular he explains how:

Evolution can create indirect abstract models, such as the dopamine system, that allow
Life changing real-time decisions to be made, and how
Schematic structures provide encodings of computable control structures which operate through and on incomputable, schematically encoded, physically active structures and operationally associated production functions.

effects on goal-directed behavior.

Seconds to minutes before

Having reviewed what the nervous system was doing to generate our best and worst behaviors Sapolsky now aims to explore:

What outside stimulus, acting through what sensory channel and targeting which parts of the brain, prompted this behavior?
Were you aware of that environmental stimulus?
What stimuli had your brain made you particularly sensitive to?
What does this tell us about our best and worst behaviors?

Huge variety of external and internal cues impact behavior and many of these signals are subliminal. This makes us less rational and autonomous decision makers than we typically assume.

Sapolsky repeats that an animal's dominant sensory channel has the most direct access to the limbic system supports emotional circuits: Amygdala, Hippocampus, Septum, Habenula, Mammillary bodies; all of which signals the midbrain through the hypothalamus. The broad interconnections of these regions with a part of the frontal lobe suggested to Walle Nauta that it (ventromedial prefrontal cortex) is a quasi-member of the limbic network. . And he stresses that subliminal sensory cues are hugely significant.

Pertinent to our best and worst behaviors our brains are highly attuned to skin color, noting within a hundred milliseconds:

The medial prefrontal cortex in Buckner's fMRI based analysis is part of the brain's default mode network. It facilitates the flexible use of information during the construction of self-relevant mental simulations. Nauta considered its ventromedial part as participating in the limbic system. With the medial temporal lobe it converges on important integration nodes: posterior cingulate cortex. differentially activates when considering misfortune to members of one's own race.

Eyes are major sensors in primates, based on opsins deployed in the retina & especially fovea, signalling the visual system: Superior colliculi, Thalamus (LGN), Primary visual cortex; and indirectly the amygdala. They also signal [social] emotional state to other people. And they have implicit censorious power with pictures of eyes encouraging people within their view to act more honorably. Eyes are poor scanners and use a saccade to present detail slowly to the fovea. The eye's optical structures and retina are supported by RPE. Eyes do not connect to the brain through the brain stem and so still operate in locked-in syndrome. Evo-devo shows eyes have deep homology. High pressure within the eye can result in glaucoma. Genetic inheritance can result in retinoblastoma. Age is associated with AMD.
and then faces present the most significant subliminal signals for watching humans. Emotion are low level agents distributed across the brain and body which associate, via the amygdala and rich club hubs, important environmental signals with encoded high speed sensors, and distributed programs of action to model: predict, prioritize guidance signals, select and respond effectively, coherently and rapidly to the initial signal. The majority of emotion centered brain regions interface to the midbrain through the hypothalamus. The most accessible signs of emotions are the hard to control and universal facial expressions. Emotions provide prioritization for conscious access given that an animal has only one body, but possibly many cells, with which to achieve its highest level goals. Because of this emotions clash with group goals and are disparaged by the powerful. Evolutionary psychology argues evolution shaped human emotions during the long period of hunter-gatherer existence in the African savanna. Human emotions are universal and include: Anger, Appreciation of natural beauty, Disgust, Fear, Gratitude, Grief, Guilt, Happiness, Honor, Jealousy, Liking, Love, Rage, Romantic love, Lust for revenge, Passion, Sadness, Self-control, Shame, Sympathy, Surprise; and the sham emotions and distrust induced by reciprocal altruism. is discerned primarily from the eyes.

Subliminal auditory cues also alter behavior in a racially biased way.

Subliminal smell is still significant in humans. The olfactory network directly projects to the limbic system:

Inhaled sweat produced while terrified is an emotion which prepares the body for time sensitive action: Blood is sent to the muscles from the gut and skin, Adrenalin is released stimulating: Fuel to be released from the liver, Blood is encouraged to clot, and Face is wide-eyed and fearful. The short-term high priority goal, experienced as a sense of urgency, is to flee, fight or deflect the danger. There are both 'innate' - really high priority learning - which are mediated by the central amydala and learned fears which are mediated by the BLA which learns to fear a stimulus and then signals the central amygdala.
causes activation of the amygdala, increased startle response and improved detection of subliminal angry is an emotion which protects a person who has been cheated by a supposed friend. When the exploitation of the altruism is discovered, Steven Pinker explains, the result is a drive for moralistic aggression to hurt the cheater.
faces. When people around you smell scared is an emotion which prepares the body for time sensitive action: Blood is sent to the muscles from the gut and skin, Adrenalin is released stimulating: Fuel to be released from the liver, Blood is encouraged to clot, and Face is wide-eyed and fearful. The short-term high priority goal, experienced as a sense of urgency, is to flee, fight or deflect the danger. There are both 'innate' - really high priority learning - which are mediated by the central amydala and learned fears which are mediated by the BLA which learns to fear a stimulus and then signals the central amygdala.
your brain will be more likely to become scared too.
Smelling garbage makes people more conservative about social issues.

Beauty is accepted cross-culturally is how we do and think about things, transmitted by non-genetic means as defined by Frans de Waal. CAS theory views cultures as operating via memetic schemata evolved by memetic operators to support a cultural superorganism. Evolutionary psychology asserts that human culture reflects adaptations generated while hunting and gathering. Dehaene views culture as essentially human, shaped by exaptations and reading, transmitted with support of the neuronal workspace and stabilized by neuronal recycling. Sapolsky argues that parents must show children how to transform their genetically derived capabilities into a culturally effective toolset. He is interested in the broad differences across cultures of: Life expectancy, GDP, Death in childbirth, Violence, Chronic bullying, Gender equality, Happiness, Response to cheating, Individualist or collectivist, Enforcing honor, Approach to hierarchy; illustrating how different a person's life will be depending on the culture where they are raised. Culture:

Is deployed during pregnancy & childhood, with parental mediation. Nutrients, immune messages and hormones all affect the prenatal brain. Hormones: Testosterone with anti-Mullerian hormone masculinizes the brain by entering target cells and after conversion to estrogen binding to intracellular estrogen receptors; have organizational effects producing lifelong changes. Parenting style typically produces adults who adopt the same approach. And mothering style can alter gene regulation in the fetus in ways that transfer epigenetically to future generations! PMS symptoms vary by culture.
Is also significantly transmitted to children by their peers during play. So parents try to control their children's peer group.
Is transmitted to children by their neighborhoods, tribes, nations etc.
Influences the parenting style that is considered appropriate.
Can transform dominance into honor. There are ecological correlates of adopting honor cultures. Parents in honor cultures are typically authoritarian.
Is strongly adapted across a meta-ethnic frontier according to Turchin.
Across Europe was shaped by the Carolingian empire.
Can provide varying levels of support for innovation.
Produces consciousness according to Dennet.

, and from an early age, as indicating, through the medial orbitofrontal cortex is a rich club hub region of the prefrontal cortex, involved in representing emotion & reward in decision-making. It is positioned immediately above the orbits where the eyes sit. The medial part judges the beauty of faces, minds and acts and will conflate them in social emotion evaluations. The orbitofrontal cortex receives projections from the: hippocampus & associated areas of the cingulate, retrosplenial & entorhinal cortices, anterior thalamus, amygdala, midline thalamus, non-isocortical insula, mediodorsal thalamus. , smarter, kinder & more honest people.

Body posture is rapidly analyzed, signalling, is an emergent capability which is used by cooperating agents to support coordination & rival agents to support control and dominance. In eukaryotic cells signalling is used extensively. A signal interacts with the exposed region of a receptor molecule inducing it to change shape to an activated form. Chains of enzymes interact with the activated receptor relaying, amplifying and responding to the signal to change the state of the cell. Many of the signalling pathways pass through the nuclear membrane and interact with the DNA to change its state. Enzymes sensitive to the changes induced in the DNA then start to operate generating actions including sending further signals. Cell signalling is reviewed by Helmreich. Signalling is a fundamental aspect of CAS theory and is discussed from the abstract CAS perspective in signals and sensors. In AWF the eukaryotic signalling architecture has been abstracted in a codelet based implementation. To be credible signals must be hard to fake. To be effective they must be easily detected by the target recipient. To be efficient they are low cost to produce and destroy.
social status is a publically accepted, signal that one possesses assets: wealth, beauty, talent, expertise, access & trust of powerful people; to be able to help others.
& dominance signals the power to hurt a rival. Maynard Smith & Parker explain that in group situations females compete for food and males compete for females. Maleness is a huge factor for violence. Fighting to the death is costly for all participants so instead they indicate:

Size and weapons to demonstrate who will win. Males who are, or look like, better fighters: Large heads, Big men, Height; gain in dominance.
Political acumen to demonstrate they won't be pushed around and have the support of other powerful groups. Dominant males push other rivals aside and gain interest of females, enabling themselves to replicate more. Being a signal its authenticity can be challenged and so must be defended to remain credible. Hotheads leverage the doomsday machine to constrain rational challenges. Bands and cultures leverage honor. Youth and lack of resources reduce the power of rivals' political constraints.

helping support stable social hierarchies.

Interoceptive signals indicate the body's internal state: Pain, Fatigue; seconds to minutes before. The interoceptive 'networks' project to brain regions that implement social emotions.
also influence our behaviors. Sapolsky notes evidence supporting the James-Lange theory developed by William James & Carl Lange who, independently proposed that humans decide how they feel based on interoceptive signals, rather than from external ones. Sapolsky notes the theory reflects these signals influence on behavior where social emotion processing areas receive lots of projections from interoceptive networks. The most notable is pain. But he writes it fails to support specificity or speed of reactions since autonomic responses are too slow to precede awareness of an emotion.
, that these internal feelings shape your interpretation of external signals and your emotions. But he notes issues of specificity and speed that make these influences rather than determinants of emotions.

Words have significant behavioral influence. Subliminal prime flashes a subliminal word or picture, the prime, immediately before another visible item, the target. Experiments demonstrate that the presence of the subliminal prime speeds up conscious processing when the prime is represented consciously within a second of the initial showing.
words shift behavior to be more or less prosocial is prioritizing benefiting others through: Help, Charity, Truth; even if many are acts of restitution to balance out antisocial acts. Due to the Insula's binding of physical and metaphorical disgust, physically washing your hands can be enough to reduce the need for a prosocial act.
. Kahneman & Tversky showed word framing related to gain or loss is processed differently in decision making. Kahneman & Tversky asked participants in an experiment, including doctors, to decide whether to administer a hypothetical drug. When to the drug:

Has a 95 percent survival rate, the participants were more likely to approve its use than if it
Has a 5 percent death rate.

can alter decision making.

Symbols: National flag, Team shirt; also influence behavior. Cues about group identity demonstrate the complex nature of the signal processing. Asian American women primed to think about racial identity performed better in a mathematics test than those primed to think about gender. Sapolsky notes that their assumptions about females struggling at mathematics depend on cultural influences.

When women are present, or men are prompted to think about women, men increase their risk-taking, spend more on luxuries that signal status, and act more aggressively. Except when men's status has been achieved prosocially in which case the presence of women makes the men more prosocial.

The physical environment also signals changes in behavior: Broken windows is a 1982 crime theory of James Wilson and George Kelling, that was inspired by the results of vandalism experiments by Philip Zimbardo, which assumes urban disorder and vandalism undermine social constraints and encourage additional criminal and anti-social behavior. By detecting and responding to petty vandalism rapidly it is assumed that more serious crime will be discouraged. In New York Broken Windows was used to justify 'stop, question and frisk'. However, Donohue & Levitt's analysis suggests an observed precipitous drop in crime rates depended on legal access to abortion.
; which encouraged zero-tolerance policing in New York City resulting is reductions in crime.

Sapolsky raises a complicating detail: the brain can

Agents use sensors to detect events in their environment. This page reviews how these events become signals associated with beneficial responses in a complex adaptive system (CAS). CAS signals emerge from the Darwinian information model. Signals can indicate decision summaries and level of uncertainty.

alter the sensitivity of specific sensory modalities making some signals more influential. Examples include: Directional sensing, Stress is a multi-faceted condition reflecting high cortisol levels. Dr. Robert Sapolsky's studies of baboons indicate that stress helps build readiness for fight or flight. As these actions occur the levels of cortisol return to the baseline rate. A stressor is anything that disrupts the regular homeostatic balance. The stress response is the array of neural and endocrine changes that occur to respond effectively to the crisis and reestablish homeostasis.

The short term response to the stressor

activates the amygdala which: Stimulates the brain stem resulting in inhibition of the parasympathetic nervous system and activation of the sympathetic nervous system with the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine deployed around the body, Activates the PVN which generates a cascade resulting in glucocorticoid secretion to: get energy to the muscles with increased blood pressure for a powerful response. The brain's acuity and cognition are stimulated. The immune system is stimulated with beta-endorphin and repair activities curtail. But when the stressor is

long term: loneliness, debt; and no action is necessary, or possible, long term damage ensues. Damage from such stress may only occur in specific situations: Nuclear families coping with parents moving in. Sustained stress provides an evolved amplifier of a position of dominance and status. It is a strategy in female aggression used to limit reproductive competition. Sustained stress:

Stops the frontal cortex from ensuring we do the harder thing, instead substituting amplification of the individual's propensity for risk-taking and impairing risk assessment!
Activates the integration between the thalamus and amygdala.

Acts differently on the amygdala in comparison to the frontal cortex and hippocampus: Stress strengthens the integration between the Amygdala and the hippocampus, making the hippocampus fearful.
BLA & BNST respond with increased BDNF levels and expanded dendrites persistently increasing anxiety and fear conditioning.

Makes it easier to learn a fear association and to consolidate it into long-term memory. Sustained stress makes it harder to unlearn fear by making the prefrontal cortex inhibit the BLA from learning to break the fear association and weakening the prefrontal cortex's hold over the amygdala. And glucocorticoids decrease activation of the medial prefrontal cortex during processing of emotional faces. Accuracy of assessing emotions from faces suffers. A terrified rat generating lots of glucocorticoids will cause dendrites in the hippocampus to atrophy but when it generates the same amount from excitement of running on a wheel the dendrites expand. The activation of the amygdala seems to determine how the hippocampus responds.
Depletes the nucleus accumbens of dopamine biasing rats toward social subordination and biasing humans toward depression.
Disrupts working memory by amplifying norepinephrine signalling in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala to prefrontal cortex signalling until they become destructive. It also desynchronizes activation in different frontal lobe regions impacting shifting of attention.
Increases the risk of autoimmune disease (Jan 2017)

During depression, stress inhibits dopamine signalling.
Strategies for stress reduction include: Mindfulness.

driven alterations, Hunger based increases in sensitivity to smell of food. There are more projections from the higher centers of the brain back to the sensory networks allowing modulation of the sensors operations. Such complex interactions result in individuals from collectivist cultures looking at a complicated picture with foreground and background details differently to those from individualist cultures.

Hours to days before

This is the timescale where hormones are signalling molecules: ACTH, TRH, Melanocyte stimulating hormone, Testosterone, Oxytocin, Vasopressin, Insulin, Growth hormone, Estrogen, Progesterone, Angiotensin II, Asprosin, EPO, Irisin, Leptin, FGF21 hormone, Prostaglandins, TSH, Thyroxine, Glococorticoids; that are transported by the circulatory system to interact with target organs having appropriate receptors. The levels of hormones can fluctuate massively, as in pregnancy.
influence the brain regions and sensory networks discussed previously. The effects are mainly contingent and facilitative increasing sensitivity to preexisting tendencies setup over the longer term via adult neuroplasticity and adolescence and childhood and genetics and proximate environment including culture is how we do and think about things, transmitted by non-genetic means as defined by Frans de Waal. CAS theory views cultures as operating via memetic schemata evolved by memetic operators to support a cultural superorganism. Evolutionary psychology asserts that human culture reflects adaptations generated while hunting and gathering. Dehaene views culture as essentially human, shaped by exaptations and reading, transmitted with support of the neuronal workspace and stabilized by neuronal recycling. Sapolsky argues that parents must show children how to transform their genetically derived capabilities into a culturally effective toolset. He is interested in the broad differences across cultures of: Life expectancy, GDP, Death in childbirth, Violence, Chronic bullying, Gender equality, Happiness, Response to cheating, Individualist or collectivist, Enforcing honor, Approach to hierarchy; illustrating how different a person's life will be depending on the culture where they are raised. Culture:

Is deployed during pregnancy & childhood, with parental mediation. Nutrients, immune messages and hormones all affect the prenatal brain. Hormones: Testosterone with anti-Mullerian hormone masculinizes the brain by entering target cells and after conversion to estrogen binding to intracellular estrogen receptors; have organizational effects producing lifelong changes. Parenting style typically produces adults who adopt the same approach. And mothering style can alter gene regulation in the fetus in ways that transfer epigenetically to future generations! PMS symptoms vary by culture.
Is also significantly transmitted to children by their peers during play. So parents try to control their children's peer group.
Is transmitted to children by their neighborhoods, tribes, nations etc.
Influences the parenting style that is considered appropriate.
Can transform dominance into honor. There are ecological correlates of adopting honor cultures. Parents in honor cultures are typically authoritarian.
Is strongly adapted across a meta-ethnic frontier according to Turchin.
Across Europe was shaped by the Carolingian empire.
Can provide varying levels of support for innovation.
Produces consciousness according to Dennet.

.

Sapolsky's discusses testosterone is a hormone secreted by the testes in response to stimulation from the hypothalamic/pituitary/testicular cascade, that makes humans more willing to do what it takes to attain and maintain status, according to Sapolsky. That means players of the Ultimatum Game, if previously given testosterone can become more generous. Testosterones effect is highly socially contextual so it may encourage acts of kindness or aggression (when challenged). The level of testosterone does not predict which individuals will be aggressive in: Birds, Fish, Mammals including primates. Genes impact the potency of testosterone by altering the enzymes that: Construct it, Convert it to estrogen, code the androgen receptor. This androgen receptor includes a variable polyglutamine repeat which alters the sensitivity to the testosterone signal. The more potent form is associated with boys showing more dramatic 'masculinization' of the cortex. But the detected genetic influences are small. Testosterone decreases activity in the prefrontal cortex and its functional coupling to the amygdala while increasing the coupling between the amygdala & the thalamus. Testosterone shortens the refactory period of amygdaloid & amygdaloid target neurons. This results in impulsive risk taking and more focus on unfamiliar faces and distrust of them. Testosterone increases activity in the ventral tegmentum projecting dopamine to enhance place preference. Winners of fights become more willing to fight in part due to testosterone increasing confidence and optimism and reducing fear and anxiety. And winning at: Chess, Athletics, Stock trades; induces the BNST to add testosterone receptors increasing its sensitivity to the hormone. People become overconfident and overly optimistic.
which he asserts is far less relevant to aggression than has been assumed and oxytocin is a peptide hormone which makes humans more prosocial to and socially competent in their in-group and more antisocial to everyone else. The effects are contingent; changing during stress and in the presence of a threatening outgroup. Oxytocin makes people look at eyes longer, encouraging improved accuracy at perceiving emotions. It enhances activity in the TPJ supporting modeling of other people's thinking. Dogs and their owners secrete oxytocin increasing the amount of eye contact between them. It is associated with pair bonding. It is central to female mammals wanting to nurse, nursing, and remembering their child. Its effects are context dependent and so is the regulation of the genes that control oxytocin. Variants of a gene CD38 which facilitates oxytocin secretion from neurons are associated with differing levels of activation of the fusiform face area when looking at faces. Sapolsky describes an oxytocin receptor gene variant that is associated with children showing: Extreme aggression, A callous unemotional style; foreshadowing adult psychopathy. And another receptor gene variant which is associated with childhood social disconnection and unstable adult relationships. Gene/environment interactions complicate the interpretation of the presence of particular gene variants. Hypothalamic neurons send projections to: ventral tegmentum which also becomes more receptive during child birth, nucleus accumbens, hippocampus, amygdala where it inhibits the central amygdala suppressing fear & anxiety consistently in men while still allowing women to respond to threats to their infants, frontal cortex, olfactory network where it helps new rat mums to learn the smell of their offspring; where oxytocin prepares the brain for in-group bonding, out-grouping, birth and maternal behavior. Outside the brain hypothalamic neurons in females send oxytocin to the posterior pituitary where it enters the blood stream stimulating uterine contraction during labor & supporting milk production for weaning. Disorders associated with oxytocin abnormalities include ASD.
that is not as prosocial is prioritizing benefiting others through: Help, Charity, Truth; even if many are acts of restitution to balance out antisocial acts. Due to the Insula's binding of physical and metaphorical disgust, physically washing your hands can be enough to reduce the need for a prosocial act.
as often claimed.

Males have more testosterone and are more aggressive but Sapolsky notes that aggression occurs even when castration has removed testosterone from males. Sapolsky concludes aggression is typically more about social learning than testosterone. We reward aggression too often. Testosterone has effects but they are hugely context dependent and typically amplify preexisting tendencies. Testosterone boosts impulsivity, risk taking and feeling good from such activities. It also makes winning a fight feel good. And it supports the formation of a dominance hierarchy and encourages us to maintain status is a publically accepted, signal that one possesses assets: wealth, beauty, talent, expertise, access & trust of powerful people; to be able to help others.
. Only during a challenge does an increases in testosterone make aggression more likely. When a person's pride depends on being prosocial rising testosterone will increase acts of kindness.

Oxytocin became interesting to neurobiologists when it was realized the hypothalamic is essential to many operations of the body. It has many small sub-regions whose main functions are to regulate hunger, thirst, temperature, sexual behavior, and similar body operations. Its (paraventricular nucleus) is closely connected to the pituitary which secrets hormones into the bloodstream ( => acth -> adrenal cortex => cortisol (+)-> amygdala & (-)-> hippocampus). neurons, specialized eukaryotic cells include channels which control flows of sodium and potassium ions across the massively extended cell membrane supporting an electro-chemical wave which is then converted into an outgoing chemical signal transmission from synapses which target nearby neuron or muscle cell receptors. Neurons are supported by glial cells. Neurons include a:

Receptive element - dendrites
Transmitting element - axon and synaptic terminals
Highly variable DNA schema using transposons.

that sent axons, a long extension of a neuron which has a membrane constructed to support the uni-directional flow of action potential from the dendritic tree and cell body to the synaptic terminals. to the posterior pituitary also sent projections throughout the brain, including to the: ventral tegmentum is part of the tegmentum which contains dopamine long system cell bodies (high levels of D(2)). Their axons branch extensively and reach many areas including: Mesolimbic to the limbic system: amygdala, hippocampus; Tegmentostriatal to the nucleus accumbens, Mesocortical to the forebrain including the prefrontal cortex. The terminals are fairly evenly distributed through out layers 1 - 6. So dopamine can modulate input and output excitatory and inhibitory transmissions. If a rodent wins a fight on his home territory, there are long-lasting increases in levels of testosterone receptors enhancing pleasurable effects. The lateral ventral tegmental area is now known to be one of two large adrenergic pathways, along with the locus ceruleus. During child birth the ventral tegmentum deploys more oxytocin receptors increasing its sensitivity to the neuropeptide.
, accumbens is a region of the basal forebrain rostral to the preoptic area and immediately adjacent to the septum. The nucleus accumbens was closely associated with the limbic system and plays an important role in reinforcement. If a rodent wins a fight on his home territory, there are long-lasting increases in levels of testosterone receptors enhancing pleasurable effects. When prairie voles first mate, epi-genetic state changes are induced in the accumbens to support pair-bonding. The accumbens projects to brain regions associated with movement. The major pathways of dopaminergic neurons begin in the substantia nigra and the ventral tegmental area. The amygdala projects back to the accumbens. The tegmentostriatal system begins in the ventral tegmental area and projects to the nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens includes high levels of D1, D2 and D3 dopamine receptors located on the spine & shafts of dendrites of excitatory cells reduce the transfer of excitation from the dendrites to the cell bodies, so only especially strong excitatory inputs get through to the cell body to elicit excitation. It also has D4 dopamine receptors which are highly variable. The accumbens responds differently to rewards depending on maturity: In juveniles all reward levels result in the same response activity level, During adolescence the accumbens responds to small rewards negatively, and large rewards hugely, In adults the rewards result in measured scaled positive responses. Chronic stress depletes dopamine from the nucleus accumbens biasing humans towards depression. , hippocampus is a part of the brain involved in the temporary storage or coding of long-term episodic memory. Memory formation in the cells of the hippocampus uses the MAP kinase signalling network which is impacted by sleep deprivation. The hippocampus dependent memory system is directly affected by cholinergic changes throughout the wake-sleep cycle. Increased acetylcholine during REM sleep promotes information attained during wakefulness to be stored in the hippocampus by suppressing previous excitatory connections while facilitating encoding without interference from previously stored information. During slow-wave sleep low levels of acetylcholine cause the release of the suppression and allow for spontaneous recovery of hippocampal neurons resulting in memory consolidation. It was initially associated with memory formation by McGill University's Dr. Brenda Milner, via studies of 'HM' Henry Molaison, whose medial temporal lobes had been surgically destroyed leaving him unable to create new memories. The size of neurons' dendritic trees expands and contracts over a female rat's ovulatory cycle, with the peak in size and cognitive skills at the estrogen high point. Adult neurogenesis occurs in the hippocampus (3% of neurons are replaced each month) where the new neurons integrate into preexisting circuits. It is enhanced by learning, exercise, estrogen, antidepressants, environmental enrichment, and brain injury and inhibited by various stressors explains Sapolsky. Prolonged stress makes the hippocampus atrophy. He notes the new neurons are essential for integrating new information into preexisting schemas -- learning that two things you thought were the same are actually different.
, amygdala contains > 12 distinct areas: Central, Lateral. It receives simple signals from the lower parts of the brain: pain from the PAG; and abstract complex information from the highest areas: Disgust from the insula cortex. It sends signals to almost every other part of the brain, including to the decision-making circuitry of the frontal lobes. It has high levels of D(1) dopamine receptors. During extreme fear the amygdala drives the hippocampus into fear learning. It outputs directly to subcortical reflexive motor pathways when speed is required. Its central nucleus projects to the BNST. It signals the locus ceruleus. The amygdala:

Promotes aggression. Stimulating the amygdala promotes rage. It converts anger into aggression and when impaired it impacts the ability to detect angry facial expressions.
Participates in disgust
Perceives fear promoting stimuli. In PTSD sufferers the Amygdala overreacts to mildly fearful stimuli and is slow to calm down and the amygdala expands in size over a period of months. Fear is processed by the lateral nucleus which serves as the input from various senses, and the central nucleus which outputs to the brain stem (central grey - freezing, lateral hypothalamus - blood pressure, activates paraventricular hypothalamus => crf -> hormone adjustments).
Has lots of receptors for and is highly sensitive to glucocorticoids. Stress inhibits the GABA interneurons in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) allowing the excitatory glutamate releasing neurons to excite more.
Is sensitive to unsettling/uncertain social situations where it promotes anxiety. It is also interested in uncertain but potentially painful situations. The amygdala contributes to social and emotional decision making where the BLA supports rejecting an unacceptable offer, as allowed in the Ultimatum Game, by injecting implicit mistrust and vigilance, generating an anger driven rejection that is used as punishment. The amygdala is very rapidly excited by subliminal signals from the thalamus of outgroup skin color. The amygdala subsequently tips social emotions against outgroups unless restrained by the frontal lobe or influenced by subliminal priming to prioritize inclusion. The fast path from the thalamus rapidly but inaccurately signals its identified a weapon.
Promotes male, but not female, sexual motivation when it is an uncertain potential pleasure.
Responds to the longing for uncertain potential pleasures and fear that the reward will not be worth it if it happens. The amygdala turns off during orgasm.
Uses but is not directly involved in vision.

& frontal cortex of the cerebral cortex is at the front of the brain. It includes the: prefrontal cortex, motor cortex. Sapolsky asserts it makes you do the harder thing when it's the right thing to do. The frontal cortex supports working memory to sustain focus on a task. It also coordinates the strategic actions necessary to achieve success. It provides impulse control, regulation of emotion, and willpower. The prefrontal cortex maintains focus by deprioritizing currently irrelevant streams of information. The frontal cortex tracks rules. Over a lifetime, that builds into a costly activity. Once it tires, responses become less prosocial. But practice shifts operation of tasks to the cerebellum. The frontal cortex signals the tegmentum and accumbens with the conclusions of its expectancy/discrepancy calculations. The frontal lobe provides executive function, considering bits of information, assessing patterns and then prioritizing the strategies. The frontal lobe is the most recent part of the brain to evolve and involves a disproportionate percentage of primate-unique genes in its development and operation. It does not complete development until the mid-20s. It includes spindle neurons. It is easily damaged. Sapolsky (Nauta) notes that its ventromedial prefrontal cortex is a quasi-member of the limbic system.
. Maternal behaviors are induced by oxytocin and its production is boosted during birth by the hypothalamus. And the ventral tegmentum increases its sensitivity to oxytocin by increasing the volume of receptors, in biological cells these proteins are able to span the cell membrane and present an active site which is tailored to interact with a specific signal. When the receptor pairs with its signal, its overall shape changes resulting in changes in the part internal to the cell which can be relayed by the cells signalling infrastructure. In neuron synapses one type of receptor (fast) is associated with an ion channel. The other (slow) is associated with a signalling enzyme chain and modulates the neuron's response.
. In rats olfactory stimulation ensures the new mum learns the smell of her offspring.
The male analog vasopressin developed by duplication and subsequent mutation of the vasotocin gene, along with oxytocin, during the initial formation of mammals. It acts as a hormone regulating water retention in the kidneys. It supports paternal behavior stimulated by a female giving birth. Sex releases vasopressin in the nucleus accumbens of male prairie voles. And prairie voles have more receptors in the accumbens than other voles supporting their pair bonding. This situation is similar in bonobos relative to chimps where it encourages social bonding - but not monogamy. Vasopressin is made in hypothalamic neurons which project to the posterior pituitary for release as a hormone. It is also a neuropeptide transmitting from hypothalamic projections to the ventral tegmentum, nucleus accumbens, hippocampus, amygdala, and frontal cortex. And it is made & secreted in other areas of the brain. Vasopressin enhances aggression in paternal prairie vole males. But the aggression is then maintained by social learning.
supported paternal behavior. Vasopressin receptor levels increase in the male's brain when the female gives birth.

Oxytocin was also found to support pair bonding is an increase in the strength of relationship between parents and parents and children in some species: prairie voles, bonobos - not monogamous, and humans. NIMH's Thomas Insel, Emory's Larry Young & Illinois's Sue Carter's research highlighted prairie voles, where pair-bonding is enabled by a genetic difference from montane voles in the operon controlling generation of the vasopressin receptor. Oxytocin is associated with pair bonding. There are: Higher levels of receptors in males (vasopressin) having lots of sex and in females (oxytocin) performing grooming & physical contact, Sex releases oxytocin in the nucleus accumbens of female prairie voles. Such pair-bonded males are less interested in other females. Insel, Young & Carter engineered: (1) Male mice brains to express the prairie vole version of the vasopressin receptor in their brains resulting in grooming and huddling with familiar females. (2) Male montane vole brains to add vasopressin receptors to the nucleus accumbens resulting in their being more socially affiliative with individual females. . And by inhibiting the central amygdala is a relatively ancient evolved part of the amygdala which processes 'innate' fears. It projects to the BNST to raise the heart rate and blood pressure in preparation for fight and flight.
it suppresses fear is an emotion which prepares the body for time sensitive action: Blood is sent to the muscles from the gut and skin, Adrenalin is released stimulating: Fuel to be released from the liver, Blood is encouraged to clot, and Face is wide-eyed and fearful. The short-term high priority goal, experienced as a sense of urgency, is to flee, fight or deflect the danger. There are both 'innate' - really high priority learning - which are mediated by the central amydala and learned fears which are mediated by the BLA which learns to fear a stimulus and then signals the central amygdala.
and anxiety is manifested in the amygdala mediating inhibition of dopamine rewards. Major anxiety results in elevated glucocorticoids and reduces hippocampal dendrite & spine density. Some estrogen receptor variants are associated with anxiety in women. Michael Pollan concludes anxiety is fear of the future.
. Except when a mother has to defend her babies where the central amygdala's instinctual fear supports oxytocin stimulated enhanced aggression.

Oxytocin supports prosocial capabilities improving detection of happy faces and socially positive words. It makes people study eyes for longer improving accuracy of reading emotions. In a social-recognition-task it increases activity in the TPJ is the temporoparietal juncture: left, right; where the temporal and parietal lobes meet, an area of the cortex with projections from the thalamus, limbic system, visual, auditory and somatosensory networks. It supports modeling of self and others.
enhancing ideas about what other people are thinking. But oxytocin decreases cooperation with strangers. It helps us identify who is an Us. Abnormalities in the oxytocin vasopressin network are associated with ASD is autism spectrum disorder. People who suffer from ASD show a reduced fusiform response to faces. ASD is linked to gene variants affecting oxytocin and vasopressin, to nongenetic mechanisms that silence the oxytocin receptor gene and to lower levels of the receptor itself.
.

Oxytocin has contingent effects: It makes charitable people more charitable, Seeking social support occurred more when the subjects were from individual cultures, with a specific receptor variant & under stress is a multi-faceted condition reflecting high cortisol levels. Dr. Robert Sapolsky's studies of baboons indicate that stress helps build readiness for fight or flight. As these actions occur the levels of cortisol return to the baseline rate. A stressor is anything that disrupts the regular homeostatic balance. The stress response is the array of neural and endocrine changes that occur to respond effectively to the crisis and reestablish homeostasis.

The short term response to the stressor

activates the amygdala which: Stimulates the brain stem resulting in inhibition of the parasympathetic nervous system and activation of the sympathetic nervous system with the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine deployed around the body, Activates the PVN which generates a cascade resulting in glucocorticoid secretion to: get energy to the muscles with increased blood pressure for a powerful response. The brain's acuity and cognition are stimulated. The immune system is stimulated with beta-endorphin and repair activities curtail. But when the stressor is

long term: loneliness, debt; and no action is necessary, or possible, long term damage ensues. Damage from such stress may only occur in specific situations: Nuclear families coping with parents moving in. Sustained stress provides an evolved amplifier of a position of dominance and status. It is a strategy in female aggression used to limit reproductive competition. Sustained stress:

Stops the frontal cortex from ensuring we do the harder thing, instead substituting amplification of the individual's propensity for risk-taking and impairing risk assessment!
Activates the integration between the thalamus and amygdala.

Acts differently on the amygdala in comparison to the frontal cortex and hippocampus: Stress strengthens the integration between the Amygdala and the hippocampus, making the hippocampus fearful.
BLA & BNST respond with increased BDNF levels and expanded dendrites persistently increasing anxiety and fear conditioning.

Makes it easier to learn a fear association and to consolidate it into long-term memory. Sustained stress makes it harder to unlearn fear by making the prefrontal cortex inhibit the BLA from learning to break the fear association and weakening the prefrontal cortex's hold over the amygdala. And glucocorticoids decrease activation of the medial prefrontal cortex during processing of emotional faces. Accuracy of assessing emotions from faces suffers. A terrified rat generating lots of glucocorticoids will cause dendrites in the hippocampus to atrophy but when it generates the same amount from excitement of running on a wheel the dendrites expand. The activation of the amygdala seems to determine how the hippocampus responds.
Depletes the nucleus accumbens of dopamine biasing rats toward social subordination and biasing humans toward depression.
Disrupts working memory by amplifying norepinephrine signalling in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala to prefrontal cortex signalling until they become destructive. It also desynchronizes activation in different frontal lobe regions impacting shifting of attention.
Increases the risk of autoimmune disease (Jan 2017)

During depression, stress inhibits dopamine signalling.
Strategies for stress reduction include: Mindfulness.

. The actions of oxytocin & vasopressin depend on context: who you are, your environment, who they are. Sapolsky notes that is also true for the regulation of the genes for these peptides.

The endocrinology of Aggression in females

Sapolsky explains that this subject confuses him:

Ratios of
estrogen
is a generic term for a number of related steroid hormones each of which works differently. Estrogen:
- Contributes to maternal aggression but it can reduce aggression and enhance empathy, depending on brain state. There are two different estrogen receptor types which mediate these conflicting effects. The levels of each type of receptor is independently regulated. Different receptor variants are associated with:
to
progesterone
is a steroid hormone. It:
- Rarely directly effects areas of the brain. Instead it is converted into other sterioids which have different actions in different brain areas.
- Increases maternal aggression in concert with estrogen by increasing oxytocin release in certain brain regions. However, on its own progresterone decreases aggression and anxiety. It decreases anxiety by entering neurons where it is converted to allopregnanolone which binds to GABA receptors increasing their sensitivity to GABA.
are more causally significant than absolute amounts. That effect is hard to mechanize.
Huge fluctuations occur over periods of hours, especially in women during ovulation and childbirth. That makes useful experiments tough to construct.
Different species vary in how this opperates.
Progesterone is mostly converted to other signals that have receptors in different brain regions. The various hormones generically termed estrogens all act slightly differently.
Females are sometimes aggressive anyway.

Maternal Aggression

Typically females increase aggression during pregnancy. The increase is most significant in species with significant amounts of infanticide.

In:

Rats, during late pregnancy,
estrogen
is a generic term for a number of related steroid hormones each of which works differently. Estrogen:
- Contributes to maternal aggression but it can reduce aggression and enhance empathy, depending on brain state. There are two different estrogen receptor types which mediate these conflicting effects. The levels of each type of receptor is independently regulated. Different receptor variants are associated with:
&
progesterone
is a steroid hormone. It:
- Rarely directly effects areas of the brain. Instead it is converted into other sterioids which have different actions in different brain areas.
- Increases maternal aggression in concert with estrogen by increasing oxytocin release in certain brain regions. However, on its own progresterone decreases aggression and anxiety. It decreases anxiety by entering neurons where it is converted to allopregnanolone which binds to GABA receptors increasing their sensitivity to GABA.
increase maternal aggression supports protection of newborns especially in breeds with high risks of infanticide. During late pregnancy, estrogen and progesterone increase maternal aggression by increasing oxytocin release in the brain. This outcome reflects the specific late pregnancy brain state and presence of both estrogen and progesterone.
by increasing oxytocin is a peptide hormone which makes humans more prosocial to and socially competent in their in-group and more antisocial to everyone else. The effects are contingent; changing during stress and in the presence of a threatening outgroup. Oxytocin makes people look at eyes longer, encouraging improved accuracy at perceiving emotions. It enhances activity in the TPJ supporting modeling of other people's thinking. Dogs and their owners secrete oxytocin increasing the amount of eye contact between them. It is associated with pair bonding. It is central to female mammals wanting to nurse, nursing, and remembering their child. Its effects are context dependent and so is the regulation of the genes that control oxytocin. Variants of a gene CD38 which facilitates oxytocin secretion from neurons are associated with differing levels of activation of the fusiform face area when looking at faces. Sapolsky describes an oxytocin receptor gene variant that is associated with children showing: Extreme aggression, A callous unemotional style; foreshadowing adult psychopathy. And another receptor gene variant which is associated with childhood social disconnection and unstable adult relationships. Gene/environment interactions complicate the interpretation of the presence of particular gene variants. Hypothalamic neurons send projections to: ventral tegmentum which also becomes more receptive during child birth, nucleus accumbens, hippocampus, amygdala where it inhibits the central amygdala suppressing fear & anxiety consistently in men while still allowing women to respond to threats to their infants, frontal cortex, olfactory network where it helps new rat mums to learn the smell of their offspring; where oxytocin prepares the brain for in-group bonding, out-grouping, birth and maternal behavior. Outside the brain hypothalamic neurons in females send oxytocin to the posterior pituitary where it enters the blood stream stimulating uterine contraction during labor & supporting milk production for weaning. Disorders associated with oxytocin abnormalities include ASD.
release in regions of the brain. Two different estrogen receptors, in biological cells these proteins are able to span the cell membrane and present an active site which is tailored to interact with a specific signal. When the receptor pairs with its signal, its overall shape changes resulting in changes in the part internal to the cell which can be relayed by the cells signalling infrastructure. In neuron synapses one type of receptor (fast) is associated with an ion channel. The other (slow) is associated with a signalling enzyme chain and modulates the neuron's response.
help allow estrogen to increase maternal aggression or reduce aggression and enhance empathy is the capability to relate to another person from their perspective. It is implemented by spindle neurons. It is context dependently mediated by estrogen. It develops over time: Piaget's preoperational stage includes rudimentary empathy, Theory of mind supports the development; initially feeling someone's pain as one integrated being, then for them and eventually as them. In adults, when someone else is hurt the anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala & insula activates projecting [scapegoating] to the vmPFC. If the pain is physical the PAG activates and motor neurons for the area where the other person was injured. The intertwining of the ACC amygdala & insula in adults results in attribution of fault even when there is none which can make it hard to step in and actually help. But in seven-year-olds the activation is concrete: PAG and sensory & motor cortexes with minimal coupling to the rudimentary vmPFC. In older children the vmPFC is coupled to limbic structures. Ten to twelve year olds abstract empathy to classes of people. By adolescence the vmPFC is coupled to theory of mind regions and intentional harm induces disgust via the amygdala. Sapolsky explains adolescent boys are utilitarian and tend to accept inequality more than girls do. But both sexes accept inequality as the way it is. Sociopaths do not develop empathy. and emotional recognition. The receptor levels are independently regulated allowing the brain to be configured differently and so respond to the same hormone are signalling molecules: ACTH, TRH, Melanocyte stimulating hormone, Testosterone, Oxytocin, Vasopressin, Insulin, Growth hormone, Estrogen, Progesterone, Angiotensin II, Asprosin, EPO, Irisin, Leptin, FGF21 hormone, Prostaglandins, TSH, Thyroxine, Glococorticoids; that are transported by the circulatory system to interact with target organs having appropriate receptors. The levels of hormones can fluctuate massively, as in pregnancy.
signals, is an emergent capability which is used by cooperating agents to support coordination & rival agents to support control and dominance. In eukaryotic cells signalling is used extensively. A signal interacts with the exposed region of a receptor molecule inducing it to change shape to an activated form. Chains of enzymes interact with the activated receptor relaying, amplifying and responding to the signal to change the state of the cell. Many of the signalling pathways pass through the nuclear membrane and interact with the DNA to change its state. Enzymes sensitive to the changes induced in the DNA then start to operate generating actions including sending further signals. Cell signalling is reviewed by Helmreich. Signalling is a fundamental aspect of CAS theory and is discussed from the abstract CAS perspective in signals and sensors. In AWF the eukaryotic signalling architecture has been abstracted in a codelet based implementation. To be credible signals must be hard to fake. To be effective they must be easily detected by the target recipient. To be efficient they are low cost to produce and destroy.
in different ways depending on longer-term context. Progesterone alone decreases aggression and anxiety.

Bare-Knuckled Female Aggression

While non-maternal female competition is typically assumed to be passive and covert, Sapolsky asserts this is mistaken because:

Female brains have their own
This page reviews the implications of selection, variation and heredity in a complex adaptive system (CAS). The mechanism and its emergence are discussed.

evolved distribution of androgen are a class of steroid hormones including testosterone, androstenedione and dihydrotestosterone. They are precursors of estrogens.
receptors , in biological cells these proteins are able to span the cell membrane and present an active site which is tailored to interact with a specific signal. When the receptor pairs with its signal, its overall shape changes resulting in changes in the part internal to the cell which can be relayed by the cells signalling infrastructure. In neuron synapses one type of receptor (fast) is associated with an ion channel. The other (slow) is associated with a signalling enzyme chain and modulates the neuron's response.
Female aggression can be used strategically to improve niche control: Capture resources including nesting space & food, Stress competitors into infertility, Chimps kill competing infants, Compete for paternal males; and
In some species: Hyenas; females are dominant and more aggressive than the males; Sapolsky concludes that androgens can help make females aggressive but it undermines maternal processes resulting in evolved compromises.

Perimenstrual aggression and irritability

PMS is premenstrual syndrome associated with: negative mood, irritability, bloating cramps, acne; immediately prior to menstruation. It occurs in various species. Its symptoms vary by culture. There is little evidence of an association with aggression.
and PMDD is premenstrual dysphoric disorder which affects 2 to 5% of women impairing their normal functioning.
studies have not identified an association with aggression.

Stress and imprudent brain function

Sapolsky notes the dilemma that important, consequential behaviors can be stressed situations and stress is a multi-faceted condition reflecting high cortisol levels. Dr. Robert Sapolsky's studies of baboons indicate that stress helps build readiness for fight or flight. As these actions occur the levels of cortisol return to the baseline rate. A stressor is anything that disrupts the regular homeostatic balance. The stress response is the array of neural and endocrine changes that occur to respond effectively to the crisis and reestablish homeostasis.

The short term response to the stressor

activates the amygdala which: Stimulates the brain stem resulting in inhibition of the parasympathetic nervous system and activation of the sympathetic nervous system with the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine deployed around the body, Activates the PVN which generates a cascade resulting in glucocorticoid secretion to: get energy to the muscles with increased blood pressure for a powerful response. The brain's acuity and cognition are stimulated. The immune system is stimulated with beta-endorphin and repair activities curtail. But when the stressor is

long term: loneliness, debt; and no action is necessary, or possible, long term damage ensues. Damage from such stress may only occur in specific situations: Nuclear families coping with parents moving in. Sustained stress provides an evolved amplifier of a position of dominance and status. It is a strategy in female aggression used to limit reproductive competition. Sustained stress:

Stops the frontal cortex from ensuring we do the harder thing, instead substituting amplification of the individual's propensity for risk-taking and impairing risk assessment!
Activates the integration between the thalamus and amygdala.

Acts differently on the amygdala in comparison to the frontal cortex and hippocampus: Stress strengthens the integration between the Amygdala and the hippocampus, making the hippocampus fearful.
BLA & BNST respond with increased BDNF levels and expanded dendrites persistently increasing anxiety and fear conditioning.

Makes it easier to learn a fear association and to consolidate it into long-term memory. Sustained stress makes it harder to unlearn fear by making the prefrontal cortex inhibit the BLA from learning to break the fear association and weakening the prefrontal cortex's hold over the amygdala. And glucocorticoids decrease activation of the medial prefrontal cortex during processing of emotional faces. Accuracy of assessing emotions from faces suffers. A terrified rat generating lots of glucocorticoids will cause dendrites in the hippocampus to atrophy but when it generates the same amount from excitement of running on a wheel the dendrites expand. The activation of the amygdala seems to determine how the hippocampus responds.
Depletes the nucleus accumbens of dopamine biasing rats toward social subordination and biasing humans toward depression.
Disrupts working memory by amplifying norepinephrine signalling in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala to prefrontal cortex signalling until they become destructive. It also desynchronizes activation in different frontal lobe regions impacting shifting of attention.
Increases the risk of autoimmune disease (Jan 2017)

During depression, stress inhibits dopamine signalling.
Strategies for stress reduction include: Mindfulness.

often impacts decision making. Sight of a large carnivore is detected in the amygdala contains > 12 distinct areas: Central, Lateral. It receives simple signals from the lower parts of the brain: pain from the PAG; and abstract complex information from the highest areas: Disgust from the insula cortex. It sends signals to almost every other part of the brain, including to the decision-making circuitry of the frontal lobes. It has high levels of D(1) dopamine receptors. During extreme fear the amygdala drives the hippocampus into fear learning. It outputs directly to subcortical reflexive motor pathways when speed is required. Its central nucleus projects to the BNST. It signals the locus ceruleus. The amygdala:

Promotes aggression. Stimulating the amygdala promotes rage. It converts anger into aggression and when impaired it impacts the ability to detect angry facial expressions.
Participates in disgust
Perceives fear promoting stimuli. In PTSD sufferers the Amygdala overreacts to mildly fearful stimuli and is slow to calm down and the amygdala expands in size over a period of months. Fear is processed by the lateral nucleus which serves as the input from various senses, and the central nucleus which outputs to the brain stem (central grey - freezing, lateral hypothalamus - blood pressure, activates paraventricular hypothalamus => crf -> hormone adjustments).
Has lots of receptors for and is highly sensitive to glucocorticoids. Stress inhibits the GABA interneurons in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) allowing the excitatory glutamate releasing neurons to excite more.
Is sensitive to unsettling/uncertain social situations where it promotes anxiety. It is also interested in uncertain but potentially painful situations. The amygdala contributes to social and emotional decision making where the BLA supports rejecting an unacceptable offer, as allowed in the Ultimatum Game, by injecting implicit mistrust and vigilance, generating an anger driven rejection that is used as punishment. The amygdala is very rapidly excited by subliminal signals from the thalamus of outgroup skin color. The amygdala subsequently tips social emotions against outgroups unless restrained by the frontal lobe or influenced by subliminal priming to prioritize inclusion. The fast path from the thalamus rapidly but inaccurately signals its identified a weapon.
Promotes male, but not female, sexual motivation when it is an uncertain potential pleasure.
Responds to the longing for uncertain potential pleasures and fear that the reward will not be worth it if it happens. The amygdala turns off during orgasm.
Uses but is not directly involved in vision.

which:

Sapolsky notes how we love stress in benevolent, mild, transient amounts. In these situations the levels of glucocorticoids secreted stimulates production of dopamine is a synaptic signal supporting generalized goal-directed behavior & anticipation of reward. Its significance is that the receptors that detect the signal are of the slow acting type and are used to alter (modulate) the response of fast acting dopaminergic neural circuits in which the receptors are deployed (LTP). The signal detects significant changes including predictions of models and actual results which differ unexpectedly. The dopamine network architecture is designed to signal the possibility of any type of reward: Norm violation punishment, Winning a lottery, & Misfortune of an envied competitor. Dopamine signalling:

Rescales continuously to accommodate the range of intensity offered by different stimuli. So dopamine's responses to any reward habituate. GABA is released by some tegmental neurons to induce habituation.
Reflects the anticipation of reward. It supports establishment of a relationship between a signal, working for a reward and obtaining the reward, but subsequently dopamine is mainly released encouraging the work, right after the signal supporting anticipation of the reward. Anticipation requires learning and is reflected in hippocampus activity. That explains context dependent cravings. And the learning architecture means reliable cues become rewarding. The accumbens supports willpower. And dopamine
Promotes goal-oriented behavior needed to obtain & likely to achieve the reward - through the dopamine projections to the prefrontal cortex. That makes dopamine central to:

Motivation. This binding fails in depression - due to stress and in anxiety - due to signals from the amygdala.
The prefrontal cortex's mesocortically stimulated support for willpower to act to delay rewards. To sustain work for delayed rewards additional dopamine is released based on the length of the delay and the rewards uncertainty (modelled in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex - which promotes the long term and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex - which promotes the short term) and the anticipated size of the reward (modelled in the accumbens). Impulsiveness in ADHD is reflected in abnormal dopamine processing. Addictive drugs bias the dopamine network towards impulsiveness.

Is lowered by certain gene variants which induce: less dopamine in the synapse, fewer receptors, lower responsiveness of receptors; associated with (as tiny effects in hugely varying social scenarios): sensation seeking, risk taking, attentional problems, extroversion; where:

The receptor D4's gene shows high variability. The D47R form is relatively unresponsive to dopamine.
Dopamine is degraded by COMT. The COMT gene includes a variant which is highly efficient reducing dopamine signalling but with complicating gene/environment interactions.
Dopamine is removed from the synapse by a reuptake transporter DAT.

based

Read Montague explores how brains make decisions. In particular he explains how:

Evolution can create indirect abstract models, such as the dopamine system, that allow
Life changing real-time decisions to be made, and how
Schematic structures provide encodings of computable control structures which operate through and on incomputable, schematically encoded, physically active structures and operationally associated production functions.

rewards.

Some important debunking: Alcohol

Sapolsky notes alcohols impact on judgment. But he writes it does not cause everyone to become aggressive. Instead people prone to aggression do become aggressive as do people who believe alcohol makes you aggressive. That second situation demonstrates social learnings power to shape biology.

Days to Months Before

Any behavior was produced in prior seconds by the nervous system based on sensory cues minutes to hours before with the brain's sensitivity adjusted by hormones are signalling molecules: ACTH, TRH, Melanocyte stimulating hormone, Testosterone, Oxytocin, Vasopressin, Insulin, Growth hormone, Estrogen, Progesterone, Angiotensin II, Asprosin, EPO, Irisin, Leptin, FGF21 hormone, Prostaglandins, TSH, Thyroxine, Glococorticoids; that are transported by the circulatory system to interact with target organs having appropriate receptors. The levels of hormones can fluctuate massively, as in pregnancy.
in the previous hours and days. But in the prior days to months enormous changes occurred is lasting change to the brain that occurs throughout life. It is also termed neural plasticity. The changes include:

The strength of dendritic input alters due to genetic, neural and hormonal signals

Hebb notes that memories require strengthening of preexisting synapses. Glutamate responsive neurons' post synaptic dendritic spines have two types of receptor: non-NMDA and NMDA. NMDA channels are responsible for this strengthening mechanism. LTP then occurs to prolong the increase in excitability of the synapse.
The LTP operation results in calcium diffusion which triggers new spine formation in adjacent parts of the dendrite. Eventually that can stimulate dentrite growth enabling more neurons to connect.
Short term stress promotes hippocampal LTP.
Sustained stress promotes:

Hippocampal & frontal cortex LTD & suppresses LTP. Subsequent reductions in NCAM then reduce dendrite and synapse density.
Amygdala LTP and suppresses LTD boosting fear conditioning. It increases BDNF levels and expands dendrites in the BLA.

Depression and anxiety reduce hippocampal dendrite and spine number by reducing BDNF.

The axon's conditions for

Initiating an action potential.

Progesterone boosts GABA-ergic neurons response to GABA decreasing the excitability of other neurons over a period of hours.

Duration of a neuron's refractory period. Testosterone shortens the refractory period of amygdala and amygdala target neurons over a period of hours.

Synaptic connections being constantly removed and recreated
Synapses being created or destroyed. Stimulation generates additional dendritic spines which become associated with a nearby axon terminal and within weeks a synapse forms. The synapse then contributes calcium diffusion through LTP triggering more spine formation. When dendritic spines recede synapses disappear.
Cortical maps change to reflect alterations in the inputs and outputs from the body.
Birth of brain cells in many areas of adult brains: the hippocampus (where 3% are replaced each month) and olfactory bulb and lesser amounts in the cortex.
Restructuring after brain damage including axonal plasticity. Distant rerouting of axons is observed but no mechanism has been identified yet.
Vision is plastic in predators, where the eyes are moved during final development. Dehaene argues for neuronal recycling supporting reading.

in the brain's structure (neuroplasticity) including:

The realization that the brain is able to change throughout its existence introduces reason for optimism in how all of us can behave.

The mechanisms of memory in the brain includes functionally different types: Declarative (episodic and semantic), Implicit, Procedural, Spatial, Temporal, Verbal; Hebb noted that glutamate receptive neurons learn by (NMDA channel based) synaptic strengthening. This strengthening is sustained by subsequent LTP. The non-realtime learning and planning processes operate through consciousness using the working memory structures, and then via sleep, the salient ones are consolidated while the rest are destroyed and garbage collected. formation and neural plasticity refers to lasting changes to the brain that occur throughout the life span of the organism. Many aspects of the brain can be altered into adulthood. Almost anything in the nervous system can change in response to sustained stimulus. And in a different environment the changes will often reverse. The changes include:

The strength of dendritic input alters due to genetic, neural and hormonal signals

Hebb notes that memories require strengthening of preexisting synapses. Glutamate responsive neurons' post synaptic dendritic spines have two types of receptor: non-NMDA and NMDA. NMDA channels are responsible for this strengthening mechanism. LTP then occurs to prolong the increase in excitability of the synapse.
The LTP operation results in calcium diffusion which triggers new spine formation in adjacent parts of the dendrite. Eventually that can stimulate dentrite growth enabling more neurons to connect.
Short term stress promotes hippocampal LTP.
Sustained stress promotes:

Hippocampal & frontal cortex LTD & suppresses LTP. Subsequent reductions in NCAM then reduce dendrite and synapse density.
Amygdala LTP and suppresses LTD boosting fear conditioning. It increases BDNF levels and expands dendrites in the BLA.

Depression and anxiety reduce hippocampal dendrite and spine number by reducing BDNF.

The axon's conditions for

Initiating an action potential.

Progesterone boosts GABA-ergic neurons response to GABA decreasing the excitability of other neurons over a period of hours.

Duration of a neuron's refractory period. Testosterone shortens the refractory period of amygdala and amygdala target neurons over a period of hours.

Synaptic connections being constantly removed and recreated
Synapses being created or destroyed. Stimulation generates additional dendritic spines which become associated with a nearby axon terminal and within weeks a synapse forms. The synapse then contributes calcium diffusion through LTP triggering more spine formation. When dendritic spines recede synapses disappear.
Cortical maps change to reflect alterations in the inputs and outputs from the body.
Birth of brain cells in many areas of adult brains: the hippocampus (where 3% are replaced each month) and olfactory bulb and lesser amounts in the cortex.
Restructuring after brain damage including axonal plasticity. Distant rerouting of axons is observed but no mechanism has been identified yet.
Vision is plastic in predators, where the eyes are moved during final development. Dehaene argues for neuronal recycling supporting reading.

are flexible and reversible in different environments:

Adolescence; Or, Dude, Where's my Frontal Cortex?

Adolescence in humans supports the transition from a juvenile configuration, dependent on parents and structured to learn & logistically transform, to adult optimized to the proximate environment. And it is staged encouraging the adolescents to escape the hierarchy they grew up in and enter other groups where they may bring in: fresh ideas, risk taking; and alter the existing hierarchy: Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates & Paul Allen. It marks the beginning of Piaget's formal operational stage of cognitive development. The limbic, autonomic and hormone networks are already deployed and functioning effectively. The frontal cortex has to be pruned: winning neurons move to their final highly connected positions, and are myelinated over time. The rest dissolve. So the frontal lobe does not obtain its adult configuration and networked integration until the mid-twenties when prefrontal cortex control becomes optimal. The evolutionarily oldest areas of the frontal cortex mature first. The PFC must be iteratively customized by experience to do the right thing as an adult. Adolescents:

Don't detect irony effectively. They depend on the DMPFC to do this, unlike adults who leverage the fusiform face area.
Regulate emotions with the ventral striatum while the prefrontal cortex is still being setup. Dopamine projection density and signalling increase from the ventral tegmentum catalyzing increased interest in dopamine based rewards. Novelty seeking allows for creative exploration which was necessary to move beyond the familial pack. Criticisms do not get incorporated into learning models by adolescents leaving their risk assessments very poor. The target of the dopamine networks, the adolescent accumbens, responds to rewards like a gyrating top - hugely to large rewards, and negatively to small rewards. Eventually as the frontal regions increase in contribution there are steady improvements in: working memory, flexible rule use, executive organization and task shifting. And adolescents start to see other people's perspective.
Drive the cellular transformations with post-pubescent high levels of testosterone in males, and high but fluctuating estrogen & progesterone levels in females. Blood flow to the frontal cortex is also diverted on occasion to the groin.
Peer pressure is exceptionally influential in adolescents. Admired peer comments reduce vmPFC activity and enhance ventral striatal activity. Adults modulate the mental impact of socially mean treatment: the initial activation of the PAG, anterior cingulate, amygdala, insula cortex; which generate feelings of pain, anger, and disgust, with the VLPFC but that does not occur in adolescents.
Feel empathy intensely, supported by their rampant emotions, interest in novelty, ego. But feeling the pain of others can induce self-oriented avoidance of the situations.

is the later part of the human development is a phase during the operation of a CAS agent. It allows for schematic strategies to be iteratively blended with environmental signals to solve the logistical issues of migrating newly built and transformed sub-agents. That is needed to achieve the adult configuration of the agent and optimize it for the proximate environment. Smiley includes examples of the developmental phase agents required in an emergent CAS. In situations where parents invest in the growth and memetic learning of their offspring the schematic grab bag can support optimizations to develop models, structures and actions to construct an adept adult. In humans, adolescence leverages neural plasticity, elder sibling advice and adult coaching to help prepare the deploying neuronal network and body to successfully compete.
phase where it generates different behaviors from young children & adults. It reflects the slow maturation of the frontal cortex of the cerebral cortex is at the front of the brain. It includes the: prefrontal cortex, motor cortex. Sapolsky asserts it makes you do the harder thing when it's the right thing to do. The frontal cortex supports working memory to sustain focus on a task. It also coordinates the strategic actions necessary to achieve success. It provides impulse control, regulation of emotion, and willpower. The prefrontal cortex maintains focus by deprioritizing currently irrelevant streams of information. The frontal cortex tracks rules. Over a lifetime, that builds into a costly activity. Once it tires, responses become less prosocial. But practice shifts operation of tasks to the cerebellum. The frontal cortex signals the tegmentum and accumbens with the conclusions of its expectancy/discrepancy calculations. The frontal lobe provides executive function, considering bits of information, assessing patterns and then prioritizing the strategies. The frontal lobe is the most recent part of the brain to evolve and involves a disproportionate percentage of primate-unique genes in its development and operation. It does not complete development until the mid-20s. It includes spindle neurons. It is easily damaged. Sapolsky (Nauta) notes that its ventromedial prefrontal cortex is a quasi-member of the limbic system.
which does not obtain its adult structure and function until the mid-twenties. Sapolsky stresses the key implications:

Adolescence shapes the frontal cortex
Adolescence is only understood in the context of the delayed frontal cortex's maturation, making it: frustrating, great, asinine, impulsive, inspiring, destructive, self-destructive, selfless, selfish, impossible and world changing. Sapolsky adds it's when someone is most likely to kill or be killed. A time of life of maximal risk taking, novelty seeking, and affiliation with peers.

The delayed development allows the brain to get all its parts optimized from experience to leverage the social toolset: social memory, emotional perspective taking, impulse control, empathy is the capability to relate to another person from their perspective. It is implemented by spindle neurons. It is context dependently mediated by estrogen. It develops over time: Piaget's preoperational stage includes rudimentary empathy, Theory of mind supports the development; initially feeling someone's pain as one integrated being, then for them and eventually as them. In adults, when someone else is hurt the anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala & insula activates projecting [scapegoating] to the vmPFC. If the pain is physical the PAG activates and motor neurons for the area where the other person was injured. The intertwining of the ACC amygdala & insula in adults results in attribution of fault even when there is none which can make it hard to step in and actually help. But in seven-year-olds the activation is concrete: PAG and sensory & motor cortexes with minimal coupling to the rudimentary vmPFC. In older children the vmPFC is coupled to limbic structures. Ten to twelve year olds abstract empathy to classes of people. By adolescence the vmPFC is coupled to theory of mind regions and intentional harm induces disgust via the amygdala. Sapolsky explains adolescent boys are utilitarian and tend to accept inequality more than girls do. But both sexes accept inequality as the way it is. Sociopaths do not develop empathy. , self-regulation, teamwork; appropriately in this particular proximate environment.

The nuts and bolts of frontal cortical maturation

During adolescence in humans supports the transition from a juvenile configuration, dependent on parents and structured to learn & logistically transform, to adult optimized to the proximate environment. And it is staged encouraging the adolescents to escape the hierarchy they grew up in and enter other groups where they may bring in: fresh ideas, risk taking; and alter the existing hierarchy: Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates & Paul Allen. It marks the beginning of Piaget's formal operational stage of cognitive development. The limbic, autonomic and hormone networks are already deployed and functioning effectively. The frontal cortex has to be pruned: winning neurons move to their final highly connected positions, and are myelinated over time. The rest dissolve. So the frontal lobe does not obtain its adult configuration and networked integration until the mid-twenties when prefrontal cortex control becomes optimal. The evolutionarily oldest areas of the frontal cortex mature first. The PFC must be iteratively customized by experience to do the right thing as an adult. Adolescents:

Don't detect irony effectively. They depend on the DMPFC to do this, unlike adults who leverage the fusiform face area.
Regulate emotions with the ventral striatum while the prefrontal cortex is still being setup. Dopamine projection density and signalling increase from the ventral tegmentum catalyzing increased interest in dopamine based rewards. Novelty seeking allows for creative exploration which was necessary to move beyond the familial pack. Criticisms do not get incorporated into learning models by adolescents leaving their risk assessments very poor. The target of the dopamine networks, the adolescent accumbens, responds to rewards like a gyrating top - hugely to large rewards, and negatively to small rewards. Eventually as the frontal regions increase in contribution there are steady improvements in: working memory, flexible rule use, executive organization and task shifting. And adolescents start to see other people's perspective.
Drive the cellular transformations with post-pubescent high levels of testosterone in males, and high but fluctuating estrogen & progesterone levels in females. Blood flow to the frontal cortex is also diverted on occasion to the groin.
Peer pressure is exceptionally influential in adolescents. Admired peer comments reduce vmPFC activity and enhance ventral striatal activity. Adults modulate the mental impact of socially mean treatment: the initial activation of the PAG, anterior cingulate, amygdala, insula cortex; which generate feelings of pain, anger, and disgust, with the VLPFC but that does not occur in adolescents.
Feel empathy intensely, supported by their rampant emotions, interest in novelty, ego. But feeling the pain of others can induce self-oriented avoidance of the situations.

the neurons, specialized eukaryotic cells include channels which control flows of sodium and potassium ions across the massively extended cell membrane supporting an electro-chemical wave which is then converted into an outgoing chemical signal transmission from synapses which target nearby neuron or muscle cell receptors. Neurons are supported by glial cells. Neurons include a:

Receptive element - dendrites
Transmitting element - axon and synaptic terminals
Highly variable DNA schema using transposons.

of the frontal cortex of the cerebral cortex is at the front of the brain. It includes the: prefrontal cortex, motor cortex. Sapolsky asserts it makes you do the harder thing when it's the right thing to do. The frontal cortex supports working memory to sustain focus on a task. It also coordinates the strategic actions necessary to achieve success. It provides impulse control, regulation of emotion, and willpower. The prefrontal cortex maintains focus by deprioritizing currently irrelevant streams of information. The frontal cortex tracks rules. Over a lifetime, that builds into a costly activity. Once it tires, responses become less prosocial. But practice shifts operation of tasks to the cerebellum. The frontal cortex signals the tegmentum and accumbens with the conclusions of its expectancy/discrepancy calculations. The frontal lobe provides executive function, considering bits of information, assessing patterns and then prioritizing the strategies. The frontal lobe is the most recent part of the brain to evolve and involves a disproportionate percentage of primate-unique genes in its development and operation. It does not complete development until the mid-20s. It includes spindle neurons. It is easily damaged. Sapolsky (Nauta) notes that its ventromedial prefrontal cortex is a quasi-member of the limbic system.
that are not used in the proximate environment prune themselves, programmed cell death is a signal initiated DNA controlled process which results in eukaryotic cells self-destructing. while the rest migrate to their target locations, leaving an optimized network. The

This page reviews the implications of selection, variation and heredity in a complex adaptive system (CAS). The mechanism and its emergence are discussed.

evolutionarily oldest areas of the frontal cortex mature first leaving the relatively young dl PFC is dorsolateral prefrontal cortex which is:

At the heart of decision making - highly rational, unsentimental
A major agent of working memory
The most recently evolved part of the prefrontal cortex.
Mainly interconnected with other parts of the cortex.

changes waiting until late adolescence. And as the configuration streamlines myelination is the fatty insulating material deployed by Schwann cells & oligodendrocytes, both types of glial cells, around axons to improve their conduction rate. In humans it is still occurring 25 years after birth. It has great impact on long axons, in neurons that project over long distances, where it helps brain inter-region signalling. The long development time of myelination allows for the later myelinated brain regions to be particularly shaped by the proximate environment.
increases the axon, a long extension of a neuron which has a membrane constructed to support the uni-directional flow of action potential from the dendritic tree and cell body to the synaptic terminals. 's conduction speeds. While the frontal cortex takes shape other brain regions provide cover: Ventral striatum is a region within the basal ganglia. It is a target of the tegmentostriatal dopamine pathway. It has been captured by brain imaging assigning values to subliminal symbols experimentally associated with winning (highly valued) and losing (low valuation) money. During adolescence, prior to the deployment of the prefrontal cortex, the ventral striatum helps balance/control emotional decision making.
helps out with emotional regulation.

The pubescent generation of gonadal hormones: Testosterone is a hormone secreted by the testes in response to stimulation from the hypothalamic/pituitary/testicular cascade, that makes humans more willing to do what it takes to attain and maintain status, according to Sapolsky. That means players of the Ultimatum Game, if previously given testosterone can become more generous. Testosterones effect is highly socially contextual so it may encourage acts of kindness or aggression (when challenged). The level of testosterone does not predict which individuals will be aggressive in: Birds, Fish, Mammals including primates. Genes impact the potency of testosterone by altering the enzymes that: Construct it, Convert it to estrogen, code the androgen receptor. This androgen receptor includes a variable polyglutamine repeat which alters the sensitivity to the testosterone signal. The more potent form is associated with boys showing more dramatic 'masculinization' of the cortex. But the detected genetic influences are small. Testosterone decreases activity in the prefrontal cortex and its functional coupling to the amygdala while increasing the coupling between the amygdala & the thalamus. Testosterone shortens the refactory period of amygdaloid & amygdaloid target neurons. This results in impulsive risk taking and more focus on unfamiliar faces and distrust of them. Testosterone increases activity in the ventral tegmentum projecting dopamine to enhance place preference. Winners of fights become more willing to fight in part due to testosterone increasing confidence and optimism and reducing fear and anxiety. And winning at: Chess, Athletics, Stock trades; induces the BNST to add testosterone receptors increasing its sensitivity to the hormone. People become overconfident and overly optimistic.
, Estrogen is a generic term for a number of related steroid hormones each of which works differently. Estrogen:

Contributes to maternal aggression but it can reduce aggression and enhance empathy, depending on brain state. There are two different estrogen receptor types which mediate these conflicting effects. The levels of each type of receptor is independently regulated. Different receptor variants are associated with:

Higher rates of anxiety among women
Higher rates of antisocial behavior and conduct disorder in men

, Progesterone is a steroid hormone. It:

Rarely directly effects areas of the brain. Instead it is converted into other sterioids which have different actions in different brain areas.
Increases maternal aggression in concert with estrogen by increasing oxytocin release in certain brain regions. However, on its own progresterone decreases aggression and anxiety. It decreases anxiety by entering neurons where it is converted to allopregnanolone which binds to GABA receptors increasing their sensitivity to GABA.

; is dramatic and transformational. Adult female endocrine function is cyclic but at puberty the activity is more intermittent. Adolescent male brains also receive washes of gonadal hormones and often suffer hypoxia from blood flow diverted to the crotch.

Frontal Cortical Changes in Cognition in Adolescence

Sapolsky reviews how frontal cortex of the cerebral cortex is at the front of the brain. It includes the: prefrontal cortex, motor cortex. Sapolsky asserts it makes you do the harder thing when it's the right thing to do. The frontal cortex supports working memory to sustain focus on a task. It also coordinates the strategic actions necessary to achieve success. It provides impulse control, regulation of emotion, and willpower. The prefrontal cortex maintains focus by deprioritizing currently irrelevant streams of information. The frontal cortex tracks rules. Over a lifetime, that builds into a costly activity. Once it tires, responses become less prosocial. But practice shifts operation of tasks to the cerebellum. The frontal cortex signals the tegmentum and accumbens with the conclusions of its expectancy/discrepancy calculations. The frontal lobe provides executive function, considering bits of information, assessing patterns and then prioritizing the strategies. The frontal lobe is the most recent part of the brain to evolve and involves a disproportionate percentage of primate-unique genes in its development and operation. It does not complete development until the mid-20s. It includes spindle neurons. It is easily damaged. Sapolsky (Nauta) notes that its ventromedial prefrontal cortex is a quasi-member of the limbic system.
maturation is reflected in cognition is the ability to orchestrate thought and action in accordance with internal goals according to Princeton's Jonathan Cohen.
. During adolescence in humans supports the transition from a juvenile configuration, dependent on parents and structured to learn & logistically transform, to adult optimized to the proximate environment. And it is staged encouraging the adolescents to escape the hierarchy they grew up in and enter other groups where they may bring in: fresh ideas, risk taking; and alter the existing hierarchy: Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates & Paul Allen. It marks the beginning of Piaget's formal operational stage of cognitive development. The limbic, autonomic and hormone networks are already deployed and functioning effectively. The frontal cortex has to be pruned: winning neurons move to their final highly connected positions, and are myelinated over time. The rest dissolve. So the frontal lobe does not obtain its adult configuration and networked integration until the mid-twenties when prefrontal cortex control becomes optimal. The evolutionarily oldest areas of the frontal cortex mature first. The PFC must be iteratively customized by experience to do the right thing as an adult. Adolescents:

Don't detect irony effectively. They depend on the DMPFC to do this, unlike adults who leverage the fusiform face area.
Regulate emotions with the ventral striatum while the prefrontal cortex is still being setup. Dopamine projection density and signalling increase from the ventral tegmentum catalyzing increased interest in dopamine based rewards. Novelty seeking allows for creative exploration which was necessary to move beyond the familial pack. Criticisms do not get incorporated into learning models by adolescents leaving their risk assessments very poor. The target of the dopamine networks, the adolescent accumbens, responds to rewards like a gyrating top - hugely to large rewards, and negatively to small rewards. Eventually as the frontal regions increase in contribution there are steady improvements in: working memory, flexible rule use, executive organization and task shifting. And adolescents start to see other people's perspective.
Drive the cellular transformations with post-pubescent high levels of testosterone in males, and high but fluctuating estrogen & progesterone levels in females. Blood flow to the frontal cortex is also diverted on occasion to the groin.
Peer pressure is exceptionally influential in adolescents. Admired peer comments reduce vmPFC activity and enhance ventral striatal activity. Adults modulate the mental impact of socially mean treatment: the initial activation of the PAG, anterior cingulate, amygdala, insula cortex; which generate feelings of pain, anger, and disgust, with the VLPFC but that does not occur in adolescents.
Feel empathy intensely, supported by their rampant emotions, interest in novelty, ego. But feeling the pain of others can induce self-oriented avoidance of the situations.

improvements are seen in:

Frontal Cortical Changes in Emotional Regulation

Adolescents in humans supports the transition from a juvenile configuration, dependent on parents and structured to learn & logistically transform, to adult optimized to the proximate environment. And it is staged encouraging the adolescents to escape the hierarchy they grew up in and enter other groups where they may bring in: fresh ideas, risk taking; and alter the existing hierarchy: Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates & Paul Allen. It marks the beginning of Piaget's formal operational stage of cognitive development. The limbic, autonomic and hormone networks are already deployed and functioning effectively. The frontal cortex has to be pruned: winning neurons move to their final highly connected positions, and are myelinated over time. The rest dissolve. So the frontal lobe does not obtain its adult configuration and networked integration until the mid-twenties when prefrontal cortex control becomes optimal. The evolutionarily oldest areas of the frontal cortex mature first. The PFC must be iteratively customized by experience to do the right thing as an adult. Adolescents:

Don't detect irony effectively. They depend on the DMPFC to do this, unlike adults who leverage the fusiform face area.
Regulate emotions with the ventral striatum while the prefrontal cortex is still being setup. Dopamine projection density and signalling increase from the ventral tegmentum catalyzing increased interest in dopamine based rewards. Novelty seeking allows for creative exploration which was necessary to move beyond the familial pack. Criticisms do not get incorporated into learning models by adolescents leaving their risk assessments very poor. The target of the dopamine networks, the adolescent accumbens, responds to rewards like a gyrating top - hugely to large rewards, and negatively to small rewards. Eventually as the frontal regions increase in contribution there are steady improvements in: working memory, flexible rule use, executive organization and task shifting. And adolescents start to see other people's perspective.
Drive the cellular transformations with post-pubescent high levels of testosterone in males, and high but fluctuating estrogen & progesterone levels in females. Blood flow to the frontal cortex is also diverted on occasion to the groin.
Peer pressure is exceptionally influential in adolescents. Admired peer comments reduce vmPFC activity and enhance ventral striatal activity. Adults modulate the mental impact of socially mean treatment: the initial activation of the PAG, anterior cingulate, amygdala, insula cortex; which generate feelings of pain, anger, and disgust, with the VLPFC but that does not occur in adolescents.
Feel empathy intensely, supported by their rampant emotions, interest in novelty, ego. But feeling the pain of others can induce self-oriented avoidance of the situations.

experience emotions are low level agents distributed across the brain and body which associate, via the amygdala and rich club hubs, important environmental signals with encoded high speed sensors, and distributed programs of action to model: predict, prioritize guidance signals, select and respond effectively, coherently and rapidly to the initial signal. The majority of emotion centered brain regions interface to the midbrain through the hypothalamus. The most accessible signs of emotions are the hard to control and universal facial expressions. Emotions provide prioritization for conscious access given that an animal has only one body, but possibly many cells, with which to achieve its highest level goals. Because of this emotions clash with group goals and are disparaged by the powerful. Evolutionary psychology argues evolution shaped human emotions during the long period of hunter-gatherer existence in the African savanna. Human emotions are universal and include: Anger, Appreciation of natural beauty, Disgust, Fear, Gratitude, Grief, Guilt, Happiness, Honor, Jealousy, Liking, Love, Rage, Romantic love, Lust for revenge, Passion, Sadness, Self-control, Shame, Sympathy, Surprise; and the sham emotions and distrust induced by reciprocal altruism. more intensely than adults or young children. They respond more to affective visual displays is a face expressing strong emotions as interpreted by an observer's brain. In:

Adult observers this activates that amygdala and subsequently the vmPFC as they become habituated to the emotional content.
Adolescents the vmPFC responds less allowing the amygdala's activation to keep growing.

. Coping using reappraisal gets more effective during adolescence as the ventral striatum is a region within the basal ganglia. It is a target of the tegmentostriatal dopamine pathway. It has been captured by brain imaging assigning values to subliminal symbols experimentally associated with winning (highly valued) and losing (low valuation) money. During adolescence, prior to the deployment of the prefrontal cortex, the ventral striatum helps balance/control emotional decision making.
hands over the dampening activity to the frontal cortex of the cerebral cortex is at the front of the brain. It includes the: prefrontal cortex, motor cortex. Sapolsky asserts it makes you do the harder thing when it's the right thing to do. The frontal cortex supports working memory to sustain focus on a task. It also coordinates the strategic actions necessary to achieve success. It provides impulse control, regulation of emotion, and willpower. The prefrontal cortex maintains focus by deprioritizing currently irrelevant streams of information. The frontal cortex tracks rules. Over a lifetime, that builds into a costly activity. Once it tires, responses become less prosocial. But practice shifts operation of tasks to the cerebellum. The frontal cortex signals the tegmentum and accumbens with the conclusions of its expectancy/discrepancy calculations. The frontal lobe provides executive function, considering bits of information, assessing patterns and then prioritizing the strategies. The frontal lobe is the most recent part of the brain to evolve and involves a disproportionate percentage of primate-unique genes in its development and operation. It does not complete development until the mid-20s. It includes spindle neurons. It is easily damaged. Sapolsky (Nauta) notes that its ventromedial prefrontal cortex is a quasi-member of the limbic system.
. While the striatum is involved dopamine is a synaptic signal supporting generalized goal-directed behavior & anticipation of reward. Its significance is that the receptors that detect the signal are of the slow acting type and are used to alter (modulate) the response of fast acting dopaminergic neural circuits in which the receptors are deployed (LTP). The signal detects significant changes including predictions of models and actual results which differ unexpectedly. The dopamine network architecture is designed to signal the possibility of any type of reward: Norm violation punishment, Winning a lottery, & Misfortune of an envied competitor. Dopamine signalling:

Rescales continuously to accommodate the range of intensity offered by different stimuli. So dopamine's responses to any reward habituate. GABA is released by some tegmental neurons to induce habituation.
Reflects the anticipation of reward. It supports establishment of a relationship between a signal, working for a reward and obtaining the reward, but subsequently dopamine is mainly released encouraging the work, right after the signal supporting anticipation of the reward. Anticipation requires learning and is reflected in hippocampus activity. That explains context dependent cravings. And the learning architecture means reliable cues become rewarding. The accumbens supports willpower. And dopamine
Promotes goal-oriented behavior needed to obtain & likely to achieve the reward - through the dopamine projections to the prefrontal cortex. That makes dopamine central to:

Motivation. This binding fails in depression - due to stress and in anxiety - due to signals from the amygdala.
The prefrontal cortex's mesocortically stimulated support for willpower to act to delay rewards. To sustain work for delayed rewards additional dopamine is released based on the length of the delay and the rewards uncertainty (modelled in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex - which promotes the long term and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex - which promotes the short term) and the anticipated size of the reward (modelled in the accumbens). Impulsiveness in ADHD is reflected in abnormal dopamine processing. Addictive drugs bias the dopamine network towards impulsiveness.

Is lowered by certain gene variants which induce: less dopamine in the synapse, fewer receptors, lower responsiveness of receptors; associated with (as tiny effects in hugely varying social scenarios): sensation seeking, risk taking, attentional problems, extroversion; where:

The receptor D4's gene shows high variability. The D47R form is relatively unresponsive to dopamine.
Dopamine is degraded by COMT. The COMT gene includes a variant which is highly efficient reducing dopamine signalling but with complicating gene/environment interactions.
Dopamine is removed from the synapse by a reuptake transporter DAT.

Read Montague explores how brains make decisions. In particular he explains how:

Evolution can create indirect abstract models, such as the dopamine system, that allow
Life changing real-time decisions to be made, and how
Schematic structures provide encodings of computable control structures which operate through and on incomputable, schematically encoded, physically active structures and operationally associated production functions.

based rewards are very significant encouraging risk taking.

Adolescent Risk Taking

Don't detect irony effectively. They depend on the DMPFC to do this, unlike adults who leverage the fusiform face area.
Regulate emotions with the ventral striatum while the prefrontal cortex is still being setup. Dopamine projection density and signalling increase from the ventral tegmentum catalyzing increased interest in dopamine based rewards. Novelty seeking allows for creative exploration which was necessary to move beyond the familial pack. Criticisms do not get incorporated into learning models by adolescents leaving their risk assessments very poor. The target of the dopamine networks, the adolescent accumbens, responds to rewards like a gyrating top - hugely to large rewards, and negatively to small rewards. Eventually as the frontal regions increase in contribution there are steady improvements in: working memory, flexible rule use, executive organization and task shifting. And adolescents start to see other people's perspective.
Drive the cellular transformations with post-pubescent high levels of testosterone in males, and high but fluctuating estrogen & progesterone levels in females. Blood flow to the frontal cortex is also diverted on occasion to the groin.
Peer pressure is exceptionally influential in adolescents. Admired peer comments reduce vmPFC activity and enhance ventral striatal activity. Adults modulate the mental impact of socially mean treatment: the initial activation of the PAG, anterior cingulate, amygdala, insula cortex; which generate feelings of pain, anger, and disgust, with the VLPFC but that does not occur in adolescents.
Feel empathy intensely, supported by their rampant emotions, interest in novelty, ego. But feeling the pain of others can induce self-oriented avoidance of the situations.

activate the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is

The front part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. It evolved most recently. During adolescence when the PFC is still deploying, older brain agents provide equivalent strategies: ventral striatum. The PFC has been implicated in planning, working memory: dorsolateral; decision making: Orbitofrontal cortex; and social behavior. Different PFC circuits track internal reward driven strategies and externally signalled advice. The PFC chooses between conflicting options, letting go or restraint, especially between cognition and emotions. It imposes an overarching strategy for managing working memory. It is essential for thinking about multiple items with different labels. It includes neurons that are interested in particular sub-categories: Dog, Cat. Once it has made a decision it signals the rest of the frontal lobe just behind it. Glucocorticoids decrease excitability of the PFC.

less often than adults when making risky, is an assessment of the likelihood of an independent problem occurring. It can be assigned an accurate probability since it is independent of other variables in the system. As such it is different from uncertainty.
decisions. They do not incorporate feedback based on their poor assessments about bad news! So they are willing to take more risks. They also seek more novelty, developing new and subsequently stable tastes in music is a complex emergent capability supported by sexual selection and generating pleasure. It transforms the sensing of epiphenomena: Contour, Rhythm, Tempo, Timbre; to induce salient perceptions: Harmony, Key, Loudness, Melody, Meter, Pitch, Reverberation - echo; which allow musicians to show their fitness: superior coordination, creativity, adolescent leadership, stamina; true for birds and humans.
, food, and fashion. In most primates adolescents of one sex make their way into other groups driven by this desire for novelty. Sapolsky suggests the novelty seeking reflects the increasing development of the mesolimbic projection includes projections between the tegmentum and the accumbens, amygdala, hippocampus;
to the nucleus accumbens is a region of the basal forebrain rostral to the preoptic area and immediately adjacent to the septum. The nucleus accumbens was closely associated with the limbic system and plays an important role in reinforcement. If a rodent wins a fight on his home territory, there are long-lasting increases in levels of testosterone receptors enhancing pleasurable effects. When prairie voles first mate, epi-genetic state changes are induced in the accumbens to support pair-bonding. The accumbens projects to brain regions associated with movement. The major pathways of dopaminergic neurons begin in the substantia nigra and the ventral tegmental area. The amygdala projects back to the accumbens. The tegmentostriatal system begins in the ventral tegmental area and projects to the nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens includes high levels of D1, D2 and D3 dopamine receptors located on the spine & shafts of dendrites of excitatory cells reduce the transfer of excitation from the dendrites to the cell bodies, so only especially strong excitatory inputs get through to the cell body to elicit excitation. It also has D4 dopamine receptors which are highly variable. The accumbens responds differently to rewards depending on maturity: In juveniles all reward levels result in the same response activity level, During adolescence the accumbens responds to small rewards negatively, and large rewards hugely, In adults the rewards result in measured scaled positive responses. Chronic stress depletes dopamine from the nucleus accumbens biasing humans towards depression. and the mesocortical projection includes projections between the tegmentum and the prefrontal cortex;
to the frontal cortex of the cerebral cortex is at the front of the brain. It includes the: prefrontal cortex, motor cortex. Sapolsky asserts it makes you do the harder thing when it's the right thing to do. The frontal cortex supports working memory to sustain focus on a task. It also coordinates the strategic actions necessary to achieve success. It provides impulse control, regulation of emotion, and willpower. The prefrontal cortex maintains focus by deprioritizing currently irrelevant streams of information. The frontal cortex tracks rules. Over a lifetime, that builds into a costly activity. Once it tires, responses become less prosocial. But practice shifts operation of tasks to the cerebellum. The frontal cortex signals the tegmentum and accumbens with the conclusions of its expectancy/discrepancy calculations. The frontal lobe provides executive function, considering bits of information, assessing patterns and then prioritizing the strategies. The frontal lobe is the most recent part of the brain to evolve and involves a disproportionate percentage of primate-unique genes in its development and operation. It does not complete development until the mid-20s. It includes spindle neurons. It is easily damaged. Sapolsky (Nauta) notes that its ventromedial prefrontal cortex is a quasi-member of the limbic system.
. Novelty seeking peaks as the

This page discusses the mechanisms and effects of emergence underpinning any complex adaptive system (CAS). Key research is reviewed.

emerging frontal regulation is prefrontal cortex which is:

The front part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. It evolved most recently. During adolescence when the PFC is still deploying, older brain agents provide equivalent strategies: ventral striatum. The PFC has been implicated in planning, working memory: dorsolateral; decision making: Orbitofrontal cortex; and social behavior. Different PFC circuits track internal reward driven strategies and externally signalled advice. The PFC chooses between conflicting options, letting go or restraint, especially between cognition and emotions. It imposes an overarching strategy for managing working memory. It is essential for thinking about multiple items with different labels. It includes neurons that are interested in particular sub-categories: Dog, Cat. Once it has made a decision it signals the rest of the frontal lobe just behind it. Glucocorticoids decrease excitability of the PFC.

starts to inhibit activity.

Peers, social acceptance, and social exclusion

Don't detect irony effectively. They depend on the DMPFC to do this, unlike adults who leverage the fusiform face area.
Regulate emotions with the ventral striatum while the prefrontal cortex is still being setup. Dopamine projection density and signalling increase from the ventral tegmentum catalyzing increased interest in dopamine based rewards. Novelty seeking allows for creative exploration which was necessary to move beyond the familial pack. Criticisms do not get incorporated into learning models by adolescents leaving their risk assessments very poor. The target of the dopamine networks, the adolescent accumbens, responds to rewards like a gyrating top - hugely to large rewards, and negatively to small rewards. Eventually as the frontal regions increase in contribution there are steady improvements in: working memory, flexible rule use, executive organization and task shifting. And adolescents start to see other people's perspective.
Drive the cellular transformations with post-pubescent high levels of testosterone in males, and high but fluctuating estrogen & progesterone levels in females. Blood flow to the frontal cortex is also diverted on occasion to the groin.
Peer pressure is exceptionally influential in adolescents. Admired peer comments reduce vmPFC activity and enhance ventral striatal activity. Adults modulate the mental impact of socially mean treatment: the initial activation of the PAG, anterior cingulate, amygdala, insula cortex; which generate feelings of pain, anger, and disgust, with the VLPFC but that does not occur in adolescents.
Feel empathy intensely, supported by their rampant emotions, interest in novelty, ego. But feeling the pain of others can induce self-oriented avoidance of the situations.

are particularly vulnerable to peer pressure from friends. They frantically need to belong. Peers' signals, is an emergent capability which is used by cooperating agents to support coordination & rival agents to support control and dominance. In eukaryotic cells signalling is used extensively. A signal interacts with the exposed region of a receptor molecule inducing it to change shape to an activated form. Chains of enzymes interact with the activated receptor relaying, amplifying and responding to the signal to change the state of the cell. Many of the signalling pathways pass through the nuclear membrane and interact with the DNA to change its state. Enzymes sensitive to the changes induced in the DNA then start to operate generating actions including sending further signals. Cell signalling is reviewed by Helmreich. Signalling is a fundamental aspect of CAS theory and is discussed from the abstract CAS perspective in signals and sensors. In AWF the eukaryotic signalling architecture has been abstracted in a codelet based implementation. To be credible signals must be hard to fake. To be effective they must be easily detected by the target recipient. To be efficient they are low cost to produce and destroy.
lessen vmPFC is ventromedial prefrontal cortex which is:

Focused on the impact of emotion on decision making
A participant in limbic system operations
Many human behaviors involve interactions between the vmPFC, the limbic system & the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Part of decision making is for the limbic system to internally simulate (often with the help of the sympathetic nervous system) what alternative outcomes of a decision will feel like with the results of these somatic marker analyses being reported to the vmPFC.
Damage to the vmPFC results in bad decision making: Poor judgement in choosing friends & partners, Failure to respond to negative feedback; because they can't feel the issues.

activity & enhance ventral striatal is a region within the basal ganglia. It is a target of the tegmentostriatal dopamine pathway. It has been captured by brain imaging assigning values to subliminal symbols experimentally associated with winning (highly valued) and losing (low valuation) money. During adolescence, prior to the deployment of the prefrontal cortex, the ventral striatum helps balance/control emotional decision making.
activity in adolescents but not adults. Rejection hurts them more: Periaqueductal gray, ACC is either the

Anterior cingulate cortex which:

Is a central focus of empathy supporting people relating to other's pain. This is dependent on oxytocin.
In non-human mammals it processes interoceptive signals. The ACC focuses the internal signals into high level 'gut intuitions.' Pain catches the ACC's attention.
Performs discrepancy detection from the outcome that was predicted - at a high level. The ACC cares about the meaning of what is predicted.

If the ACC has been convinced that a pain killer placebo has inhibited pain signals, the ACC will stay silent about actual pain that is signalled from interoceptive networks.
The ACC will signal: physical pain, emotional pain, metaphorical pain, anxiety, disgust, embarrassment, social exclusion especially in adolescence; as one and the same. The ACC's abnormalities being associated with major depression.

Has a bridging role between the empathetic and self-interested pain monitor. Sapolsky notes the ACC is essential for learning fear and conditioned avoidance by observation alone through an intermediate step of shared representation of self. He concludes "At its core the ACC is about self-interest, with caring about the other person in pain as an add-on."

American College of Cardiology

, Amygdala contains > 12 distinct areas: Central, Lateral. It receives simple signals from the lower parts of the brain: pain from the PAG; and abstract complex information from the highest areas: Disgust from the insula cortex. It sends signals to almost every other part of the brain, including to the decision-making circuitry of the frontal lobes. It has high levels of D(1) dopamine receptors. During extreme fear the amygdala drives the hippocampus into fear learning. It outputs directly to subcortical reflexive motor pathways when speed is required. Its central nucleus projects to the BNST. It signals the locus ceruleus. The amygdala:

Promotes aggression. Stimulating the amygdala promotes rage. It converts anger into aggression and when impaired it impacts the ability to detect angry facial expressions.
Participates in disgust
Perceives fear promoting stimuli. In PTSD sufferers the Amygdala overreacts to mildly fearful stimuli and is slow to calm down and the amygdala expands in size over a period of months. Fear is processed by the lateral nucleus which serves as the input from various senses, and the central nucleus which outputs to the brain stem (central grey - freezing, lateral hypothalamus - blood pressure, activates paraventricular hypothalamus => crf -> hormone adjustments).
Has lots of receptors for and is highly sensitive to glucocorticoids. Stress inhibits the GABA interneurons in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) allowing the excitatory glutamate releasing neurons to excite more.
Is sensitive to unsettling/uncertain social situations where it promotes anxiety. It is also interested in uncertain but potentially painful situations. The amygdala contributes to social and emotional decision making where the BLA supports rejecting an unacceptable offer, as allowed in the Ultimatum Game, by injecting implicit mistrust and vigilance, generating an anger driven rejection that is used as punishment. The amygdala is very rapidly excited by subliminal signals from the thalamus of outgroup skin color. The amygdala subsequently tips social emotions against outgroups unless restrained by the frontal lobe or influenced by subliminal priming to prioritize inclusion. The fast path from the thalamus rapidly but inaccurately signals its identified a weapon.
Promotes male, but not female, sexual motivation when it is an uncertain potential pleasure.
Responds to the longing for uncertain potential pleasures and fear that the reward will not be worth it if it happens. The amygdala turns off during orgasm.
Uses but is not directly involved in vision.

, Insula is part of the cerebral cortex folded deep within the lateral sulcus. It includes: anterior, posterior insula; and is overlaid by the operculum. It is assumed to participate in consciousness where it has been linked to emotion, salience & body homeostasis functions:

Perception,
Motor control: Hand-&-eye motor movement, Swallowing, Gastric motility, Speech articulation;
Self-awareness,
Inter-personal experiences: Disgust at smells, contamination & mutilation which generate visceral responses, that are projected to the amygdala; binding physical and moral aspects of purity (Macbeth effect)
Homeostatic regulation of the sympathetic network, parasympathetic network, and immune system.

; activation with no calming signals from the vlPFC is ventrolateral prefrontal cortex
.

Empathy, sympathy, and moral reasoning

Don't detect irony effectively. They depend on the DMPFC to do this, unlike adults who leverage the fusiform face area.
Regulate emotions with the ventral striatum while the prefrontal cortex is still being setup. Dopamine projection density and signalling increase from the ventral tegmentum catalyzing increased interest in dopamine based rewards. Novelty seeking allows for creative exploration which was necessary to move beyond the familial pack. Criticisms do not get incorporated into learning models by adolescents leaving their risk assessments very poor. The target of the dopamine networks, the adolescent accumbens, responds to rewards like a gyrating top - hugely to large rewards, and negatively to small rewards. Eventually as the frontal regions increase in contribution there are steady improvements in: working memory, flexible rule use, executive organization and task shifting. And adolescents start to see other people's perspective.
Drive the cellular transformations with post-pubescent high levels of testosterone in males, and high but fluctuating estrogen & progesterone levels in females. Blood flow to the frontal cortex is also diverted on occasion to the groin.
Peer pressure is exceptionally influential in adolescents. Admired peer comments reduce vmPFC activity and enhance ventral striatal activity. Adults modulate the mental impact of socially mean treatment: the initial activation of the PAG, anterior cingulate, amygdala, insula cortex; which generate feelings of pain, anger, and disgust, with the VLPFC but that does not occur in adolescents.
Feel empathy intensely, supported by their rampant emotions, interest in novelty, ego. But feeling the pain of others can induce self-oriented avoidance of the situations.

are better at seeing how they would feel in someone else's situation than seeing how the other person might feel. Similarly their moral judgments provides rules for identifying right from wrong. It develops in stages with children using play to work out rules of appropriate behavior. Kohlberg's 1950s experiments using children led him to conclude moral judgement is a cognitive process that develops in three stages. Sapolsky raises issues with the framework: Its a model, It does not apply to other cultures, Intuition & emotion are as significant as cognition, Moral reasoning doesn't predict moral actions; and notes the capacity of the frontal cortex to regulate emotions and behavior is far more predictive. The marshmallow test, performed on three to six year olds, actually predicted their subsequent SAT scores at high school, social success and lack of aggression, and forty years on more PFC activation during a frontal task and a lower BMI! Jonathan Haidt argues people's moral decisions are rationalizations rather than using reasoning.
are not as sophisticated as adults since they fail to account for systemic effects.

As they get older intentional harm to others becomes of interest to the dlPFC is dorsolateral prefrontal cortex which is:

At the heart of decision making - highly rational, unsentimental
A major agent of working memory
The most recently evolved part of the prefrontal cortex.
Mainly interconnected with other parts of the cortex.

& vmPFC is ventromedial prefrontal cortex which is:

Focused on the impact of emotion on decision making
A participant in limbic system operations
Many human behaviors involve interactions between the vmPFC, the limbic system & the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Part of decision making is for the limbic system to internally simulate (often with the help of the sympathetic nervous system) what alternative outcomes of a decision will feel like with the results of these somatic marker analyses being reported to the vmPFC.
Damage to the vmPFC results in bad decision making: Poor judgement in choosing friends & partners, Failure to respond to negative feedback; because they can't feel the issues.

rather than just the amygdala contains > 12 distinct areas: Central, Lateral. It receives simple signals from the lower parts of the brain: pain from the PAG; and abstract complex information from the highest areas: Disgust from the insula cortex. It sends signals to almost every other part of the brain, including to the decision-making circuitry of the frontal lobes. It has high levels of D(1) dopamine receptors. During extreme fear the amygdala drives the hippocampus into fear learning. It outputs directly to subcortical reflexive motor pathways when speed is required. Its central nucleus projects to the BNST. It signals the locus ceruleus. The amygdala:

Promotes aggression. Stimulating the amygdala promotes rage. It converts anger into aggression and when impaired it impacts the ability to detect angry facial expressions.
Participates in disgust
Perceives fear promoting stimuli. In PTSD sufferers the Amygdala overreacts to mildly fearful stimuli and is slow to calm down and the amygdala expands in size over a period of months. Fear is processed by the lateral nucleus which serves as the input from various senses, and the central nucleus which outputs to the brain stem (central grey - freezing, lateral hypothalamus - blood pressure, activates paraventricular hypothalamus => crf -> hormone adjustments).
Has lots of receptors for and is highly sensitive to glucocorticoids. Stress inhibits the GABA interneurons in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) allowing the excitatory glutamate releasing neurons to excite more.
Is sensitive to unsettling/uncertain social situations where it promotes anxiety. It is also interested in uncertain but potentially painful situations. The amygdala contributes to social and emotional decision making where the BLA supports rejecting an unacceptable offer, as allowed in the Ultimatum Game, by injecting implicit mistrust and vigilance, generating an anger driven rejection that is used as punishment. The amygdala is very rapidly excited by subliminal signals from the thalamus of outgroup skin color. The amygdala subsequently tips social emotions against outgroups unless restrained by the frontal lobe or influenced by subliminal priming to prioritize inclusion. The fast path from the thalamus rapidly but inaccurately signals its identified a weapon.
Promotes male, but not female, sexual motivation when it is an uncertain potential pleasure.
Responds to the longing for uncertain potential pleasures and fear that the reward will not be worth it if it happens. The amygdala turns off during orgasm.
Uses but is not directly involved in vision.

and insula is part of the cerebral cortex folded deep within the lateral sulcus. It includes: anterior, posterior insula; and is overlaid by the operculum. It is assumed to participate in consciousness where it has been linked to emotion, salience & body homeostasis functions:

Perception,
Motor control: Hand-&-eye motor movement, Swallowing, Gastric motility, Speech articulation;
Self-awareness,
Inter-personal experiences: Disgust at smells, contamination & mutilation which generate visceral responses, that are projected to the amygdala; binding physical and moral aspects of purity (Macbeth effect)
Homeostatic regulation of the sympathetic network, parasympathetic network, and immune system.

.

Sapolsky's core interest in the best & worst behaviors is rewarded by adolescents ability to feel other's pain empathetically is the capability to relate to another person from their perspective. It is implemented by spindle neurons. It is context dependently mediated by estrogen. It develops over time: Piaget's preoperational stage includes rudimentary empathy, Theory of mind supports the development; initially feeling someone's pain as one integrated being, then for them and eventually as them. In adults, when someone else is hurt the anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala & insula activates projecting [scapegoating] to the vmPFC. If the pain is physical the PAG activates and motor neurons for the area where the other person was injured. The intertwining of the ACC amygdala & insula in adults results in attribution of fault even when there is none which can make it hard to step in and actually help. But in seven-year-olds the activation is concrete: PAG and sensory & motor cortexes with minimal coupling to the rudimentary vmPFC. In older children the vmPFC is coupled to limbic structures. Ten to twelve year olds abstract empathy to classes of people. By adolescence the vmPFC is coupled to theory of mind regions and intentional harm induces disgust via the amygdala. Sapolsky explains adolescent boys are utilitarian and tend to accept inequality more than girls do. But both sexes accept inequality as the way it is. Sociopaths do not develop empathy. and try with boundless energy and confidence to make 'things' right.

Except that doing the right thing in an intense empathetic or moral situation is about prior practice:

Allowing the brain's signals to act unconsciously, thus
Avoiding overwhelming emotional pain becoming one's total conscious inhibiting focus.

Adolescent violence

Sapolsky notes violence peaks in late adolescence in humans supports the transition from a juvenile configuration, dependent on parents and structured to learn & logistically transform, to adult optimized to the proximate environment. And it is staged encouraging the adolescents to escape the hierarchy they grew up in and enter other groups where they may bring in: fresh ideas, risk taking; and alter the existing hierarchy: Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates & Paul Allen. It marks the beginning of Piaget's formal operational stage of cognitive development. The limbic, autonomic and hormone networks are already deployed and functioning effectively. The frontal cortex has to be pruned: winning neurons move to their final highly connected positions, and are myelinated over time. The rest dissolve. So the frontal lobe does not obtain its adult configuration and networked integration until the mid-twenties when prefrontal cortex control becomes optimal. The evolutionarily oldest areas of the frontal cortex mature first. The PFC must be iteratively customized by experience to do the right thing as an adult. Adolescents:

Don't detect irony effectively. They depend on the DMPFC to do this, unlike adults who leverage the fusiform face area.
Regulate emotions with the ventral striatum while the prefrontal cortex is still being setup. Dopamine projection density and signalling increase from the ventral tegmentum catalyzing increased interest in dopamine based rewards. Novelty seeking allows for creative exploration which was necessary to move beyond the familial pack. Criticisms do not get incorporated into learning models by adolescents leaving their risk assessments very poor. The target of the dopamine networks, the adolescent accumbens, responds to rewards like a gyrating top - hugely to large rewards, and negatively to small rewards. Eventually as the frontal regions increase in contribution there are steady improvements in: working memory, flexible rule use, executive organization and task shifting. And adolescents start to see other people's perspective.
Drive the cellular transformations with post-pubescent high levels of testosterone in males, and high but fluctuating estrogen & progesterone levels in females. Blood flow to the frontal cortex is also diverted on occasion to the groin.
Peer pressure is exceptionally influential in adolescents. Admired peer comments reduce vmPFC activity and enhance ventral striatal activity. Adults modulate the mental impact of socially mean treatment: the initial activation of the PAG, anterior cingulate, amygdala, insula cortex; which generate feelings of pain, anger, and disgust, with the VLPFC but that does not occur in adolescents.
Feel empathy intensely, supported by their rampant emotions, interest in novelty, ego. But feeling the pain of others can induce self-oriented avoidance of the situations.

- early adulthood, and then rates plummet. Adolescent violence is driven by:

The

Matt Taibbi describes the phenotypic alignment of the American justice system. The result he explains relentlessly grinds the poor and undocumented into resources to be constrained, consumed and ejected. Even as it supports and aligns the financial infrastructure into a potent weapon capable of targeting any company or nation to extract profits and leave the victim deflated.

Taibbi uses five scenarios to provide a broad picture of the: activities, crimes, policing, prosecutions, court processes, prisons and deportation network. The scenarios are: Undocumented people's neighborhoods, Poor neighborhoods, Welfare recipients, Credit card debtors and Financial institutions.

Following our summary of his arguments, RSS comments on them framed by complex adaptive system (CAS) theory. The alignment of the justice system reflects a set of long term strategies and responses to a powerful global arms race that the US leadership intends to win.

criminal justice system has to decide if adolescent criminals are to be considered fully in control of their judgments. Sapolsky concludes that Behave's scientific foundation demands the transformation of the criminal justice system.

Back to the Crib, Back to the Womb

Childhood is Sapolsky's next significant influence on our current good or bad behavior.

Complexification

Childhood's progressively increasing

complexity occurs in stages. Neuron, specialized eukaryotic cells include channels which control flows of sodium and potassium ions across the massively extended cell membrane supporting an electro-chemical wave which is then converted into an outgoing chemical signal transmission from synapses which target nearby neuron or muscle cell receptors. Neurons are supported by glial cells. Neurons include a:

Receptive element - dendrites
Transmitting element - axon and synaptic terminals
Highly variable DNA schema using transposons.

formation, migration and synaptogenesis are mostly prenatal in humans. But myelination is the fatty insulating material deployed by Schwann cells & oligodendrocytes, both types of glial cells, around axons to improve their conduction rate. In humans it is still occurring 25 years after birth. It has great impact on long axons, in neurons that project over long distances, where it helps brain inter-region signalling. The long development time of myelination allows for the later myelinated brain regions to be particularly shaped by the proximate environment.
occurs when a region has setup its mature structure and is optimizing. Sapolsky reiterates the later a brain region matures the more it is influenced by the environment: internal & external. And he concludes that it is useful to remember that the significant aspects of childhood that will be highlighted all alter genes in the brain. That is the only way it can work and the linkage reveals how bad outcomes might be reversed and good outcomes reinforced.

Preconventional reasoning (until age 8 - 10) initially allows aggression. But around two to four years old adult and peer punishment inhibits the use of aggression. And subsequently rewards become significant in the decision process. When these judgements about aggression don't change at age 8 - 10 it predicts increasing risk of adult sociopathy. For the others post conflict reconciliation decreases glucocorticoid levels and anxiety.
Conventional reasoning (adolescents and adults) reviews the consequences to others and if they are friends, as well as what others would likely do. Being well regarded is also significant. The law becomes significant in the later stage of this phase.
Post conventional reasoning (Inspiring heroes & insufferable pedants) first increases the value of self-judgement when judging rules. And beyond this are moral acts valued because they represent a position more important than a law.

. He concluded such judgments are cognitive is the ability to orchestrate thought and action in accordance with internal goals according to Princeton's Jonathan Cohen.
. Sapolsky notes studies suggesting conservatives and liberals reason at different stages of Kohlberg's

The agents in complex adaptive systems (CAS) must model their environment to respond effectively to it. Samuel modeling is described as an approach.

model. But the studies focused on Americans, missing the cross-cultural moral differences and undervaluing intuition and emotion are low level agents distributed across the brain and body which associate, via the amygdala and rich club hubs, important environmental signals with encoded high speed sensors, and distributed programs of action to model: predict, prioritize guidance signals, select and respond effectively, coherently and rapidly to the initial signal. The majority of emotion centered brain regions interface to the midbrain through the hypothalamus. The most accessible signs of emotions are the hard to control and universal facial expressions. Emotions provide prioritization for conscious access given that an animal has only one body, but possibly many cells, with which to achieve its highest level goals. Because of this emotions clash with group goals and are disparaged by the powerful. Evolutionary psychology argues evolution shaped human emotions during the long period of hunter-gatherer existence in the African savanna. Human emotions are universal and include: Anger, Appreciation of natural beauty, Disgust, Fear, Gratitude, Grief, Guilt, Happiness, Honor, Jealousy, Liking, Love, Rage, Romantic love, Lust for revenge, Passion, Sadness, Self-control, Shame, Sympathy, Surprise; and the sham emotions and distrust induced by reciprocal altruism. . And they fail to predict who will do the harder-but-right thing. Instead that is powerfully predicted by children's scores in Walter Mischel's experiments.

Marshmallows

In the 1960s Mischel was studying gratification postponement and developed the marshmallow test is Stanford psychologist Walter Mischel's experiment studying gratification postponement. A child is presented with a marshmallow and told that the experimenter is leaving the room and if the child doesn't eat the marshmallow before the experimenter returns he will be given another. The child is then observed through a two way mirror. Only a third of the children lasted the fifteen minutes. To achieve the task the children had to: Trust in the system, avoid hot ideation of the marshmallow, or displace it with cold ideation of the marshmallow or hot ideation of some other object. It was performed on three to six year olds, but subsequently predicted their SAT scores at high school, social success and lack of aggression, and forty years on more PFC activation during a frontal task and a lower BMI! The complexity of the experiment allowed uncertainty to limit the generality of Mischel's conclusions.
. Significantly Mischel tracked his subject children's subsequent adult lives. Forty years later, the children who were able to delay gratification had: Averaged higher SATs, More social success/resilience and less aggressive and oppositional behavior, Lower average BMI is body mass index. s and excelled at frontal cortical of the cerebral cortex is at the front of the brain. It includes the: prefrontal cortex, motor cortex. Sapolsky asserts it makes you do the harder thing when it's the right thing to do. The frontal cortex supports working memory to sustain focus on a task. It also coordinates the strategic actions necessary to achieve success. It provides impulse control, regulation of emotion, and willpower. The prefrontal cortex maintains focus by deprioritizing currently irrelevant streams of information. The frontal cortex tracks rules. Over a lifetime, that builds into a costly activity. Once it tires, responses become less prosocial. But practice shifts operation of tasks to the cerebellum. The frontal cortex signals the tegmentum and accumbens with the conclusions of its expectancy/discrepancy calculations. The frontal lobe provides executive function, considering bits of information, assessing patterns and then prioritizing the strategies. The frontal lobe is the most recent part of the brain to evolve and involves a disproportionate percentage of primate-unique genes in its development and operation. It does not complete development until the mid-20s. It includes spindle neurons. It is easily damaged. Sapolsky (Nauta) notes that its ventromedial prefrontal cortex is a quasi-member of the limbic system.
function.

Consequences

Sapolsky reviews what childhood events significantly contribute through biology to their adult best or worst behaviors: Mothers, Childhood adversity, Observing violence, Bullying; and subsequently explores: Why most children are still resilient enough to avoid the worst impacts, What happens when everything is wrong, The process by which parents mediate cultural memes into their children.

Let's start at the very beginning: The importance of mothers

John Bowlby's attachment theory is John Bowlby's model of mother infant bonding. He argued that infants need: love, warmth, affection, responsiveness, stimulation, consistency, reliability; or they become anxious, depressed, and/or poorly attached adults. Evolutionarily, sociopaths may be highly successful as managers and leaders but they are probably anxious. Sapolsky notes the powerful association between murder rates and stopping pregnant girls from terminating unwanted pregnancies. Typical mothers also provide training on social conventions and their children's position in the group hierarchy. Children raised without a mother's support fail to understand social constraints and when to use social behaviors. And in the presence of unsupportive mothers newborns attach to negative stimuli. This response is explained by the SHRP. Abused children subsequently seek out abusive relationships as adults. And a percentage of infants abused by their mothers become abusive mothers.
launched the modern view of the importance of the mother-infant bond which was subsequently validated experimentally by Wisconsin's Harry Harlow in the infant monkey placed the infants with constructed mothers. The mothers were made of wire mesh with a feeding bottle attached to the chest. Some of the 'mothers' differed in being covered with terry cloth. If the infants were given a choice they chose the terry-cloth mother, even if they were forced to feed from the wire cage mother. And the infant monkeys that only experienced the wire cage mother and could not 'cling' failed to attach. .

And, the eventual explanation for a massive drop in crime rates observed starting in the 1990s, provides further evidence of mother-infant bond's significance in humans: Stanford's Donohue & Chicago's Levitt identified that the drop in violence correlated with state abortion legalization passed 20 years prior. The problem was being born to a mother the child knows would prefer you don't exist. Again Harlow's results confirmed Donohue & Levitt's proposals. And the infant monkeys Harlow wrecked had the full set of behaviors, but didn't know when to use them effectively. Without mothers to teach them, they had no social context.

Any kind of mother in a storm

Sapolsky explains the SHRP is stress hypo-responsive period, an evolved strategy to protect the developing brain of a newborn from stress generated glucocorticoid based damage. The many adverse effects on brain development of glucocorticoids induce an advantage from temporarily shrinking the adrenals. SHRP makes sense since a newborn's mother will be better equipped to handle the stress. During the SHRP any strong stimulus is assumed positive and the newborn attaches to it. Without access to a mother the SHRP strategy is abandoned and the adrenals expand and secrete glucocorticoids.
evolved to protect the very young brain from damage from glucocorticoids are corticosteroids which bind the glucocorticoid receptor. They decrease excitability of prefrontal cortical neurons. They have adverse effects in fetal/infant development having organizational effects on fetal brain construction and decreasing levels of: growth factors, neurons, synapses; resulting in an adult brain that is more sensitive to environmental triggers of depression and anxiety. Glucocorticoids affect gene control structures and induce epi-genetic changes. They have been found associated with high sodium chloride consumption (May 2017).
. But when mom is the source of the aversive stimuli the SHRP ensures abused children will seek similarly abusive relationships as adults, and the girls are more likely to become abusive mothers.

Different routes to the same place

Most other significant events have similar impacts - Sapolsky groups them as forms of childhood adversity includes different types of stressor: No mother, Unsupportive mother, paternal deprivation, Childhood poverty, [Observing ]violence, Natural disasters, Bullying; which impact development and produce adult problems.

The adversities are stressful and alter stress physiology producing children and adults with elevated: Glucocorticoids, CRH and ACTH, Sympathetic nervous system activity. Early stress permanently impacts the brains ability to control glucocorticoid secretion. The more stressors experienced and the less protective factors, the less likely it is that the child will cope and become a resilient adult. The stressors expand the size and activity of the amygdala helping it ignore prefrontal cortex constraints. And they degrade the dopamine network through impacts to the development of the mesolimbic system and elevated adult glucocorticoids depleting dopamine.
The problems include attachment issues and adults with: depression (dopamine depletion and lowered thresholds making adult stressors more influential), anxiety, substance abuse (dopamine depletion, excessive adult exposure to glucocorticoids increasing drug craving & poorly developed frontal cortex), impaired cognitive abilities especially frontocortical with impaired hippocampal-dependent learning, impaired impulse control (amygdala), impaired emotional control, antisocial behavior and violence, relationships that replicate the childhood adversities. Abused children who develop PTSD show decreased hippocampal volume. Glucocorticoids decrease hippocampal production of BDNF. Childhood poverty impacts development of the corpus callosum & ensures by kindergarten, poor marshmallow test performance. Childhood poverty increases impacts from environmental stressors: Toxins, Liquor stores instead of fresh food markets, No transport infrastructure, Limited jobs in the immediate vicinity, Little access to low cost capital, Low positions in all social hierarchies.

resulting in the same biological profile:

The adversities are stressful and alter stress physiology producing children and adults with elevated: Glucocorticoids, CRH and ACTH, Sympathetic nervous system activity. Early stress permanently impacts the brains ability to control glucocorticoid secretion. The more stressors experienced and the less protective factors, the less likely it is that the child will cope and become a resilient adult. The stressors expand the size and activity of the amygdala helping it ignore prefrontal cortex constraints. And they degrade the dopamine network through impacts to the development of the mesolimbic system and elevated adult glucocorticoids depleting dopamine.
The problems include attachment issues and adults with: depression (dopamine depletion and lowered thresholds making adult stressors more influential), anxiety, substance abuse (dopamine depletion, excessive adult exposure to glucocorticoids increasing drug craving & poorly developed frontal cortex), impaired cognitive abilities especially frontocortical with impaired hippocampal-dependent learning, impaired impulse control (amygdala), impaired emotional control, antisocial behavior and violence, relationships that replicate the childhood adversities. Abused children who develop PTSD show decreased hippocampal volume. Glucocorticoids decrease hippocampal production of BDNF. Childhood poverty impacts development of the corpus callosum & ensures by kindergarten, poor marshmallow test performance. Childhood poverty increases impacts from environmental stressors: Toxins, Liquor stores instead of fresh food markets, No transport infrastructure, Limited jobs in the immediate vicinity, Little access to low cost capital, Low positions in all social hierarchies.

Observing Violence

Exposure to scenes of violence such as: domestic abuse, warfare, murders, massacres; as children result in impaired concentration and impulse control Sapolsky explains. Observed gun violence increases the child's adopting violence as a coping strategy. Later as adults there is increased risk of depression, anxiety and aggression. Even observing realistic violence indirectly on media causes the responses.
desensitizes and normalizes the aggression of those already prone to violence.

Bullying

While bullying is a complex childhood adversity. Sapolsky explains that targets of bullying aren't selected at random. And bullies often come from families with single mothers or younger parents with low educational and economic prospects. Sapolsky notes that someone who bullies and is also bullied is likely to be a real mess as an adult.
is one of the many forms of childhood adversity includes different types of stressor: No mother, Unsupportive mother, paternal deprivation, Childhood poverty, [Observing ]violence, Natural disasters, Bullying; which impact development and produce adult problems.

The adversities are stressful and alter stress physiology producing children and adults with elevated: Glucocorticoids, CRH and ACTH, Sympathetic nervous system activity. Early stress permanently impacts the brains ability to control glucocorticoid secretion. The more stressors experienced and the less protective factors, the less likely it is that the child will cope and become a resilient adult. The stressors expand the size and activity of the amygdala helping it ignore prefrontal cortex constraints. And they degrade the dopamine network through impacts to the development of the mesolimbic system and elevated adult glucocorticoids depleting dopamine.
The problems include attachment issues and adults with: depression (dopamine depletion and lowered thresholds making adult stressors more influential), anxiety, substance abuse (dopamine depletion, excessive adult exposure to glucocorticoids increasing drug craving & poorly developed frontal cortex), impaired cognitive abilities especially frontocortical with impaired hippocampal-dependent learning, impaired impulse control (amygdala), impaired emotional control, antisocial behavior and violence, relationships that replicate the childhood adversities. Abused children who develop PTSD show decreased hippocampal volume. Glucocorticoids decrease hippocampal production of BDNF. Childhood poverty impacts development of the corpus callosum & ensures by kindergarten, poor marshmallow test performance. Childhood poverty increases impacts from environmental stressors: Toxins, Liquor stores instead of fresh food markets, No transport infrastructure, Limited jobs in the immediate vicinity, Little access to low cost capital, Low positions in all social hierarchies.

, Sapolsky singles it out because of the complexity: the targets aren't selected at random. More often they have personal or family psychiatric issues and poor social and emotional intelligence. and the bullies often come from families with single mothers or younger parents with low educational and economic prospects. They may be bullied as they bully which results in very poorly adjusted adults who see bullying as ok and are likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and suicidality. And otherwise bullies are either:

Anxious, isolated children with poor social skills aiming to achieve acceptance and reduce their own frustration.
Future sociopaths.

are the product of additional adversity and the targets aren't selected at random.

A key question

Sapolsky considers why are many children resilient to childhood adversity includes different types of stressor: No mother, Unsupportive mother, paternal deprivation, Childhood poverty, [Observing ]violence, Natural disasters, Bullying; which impact development and produce adult problems.

The adversities are stressful and alter stress physiology producing children and adults with elevated: Glucocorticoids, CRH and ACTH, Sympathetic nervous system activity. Early stress permanently impacts the brains ability to control glucocorticoid secretion. The more stressors experienced and the less protective factors, the less likely it is that the child will cope and become a resilient adult. The stressors expand the size and activity of the amygdala helping it ignore prefrontal cortex constraints. And they degrade the dopamine network through impacts to the development of the mesolimbic system and elevated adult glucocorticoids depleting dopamine.
The problems include attachment issues and adults with: depression (dopamine depletion and lowered thresholds making adult stressors more influential), anxiety, substance abuse (dopamine depletion, excessive adult exposure to glucocorticoids increasing drug craving & poorly developed frontal cortex), impaired cognitive abilities especially frontocortical with impaired hippocampal-dependent learning, impaired impulse control (amygdala), impaired emotional control, antisocial behavior and violence, relationships that replicate the childhood adversities. Abused children who develop PTSD show decreased hippocampal volume. Glucocorticoids decrease hippocampal production of BDNF. Childhood poverty impacts development of the corpus callosum & ensures by kindergarten, poor marshmallow test performance. Childhood poverty increases impacts from environmental stressors: Toxins, Liquor stores instead of fresh food markets, No transport infrastructure, Limited jobs in the immediate vicinity, Little access to low cost capital, Low positions in all social hierarchies.

? He argues that:

Genes play a role
Fetal environment contributes
Most important is the cumulative number of adverse event categories experienced.

A sledgehammer

Sadly 1980s Romanian infant institutions provided a human equivalent to Harlow's experimental setup in the infant monkey placed the infants with constructed mothers. The mothers were made of wire mesh with a feeding bottle attached to the chest. Some of the 'mothers' differed in being covered with terry cloth. If the infants were given a choice they chose the terry-cloth mother, even if they were forced to feed from the wire cage mother. And the infant monkeys that only experienced the wire cage mother and could not 'cling' failed to attach. . Ceausescu's banning of abortion and requirement for families to have at least five children resulted in impoverished families abandoning newborns. Overwhelmed institutions generated deprivation and neglect. The children's lives were followed by Harvard's Charles Nelson who characterized them as adults:

Culture, with both a big and a little c

Prior to the general review of culture's effects on our best and worst behaviors, Sapolsky reviews how: culture is how we do and think about things, transmitted by non-genetic means as defined by Frans de Waal. CAS theory views cultures as operating via memetic schemata evolved by memetic operators to support a cultural superorganism. Evolutionary psychology asserts that human culture reflects adaptations generated while hunting and gathering. Dehaene views culture as essentially human, shaped by exaptations and reading, transmitted with support of the neuronal workspace and stabilized by neuronal recycling. Sapolsky argues that parents must show children how to transform their genetically derived capabilities into a culturally effective toolset. He is interested in the broad differences across cultures of: Life expectancy, GDP, Death in childbirth, Violence, Chronic bullying, Gender equality, Happiness, Response to cheating, Individualist or collectivist, Enforcing honor, Approach to hierarchy; illustrating how different a person's life will be depending on the culture where they are raised. Culture:

Is deployed during pregnancy & childhood, with parental mediation. Nutrients, immune messages and hormones all affect the prenatal brain. Hormones: Testosterone with anti-Mullerian hormone masculinizes the brain by entering target cells and after conversion to estrogen binding to intracellular estrogen receptors; have organizational effects producing lifelong changes. Parenting style typically produces adults who adopt the same approach. And mothering style can alter gene regulation in the fetus in ways that transfer epigenetically to future generations! PMS symptoms vary by culture.
Is also significantly transmitted to children by their peers during play. So parents try to control their children's peer group.
Is transmitted to children by their neighborhoods, tribes, nations etc.
Influences the parenting style that is considered appropriate.
Can transform dominance into honor. There are ecological correlates of adopting honor cultures. Parents in honor cultures are typically authoritarian.
Is strongly adapted across a meta-ethnic frontier according to Turchin.
Across Europe was shaped by the Carolingian empire.
Can provide varying levels of support for innovation.
Produces consciousness according to Dennet.

influences childhood and parents mediate the process. Sapolsky explains this begins with parenting style is a psychological classification including: authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, neglectful; ways of parenting that provide children with their first experience of proximate culture. Each style typically produces adults that use that same approach. Different cultures value different styles.
. He stresses that each style usually produces adults with that same approach, with different cultures valuing different styles.
He adds transmission by peers from a young age as identified by Judith Harris is a book by Judith Rich Harris which argues children's personality is most significantly influenced by peers. Her reasons include:

Parental influence is mediated by peers
Peers impact linguistic development
Other primates are socialized by peers, not mothers.

in The Nurture Assumption. Sapolsky explains that children play is a powerful tool for learning social competence. It appears universal among socially complex species. It has an evolved high priority displacing foraging and using up energy stores. There are a number of behavioral strategies practiced in play that train those participating. Play:

Supports safe practice of using social tools. Allows for trying out roles and honing motor skills.
Allows a peer group to provide context for these developments: Approach to hierarchy; etc. Parents will aim to select the peer group.
It integrates cultural details from local neighborhoods
It supports practice of aggression.
Demonstrates that transient stress is enjoyable.
It allows the developing neuron network to identify which synapses to prune.

with peers, which builds social competence. And neighborhoods transmit their cultural characteristics. As do tribes, nations and states.

Parents in cultures of honor tend to be authoritarian. The children are aggressive and endorse violent responses to honor is a doomsday machine emotional signal, which Pinker explains as an advertisement of the desire to publically avenge even minor trespasses and insults. violations.

Collectivist versus individualist cultures

Mothers in individualist cultures, speak louder reflects the energy of a tone, but is an emergent psychological construct.
, play music is a complex emergent capability supported by sexual selection and generating pleasure. It transforms the sensing of epiphenomena: Contour, Rhythm, Tempo, Timbre; to induce salient perceptions: Harmony, Key, Loudness, Melody, Meter, Pitch, Reverberation - echo; which allow musicians to show their fitness: superior coordination, creativity, adolescent leadership, stamina; true for birds and humans.
louder, are more animated and see their role as teacher. They encourage individually competitive games and hobbies where children do things. The children are taught to be assertive, autonomous & influential. They acquire theory of mind of mind is the capability of adults, and even young children, to see that others think and perceive the world differently to them. It typically develops around age three to four. It supports the child's development of empathy. It is associated with the DMPFC, precuneus, superior temporal sulcus & temporoparietal junction. Subsequently more capabilities appear including: Understanding a second person's theory of mind about a third person, Perspectives and Irony.
later than collectivist children.

Mothers in collectivist cultures, spend more

Carlo Rovelli resolves the paradox of time.
Rovelli initially explains that low level physics does not include time:

A present that is common throughout the universe does not exist
Events are only partially ordered. The present is localized
The difference between past and future is not foundational. It occurs because of state that through our blurring appears particular to us
Time passes at different speeds dependent on where we are and how fast we travel
Time's rhythms are due to the gravitational field
Our quantized physics shows neither space nor time, just processes transforming physical variables.
Fundamentally there is no time. The basic equations evolve together with events, not things

Then he explains how in a physical world without time its perception can emerge:

Our familiar time emerges

Our interaction with the world is partial, blurred, quantum indeterminate
The ignorance determines the existence of thermal time and entropy that quantifies our uncertainty
Directionality of time is real but perspectival. The entropy of the world in relation to us increases with our thermal time. The growth of entropy distinguishes past from future: resulting in traces and memories
Each human is a unified being because: we reflect the world, we formed an image of a unified entity by interacting with our kind, and because of the perspective of memory
The variable time: is one of the variables of the gravitational field. With our scale we don't register quantum fluctuations, making space-time appear determined. At our speed we don't perceive differences in time of different clocks, so we experience a single time: universal, uniform, ordered; which is helpful to our decisions

time soothing their children, maintaining contact, and facilitating contact with other adults. They pick cooperative games. They stress getting along, thinking of others, accepting and adapting. These children see social competence as taking someone else's perspective.

Class differences

St. Michael's College anthropologist Adrie Kusserow observed parent child interactions in three US is the United States of America. neighborhoods:

Wealthy is schematically useful information and its equivalent, schematically useful energy, to paraphrase Beinhocker. It is useful because an agent has schematic strategies that can utilize the information or energy to extend or leverage control of the cognitive niche. , upper middle class - Soft individualism, with authoritative is a parenting style focused on arbitrary, rigid rules and demands with behavior shaped by punishment. or permissive is a parenting style where rules aren't enforced and the children set the agenda.
parents facilitating fulfillment & using metaphors like: flowering, blooming, growing, blossoming; focused on individual children.
Stable, working class - Hard offensive individualism, with kids expected to maintain their authoritarian is a parenting style focused on arbitrary, rigid rules and demands with behavior shaped by punishment. parent's upward socioeconomic momentum.
Collapsed, lower class - Hard defensive individualism, with authoritarian is a parenting style focused on arbitrary, rigid rules and demands with behavior shaped by punishment. parents focused on keeping what had been achieved so far. Parents hoped to provide shelter. Children are treated as a group.

Nine long months

The demonstration that fetuses were affected by what they tasted & heard outside the womb encouraged interest among the public. For our best and worst behaviors Sapolsky judges other neonatal environmental influences are even more significant: Glands are active in the fetus and their action is transformative, Hostile external environment.

Boy and girl brains, whatever that might mean

Sapolsky stresses that hormones are signalling molecules: ACTH, TRH, Melanocyte stimulating hormone, Testosterone, Oxytocin, Vasopressin, Insulin, Growth hormone, Estrogen, Progesterone, Angiotensin II, Asprosin, EPO, Irisin, Leptin, FGF21 hormone, Prostaglandins, TSH, Thyroxine, Glococorticoids; that are transported by the circulatory system to interact with target organs having appropriate receptors. The levels of hormones can fluctuate massively, as in pregnancy.
have lifelong organizational effects in the fetus, rather than the activation effects seen in adults. Eight weeks post-conception: Male brains are masculinized by fetal gonads secreting testosterone is a hormone secreted by the testes in response to stimulation from the hypothalamic/pituitary/testicular cascade, that makes humans more willing to do what it takes to attain and maintain status, according to Sapolsky. That means players of the Ultimatum Game, if previously given testosterone can become more generous. Testosterones effect is highly socially contextual so it may encourage acts of kindness or aggression (when challenged). The level of testosterone does not predict which individuals will be aggressive in: Birds, Fish, Mammals including primates. Genes impact the potency of testosterone by altering the enzymes that: Construct it, Convert it to estrogen, code the androgen receptor. This androgen receptor includes a variable polyglutamine repeat which alters the sensitivity to the testosterone signal. The more potent form is associated with boys showing more dramatic 'masculinization' of the cortex. But the detected genetic influences are small. Testosterone decreases activity in the prefrontal cortex and its functional coupling to the amygdala while increasing the coupling between the amygdala & the thalamus. Testosterone shortens the refactory period of amygdaloid & amygdaloid target neurons. This results in impulsive risk taking and more focus on unfamiliar faces and distrust of them. Testosterone increases activity in the ventral tegmentum projecting dopamine to enhance place preference. Winners of fights become more willing to fight in part due to testosterone increasing confidence and optimism and reducing fear and anxiety. And winning at: Chess, Athletics, Stock trades; induces the BNST to add testosterone receptors increasing its sensitivity to the hormone. People become overconfident and overly optimistic.
& "anti-Mullerian hormone," Female gonad's secret estrogen is a generic term for a number of related steroid hormones each of which works differently. Estrogen:

Contributes to maternal aggression but it can reduce aggression and enhance empathy, depending on brain state. There are two different estrogen receptor types which mediate these conflicting effects. The levels of each type of receptor is independently regulated. Different receptor variants are associated with:

Higher rates of anxiety among women
Higher rates of antisocial behavior and conduct disorder in men

and progesterone is a steroid hormone. It:

Rarely directly effects areas of the brain. Instead it is converted into other sterioids which have different actions in different brain areas.
Increases maternal aggression in concert with estrogen by increasing oxytocin release in certain brain regions. However, on its own progresterone decreases aggression and anxiety. It decreases anxiety by entering neurons where it is converted to allopregnanolone which binds to GABA receptors increasing their sensitivity to GABA.

. But Sapolsky warns of messy complications:

Rodent brains aren't fully sexually differentiated at birth - a situation which continues postnatally
Testosterone enters the target brain cells where it is converted to estrogen. And its very hard to quantify amounts experimentally.
Female brains:

Have complex wiring of the fetal hypothalamus is essential to many operations of the body. It has many small sub-regions whose main functions are to regulate hunger, thirst, temperature, sexual behavior, and similar body operations. Its (paraventricular nucleus) is closely connected to the pituitary which secrets hormones into the bloodstream ( => acth -> adrenal cortex => cortisol (+)-> amygdala & (-)-> hippocampus).
From rodent mothers treated with testosterone throughout pregnancy produced pseudo-hermaphrodite have the external body characteristics of one sex but the internal gonads of the other. Female fetuses experimentally bathed in testosterone throughout pregnancy are born with male external characteristics but female gonads.
daughters who were more aggressive, performed more rough-and-tumble
play
is a powerful tool for learning social competence. It appears universal among socially complex species. It has an evolved high priority displacing foraging and using up energy stores. There are a number of behavioral strategies practiced in play that train those participating. Play:
- Supports safe practice of using social tools. Allows for trying out roles and honing motor skills.
- Allows a peer group to provide context for these developments: Approach to hierarchy; etc. Parents will aim to select the peer group.
- It integrates cultural details from local neighborhoods
- It supports practice of aggression.
- Demonstrates that transient stress is enjoyable.
- It allows the developing neuron network to identify which synapses to prune.
, vocalized and mounted as males, but were as interested in infants as the control females.

Male brains:

In rodents prenatal testosterone exposure had masculinizing organizational effects resulting in adult male activation effects of testosterone and estrogen.

Most experiments on humans have had limited success in clarifying the significance of these potential effects.

Expanding the scope of "environment"

Many external factors have an impact:

Back to when you were just a fertilized egg

Sapolsky reviews the contribution of the

Plans emerge in complex adaptive systems (CAS) to provide the instructions that agents use to perform actions. The component architecture and structure of the plans is reviewed.

genome to our best and worst behavior. It is a contentious subject with

Russ Abbott explores the impact on science of epiphenomena and the emergence of agents.

reductionists arguing genes imply essentialism at one extreme and the other where people resist linking genes and behavior. He notes that gene alleles, one of multiple alternative forms of a schematic sequence with the same address on a schematic string.
affect:

Part 1: Genes from the bottom up

But Sapolsky concludes that while genes are important, they are not

agents and they are constrained in what they can do by the 'environment':

Transcription factors in neurons, specialized eukaryotic cells include channels which control flows of sodium and potassium ions across the massively extended cell membrane supporting an electro-chemical wave which is then converted into an outgoing chemical signal transmission from synapses which target nearby neuron or muscle cell receptors. Neurons are supported by glial cells. Neurons include a:

Receptive element - dendrites
Transmitting element - axon and synaptic terminals
Highly variable DNA schema using transposons.

are regulated by the

This page discusses the potential of the vast state space which supports the emergence of complex adaptive systems (CAS). Kauffman describes the mechanism by which the system expands across the space.

environment: Intracellular where the immediate chemical state can activate a transcription factor, Adjacent neuron which signals, is an emergent capability which is used by cooperating agents to support coordination & rival agents to support control and dominance. In eukaryotic cells signalling is used extensively. A signal interacts with the exposed region of a receptor molecule inducing it to change shape to an activated form. Chains of enzymes interact with the activated receptor relaying, amplifying and responding to the signal to change the state of the cell. Many of the signalling pathways pass through the nuclear membrane and interact with the DNA to change its state. Enzymes sensitive to the changes induced in the DNA then start to operate generating actions including sending further signals. Cell signalling is reviewed by Helmreich. Signalling is a fundamental aspect of CAS theory and is discussed from the abstract CAS perspective in signals and sensors. In AWF the eukaryotic signalling architecture has been abstracted in a codelet based implementation. To be credible signals must be hard to fake. To be effective they must be easily detected by the target recipient. To be efficient they are low cost to produce and destroy.
this neuron across a synapse, a neuron structure which provides a junction with other neurons. It generates signal molecules, either excitatory or inhibitory, which are kept in vesicles until the synapse is stimulated when the signal molecules are released across the synaptic cleft from the neuron. The provisioning of synapses is under genetic control and is part of long term memory formation as identified by Eric Kandel. Modulation signals (from slow receptors) initiate the synaptic strengthening which occurs in memory.
, Distant organ that generates a hormone transported in the blood to a receptor on the neural circuit, a network of interconnected neurons which perform signalling, modeling and control functions. In Cajal's basic neural circuits the signalling is unidirectional. He identified three classes of neurons in the circuits:

Sensory, Interneurons, Motor; which are biochemically distinct and suffer different disease states.

, Outside world of smells and sights. The transcription factors and the genes they activate operate in a CAS where:

Genes encode the 1,500 different transcription factors
The human genome contains four million transcription factor binding sites.
The presence of a particular set of transcription factors control the transcription of a network of genes, including those coding for other transcription factors.
An average cell uses 200,000 transcription factor binding sites to generate its distinctive gene-expression profile.

Sapolsky explains that epi-genetic represent state surfaces within cells and eggs which can be operationally modified so as to provide a heritable structure. DNA, histones and other stable structures provide surfaces where these states may be setup. Egg carriers are in a particularly powerful position to induce epi-genetic changes. Sapolsky notes [childhood] events which persistently alter brain structure and behavior via epi-genetic mechanisms including: pair-bonding in prairie voles, as they first mate, is supported by changes in oxytocin & vasopressin receptor gene regulation in the nucleus accumbens.
changes can reflect chemical & structural shifts which alter the ability of transcription factors to bind to the target DNA. Lamarckian inheritance of environmental effects can occur over generations!

And Sapolsky notes that proteins, a relatively long chain (polymer) of peptides. Shorter chains of peptides are termed polypeptides. are often constructed uses the product of the transcription of DNA into messenger m-RNA and is mostly the translation of the m-RNA into a folded protein by Ribosomes and t-RNA.
from m-RNA (RNA), a polymer composed of a chain of ribose sugars. It does not naturally form into a paired double helix and so is far less stable than DNA. Chains of DNA are converted by transcription into equivalently sequenced messenger m-RNA. RNA also provides the associations that encode the genetic code. Transfer t-RNAs have a site that maps to the codon and match the associated amino-acid. Stuart Kauffman argues that RNA polymers may be the precursor to our current DNA based genome and protein based enzymes. In the adaptive web framework's (AWF) Smiley we use a similar paradigm with no proteins.
sequences that contain non-coding introns. Enzymes, a protein with a structure which allows it to operate as a chemical catalyst and a control switch.
then remove the introns. The mechanism enables multiple protein variants to be generated from one DNA sequence. 90% of human genes with exons are alternately spliced.

Sapolsky considers the impact of transposons are regions of DNA which are copied and inserted into other areas of the DNA schemata. Their effect and existence was first noted by Barbara McClintock. Plants, when under stress, utilize transposons to rapidly evolve their genomes. Animal's immune systems and neuronal stem cells when forming memories, also leverage transposons. , which he notes operate within neuronal stem cells is a biological cell which is partly or wholly undifferentiated. A totipotent cell can generate a complete embryo and placenta. Embryos include pluripotent cells which can generate any tissue in the body. Adult humans' cells have turned off this ability but still include multipotent stem cells that differentiate into multiple cell types. Typically a cell's local environment will have the signals required for it to obtain context and differentiate appropriately. This will include both the external environment and the internal state of the cell which has replicated from a parent and obtained its epi-genetic state. So introduction of undifferentiated stem cells into an injured area is not likely to have either aspect of the environment suitable. Consequently development is aiming to encourage differentiation to progenitor cells for the damaged region. This requires delivering the cells to the appropriate part of the body. To avoid rejection by the immune system techniques aim to use cell lines developed from the patient's cells. The techniques to generate these cell lines include: SCNT, iPS. Possible mechanisms of stem cell therapy are: Generation of new differentiated cells, Stimulation of growth of new blood vessels to repopulate damaged regions, Secretion of growth factors, Treatment of diabetes (1 and 2) with addition of pancreatic cells, Assistance of other mechanisms; in the brain expanding the genome of neurons forming memories.

Part 2: Genes from the top down--Behavior Genetics

Sapolsky argues that 'behavioral genetics' had struggled to quantify the magnitude of genetic effects on: IQ, Sexual orientation; forcing additional approaches:

It was assumed that traits found in families were genetic but the environmental contribution could not be easily disentangled.
Twin studies allowed an assessment of the concordance rate is a percentage that indicates how much genomic & epi-genetic effects contribute to a behavior of twins: Schizophrenia is 50%;
for behaviors.
Identical twin studies compare monozygotic and fraternal twins. Twins were found who had been separated at birth introducing variation in environments. But there are issues:

Environment is assumed to be shared equally by monozygotic twins and same sex fraternal twins but is not.
Parents treat identical twins differently to fraternal twins.
Only monozygotic twins share placentas (in 75% of cases) and this will make their environments more similar. Epi-genetic represent state surfaces within cells and eggs which can be operationally modified so as to provide a heritable structure. DNA, histones and other stable structures provide surfaces where these states may be setup. Egg carriers are in a particularly powerful position to induce epi-genetic changes. Sapolsky notes [childhood] events which persistently alter brain structure and behavior via epi-genetic mechanisms including: pair-bonding in prairie voles, as they first mate, is supported by changes in oxytocin & vasopressin receptor gene regulation in the nucleus accumbens.
and prenatal environment are shared for monozygotic twins.
Adoptive parents aren't chosen randomly but are matched to the child undermining the assumption that the environment is different.
Adoptive parents tend to be more educated, wealthier is schematically useful information and its equivalent, schematically useful energy, to paraphrase Beinhocker. It is useful because an agent has schematic strategies that can utilize the information or energy to extend or leverage control of the cognitive niche. , more psychiatrically healthy than biological parents.
Genes influence on heritability is a population genetics measure indicating the percentage of total variation attributable to genetics. Wearing skirts in the US is highly correlated with being female and is thus of high heritability, but is not a strongly inherited trait. Sapolsky notes that research often inflates heritability scores because: Environmental influence is hard to control for and assess and it may significantly alter the operation of genes; so the more environments a gene's heritability is studied in the lower the score is likely to be. It is only meaningful to define what a gene does in a particular environment.
and inheritance indicates that genes strongly influence average levels of a trait. Sapolsky notes that inheritance influences why humans are smarter than turnips! Which is not typically as interesting as why one human is smarter than another -- which is indicated by the trait's heritability.
differs. Most behavioral genetics studies are interested in heritability but research methods tend to inflate heritability values because environmental effects on genes will only be highlighted by comparing results obtained in different environments. A study in a single environment can't separate the genetic and environmental contributions.
There are ubiquitous gene/environment interactions which alter the qualitative effects of the gene:

Part 3: So what do genes actually have to do with behaviors we're interested in?

Sapolsky notes that behavioral genetics has beneficially incorporated molecular approaches. But many interesting findings are complicated by gene/environment interactions:

Genes generating oxytocin is a peptide hormone which makes humans more prosocial to and socially competent in their in-group and more antisocial to everyone else. The effects are contingent; changing during stress and in the presence of a threatening outgroup. Oxytocin makes people look at eyes longer, encouraging improved accuracy at perceiving emotions. It enhances activity in the TPJ supporting modeling of other people's thinking. Dogs and their owners secrete oxytocin increasing the amount of eye contact between them. It is associated with pair bonding. It is central to female mammals wanting to nurse, nursing, and remembering their child. Its effects are context dependent and so is the regulation of the genes that control oxytocin. Variants of a gene CD38 which facilitates oxytocin secretion from neurons are associated with differing levels of activation of the fusiform face area when looking at faces. Sapolsky describes an oxytocin receptor gene variant that is associated with children showing: Extreme aggression, A callous unemotional style; foreshadowing adult psychopathy. And another receptor gene variant which is associated with childhood social disconnection and unstable adult relationships. Gene/environment interactions complicate the interpretation of the presence of particular gene variants. Hypothalamic neurons send projections to: ventral tegmentum which also becomes more receptive during child birth, nucleus accumbens, hippocampus, amygdala where it inhibits the central amygdala suppressing fear & anxiety consistently in men while still allowing women to respond to threats to their infants, frontal cortex, olfactory network where it helps new rat mums to learn the smell of their offspring; where oxytocin prepares the brain for in-group bonding, out-grouping, birth and maternal behavior. Outside the brain hypothalamic neurons in females send oxytocin to the posterior pituitary where it enters the blood stream stimulating uterine contraction during labor & supporting milk production for weaning. Disorders associated with oxytocin abnormalities include ASD.
and vasopressin developed by duplication and subsequent mutation of the vasotocin gene, along with oxytocin, during the initial formation of mammals. It acts as a hormone regulating water retention in the kidneys. It supports paternal behavior stimulated by a female giving birth. Sex releases vasopressin in the nucleus accumbens of male prairie voles. And prairie voles have more receptors in the accumbens than other voles supporting their pair bonding. This situation is similar in bonobos relative to chimps where it encourages social bonding - but not monogamy. Vasopressin is made in hypothalamic neurons which project to the posterior pituitary for release as a hormone. It is also a neuropeptide transmitting from hypothalamic projections to the ventral tegmentum, nucleus accumbens, hippocampus, amygdala, and frontal cortex. And it is made & secreted in other areas of the brain. Vasopressin enhances aggression in paternal prairie vole males. But the aggression is then maintained by social learning.
affect prosociality is prioritizing benefiting others through: Help, Charity, Truth; even if many are acts of restitution to balance out antisocial acts. Due to the Insula's binding of physical and metaphorical disgust, physically washing your hands can be enough to reduce the need for a prosocial act.
. Research indicates one oxytocin receptor gene variant is associated with extreme aggression in children & adult psychopathy. But no characterization of the variants chemistry has been completed yet. Gene/environment interactions occur:

Genes that control testosterone is a hormone secreted by the testes in response to stimulation from the hypothalamic/pituitary/testicular cascade, that makes humans more willing to do what it takes to attain and maintain status, according to Sapolsky. That means players of the Ultimatum Game, if previously given testosterone can become more generous. Testosterones effect is highly socially contextual so it may encourage acts of kindness or aggression (when challenged). The level of testosterone does not predict which individuals will be aggressive in: Birds, Fish, Mammals including primates. Genes impact the potency of testosterone by altering the enzymes that: Construct it, Convert it to estrogen, code the androgen receptor. This androgen receptor includes a variable polyglutamine repeat which alters the sensitivity to the testosterone signal. The more potent form is associated with boys showing more dramatic 'masculinization' of the cortex. But the detected genetic influences are small. Testosterone decreases activity in the prefrontal cortex and its functional coupling to the amygdala while increasing the coupling between the amygdala & the thalamus. Testosterone shortens the refactory period of amygdaloid & amygdaloid target neurons. This results in impulsive risk taking and more focus on unfamiliar faces and distrust of them. Testosterone increases activity in the ventral tegmentum projecting dopamine to enhance place preference. Winners of fights become more willing to fight in part due to testosterone increasing confidence and optimism and reducing fear and anxiety. And winning at: Chess, Athletics, Stock trades; induces the BNST to add testosterone receptors increasing its sensitivity to the hormone. People become overconfident and overly optimistic.
,
estrogens
is a generic term for a number of related steroid hormones each of which works differently. Estrogen:
- Contributes to maternal aggression but it can reduce aggression and enhance empathy, depending on brain state. There are two different estrogen receptor types which mediate these conflicting effects. The levels of each type of receptor is independently regulated. Different receptor variants are associated with:
and glucocorticoids are corticosteroids which bind the glucocorticoid receptor. They decrease excitability of prefrontal cortical neurons. They have adverse effects in fetal/infant development having organizational effects on fetal brain construction and decreasing levels of: growth factors, neurons, synapses; resulting in an adult brain that is more sensitive to environmental triggers of depression and anxiety. Glucocorticoids affect gene control structures and induce epi-genetic changes. They have been found associated with high sodium chloride consumption (May 2017).
.

The testosterone receptor, in biological cells these proteins are able to span the cell membrane and present an active site which is tailored to interact with a specific signal. When the receptor pairs with its signal, its overall shape changes resulting in changes in the part internal to the cell which can be relayed by the cells signalling infrastructure. In neuron synapses one type of receptor (fast) is associated with an ion channel. The other (slow) is associated with a signalling enzyme chain and modulates the neuron's response.
gene alleles have been studied. They alter the responsiveness of the receptor. Some research associates the more potent receptor with violent crimes and masculinization of the cortex is the main part of the cerebral cortex in mammals. It was originally thought to exist only in mammals but is also present in reptiles and birds buried behind other areas of the for-brain. The for-brain develops based on a genetic plan consistent across all vertebrates. The neocortex processes vision in the visual hierarchy V1, V2, V3 .. V5 ... V20; and language with areas including Wernicke's and Broca's with sensors in the inner ear. Primate species with bigger social groups have larger cortices. Human cortex size suggests traditional human cultures had an average size of 150 people.
of
adolescent
in humans supports the transition from a juvenile configuration, dependent on parents and structured to learn & logistically transform, to adult optimized to the proximate environment. And it is staged encouraging the adolescents to escape the hierarchy they grew up in and enter other groups where they may bring in: fresh ideas, risk taking; and alter the existing hierarchy: Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates & Paul Allen. It marks the beginning of Piaget's formal operational stage of cognitive development. The limbic, autonomic and hormone networks are already deployed and functioning effectively. The frontal cortex has to be pruned: winning neurons move to their final highly connected positions, and are myelinated over time. The rest dissolve. So the frontal lobe does not obtain its adult configuration and networked integration until the mid-twenties when prefrontal cortex control becomes optimal. The evolutionarily oldest areas of the frontal cortex mature first. The PFC must be iteratively customized by experience to do the right thing as an adult. Adolescents:
- Don't detect irony effectively. They depend on the DMPFC to do this, unlike adults who leverage the fusiform face area.
- Regulate emotions with the ventral striatum while the prefrontal cortex is still being setup. Dopamine projection density and signalling increase from the ventral tegmentum catalyzing increased interest in dopamine based rewards. Novelty seeking allows for creative exploration which was necessary to move beyond the familial pack. Criticisms do not get incorporated into learning models by adolescents leaving their risk assessments very poor. The target of the dopamine networks, the adolescent accumbens, responds to rewards like a gyrating top - hugely to large rewards, and negatively to small rewards. Eventually as the frontal regions increase in contribution there are steady improvements in: working memory, flexible rule use, executive organization and task shifting. And adolescents start to see other people's perspective.
- Drive the cellular transformations with post-pubescent high levels of testosterone in males, and high but fluctuating estrogen & progesterone levels in females. Blood flow to the frontal cortex is also diverted on occasion to the groin.
- Peer pressure is exceptionally influential in adolescents. Admired peer comments reduce vmPFC activity and enhance ventral striatal activity. Adults modulate the mental impact of socially mean treatment: the initial activation of the PAG, anterior cingulate, amygdala, insula cortex; which generate feelings of pain, anger, and disgust, with the VLPFC but that does not occur in adolescents.
- Feel empathy intensely, supported by their rampant emotions, interest in novelty, ego. But feeling the pain of others can induce self-oriented avoidance of the situations.
boys. High testosterone only associates with aggression in that receptor variant. But Sapolsky notes these associations are not very predictive.
Different variants of the
estrogen
is a generic term for a number of related steroid hormones each of which works differently. Estrogen:
- Contributes to maternal aggression but it can reduce aggression and enhance empathy, depending on brain state. There are two different estrogen receptor types which mediate these conflicting effects. The levels of each type of receptor is independently regulated. Different receptor variants are associated with:
receptor, in biological cells these proteins are able to span the cell membrane and present an active site which is tailored to interact with a specific signal. When the receptor pairs with its signal, its overall shape changes resulting in changes in the part internal to the cell which can be relayed by the cells signalling infrastructure. In neuron synapses one type of receptor (fast) is associated with an ion channel. The other (slow) is associated with a signalling enzyme chain and modulates the neuron's response.
are associated with higher rates:

Of anxiety is manifested in the amygdala mediating inhibition of dopamine rewards. Major anxiety results in elevated glucocorticoids and reduces hippocampal dendrite & spine density. Some estrogen receptor variants are associated with anxiety in women. Michael Pollan concludes anxiety is fear of the future.
in women. In genetically manipulated mice absence of the receptor gene alters aggression in females but is dependent on the number of brothers the mice had in utero.
Of antisocial behavior & conduct disorder in men

Glucocorticoids gene/environment interactions have been researched. The MR receptor gene allele AND childhood abuse produce an amygdala that is hyper-reactive to threat. Sapolsky notes research has looked at two of the 20,000 human genes in a few of the astronomical variety of environments. The situation is daunting!

Centuries to millennia before

Sapolsky notes that the cultures is how we do and think about things, transmitted by non-genetic means as defined by Frans de Waal. CAS theory views cultures as operating via memetic schemata evolved by memetic operators to support a cultural superorganism. Evolutionary psychology asserts that human culture reflects adaptations generated while hunting and gathering. Dehaene views culture as essentially human, shaped by exaptations and reading, transmitted with support of the neuronal workspace and stabilized by neuronal recycling. Sapolsky argues that parents must show children how to transform their genetically derived capabilities into a culturally effective toolset. He is interested in the broad differences across cultures of: Life expectancy, GDP, Death in childbirth, Violence, Chronic bullying, Gender equality, Happiness, Response to cheating, Individualist or collectivist, Enforcing honor, Approach to hierarchy; illustrating how different a person's life will be depending on the culture where they are raised. Culture:

Is deployed during pregnancy & childhood, with parental mediation. Nutrients, immune messages and hormones all affect the prenatal brain. Hormones: Testosterone with anti-Mullerian hormone masculinizes the brain by entering target cells and after conversion to estrogen binding to intracellular estrogen receptors; have organizational effects producing lifelong changes. Parenting style typically produces adults who adopt the same approach. And mothering style can alter gene regulation in the fetus in ways that transfer epigenetically to future generations! PMS symptoms vary by culture.
Is also significantly transmitted to children by their peers during play. So parents try to control their children's peer group.
Is transmitted to children by their neighborhoods, tribes, nations etc.
Influences the parenting style that is considered appropriate.
Can transform dominance into honor. There are ecological correlates of adopting honor cultures. Parents in honor cultures are typically authoritarian.
Is strongly adapted across a meta-ethnic frontier according to Turchin.
Across Europe was shaped by the Carolingian empire.
Can provide varying levels of support for innovation.
Produces consciousness according to Dennet.

that surround us have huge effects on how individuals behave. These behaviors reflect the culture the individuals were raised in as well as where they live. He illustrates his case with:

Gender differences in mathematics where the more gender equality the less difference there was in math scores with Iceland's girls scoring better than boys, while most other countries have boys scoring better especially in unequal cultures like Turkey's.

Earlier adoption of the hoe over the plow predicts gender equality in today's culture.

Long term impacts - population density in 1500 significantly predicts how authoritarian a government was in 2000.

He explores where we are now and how we probably got here: Patterns of cultural variation effect behaviors, Culture & biology coevolve, and Ecology effects culture.

Life is unrecognizably different, depending on which culture you were born into:

Collectivist cultures compared to individualist cultures ON AVERAGE:

Collectivists seek harmony, interdependence, conformity, needs of the group guide behavior; judge themselves based on social interactions. Individuals don't want to fall behind the group. Influencing someone else is stressful with increased glucocorticoid are corticosteroids which bind the glucocorticoid receptor. They decrease excitability of prefrontal cortical neurons. They have adverse effects in fetal/infant development having organizational effects on fetal brain construction and decreasing levels of: growth factors, neurons, synapses; resulting in an adult brain that is more sensitive to environmental triggers of depression and anxiety. Glucocorticoids affect gene control structures and induce epi-genetic changes. They have been found associated with high sodium chloride consumption (May 2017).
secretion. When looking at calm facial expressions Chinese activate the mesolimbic dopamine pathway includes projections between the tegmentum and the accumbens, amygdala, hippocampus;
. Problem-solving is more relational and uses spatial strategies assuming interactions with the environment: friction; and excel at relative assessments. Sensory information is processed holistically with East Asians first scanning the whole picture. Collectivist cultures are responses to:

Growing rice which demands communal work. DRD4 is dopamine receptor D4, which is found in the cortex and nucleus accumbens. It is very highly variable with more than 10 variants: 7R; in humans.
(
7R
is a variant of dopamine receptor D4. 7R label reflects the presence of seven repeats of a variable section of the gene for D4. The frequency of the gene varies across populations and is associated with: human migration, & differences of collectivist (1%) and individualist (upto 70% in historically migratory) cultures. This gene variant produces a receptor protein which is relatively unresponsive to dopamine. Sapolsky explains it is associated with: ADHD, alcoholism, extroversion, financial risk taking, impulsivity, sensation & novelty seeking, promiscuity; modified by gene/environment interactions:
- Children with 7R AND insecure attachment to their parents are less generous than average. Otherwise children with 7R are more generous.
- Students with 7R expressed the least interest in prosocial groups, unless given a religious prime in which case they were the most prosocial.
- People with 7R are relatively poor at gratification-postponement tasks IF AND ONLY IF they grew up poor.
) occurs in 1% of East Asians. In parts of China where wheat is grown rather than rice the culture looks more individualist.

Individualists seek autonomy, personal achievement, uniqueness, needs & rights of the individual; describing themselves based on intrinsic factors. Individuals aim to get ahead. And when looking at pictures of themselves they strongly activate the medial prefrontal cortex in Buckner's fMRI based analysis is part of the brain's default mode network. It facilitates the flexible use of information during the construction of self-relevant mental simulations. Nauta considered its ventromedial part as participating in the limbic system. With the medial temporal lobe it converges on important integration nodes: posterior cingulate cortex. . Being influenced by others is stressful with increased glucocorticoid are corticosteroids which bind the glucocorticoid receptor. They decrease excitability of prefrontal cortical neurons. They have adverse effects in fetal/infant development having organizational effects on fetal brain construction and decreasing levels of: growth factors, neurons, synapses; resulting in an adult brain that is more sensitive to environmental triggers of depression and anxiety. Glucocorticoids affect gene control structures and induce epi-genetic changes. They have been found associated with high sodium chloride consumption (May 2017).
secretion. When looking at excited facial expressions European Americans activate the mesolimbic dopamine pathway includes projections between the tegmentum and the accumbens, amygdala, hippocampus;
. Problem-solving is more linear and uses linguistic strategies assuming intrinsic properties: weight, density; and excel at absolute assessments. Sensory information is processed in a focused manner with Westerners first looking at a picture's center. US individualism is a response to:

Encouraging immigration which selects for independent people seeking to leave their former culture. DRD4 (7R) occurs in 23% of Europeans & European Americans.

Produce different moral provides rules for identifying right from wrong. It develops in stages with children using play to work out rules of appropriate behavior. Kohlberg's 1950s experiments using children led him to conclude moral judgement is a cognitive process that develops in three stages. Sapolsky raises issues with the framework: Its a model, It does not apply to other cultures, Intuition & emotion are as significant as cognition, Moral reasoning doesn't predict moral actions; and notes the capacity of the frontal cortex to regulate emotions and behavior is far more predictive. The marshmallow test, performed on three to six year olds, actually predicted their subsequent SAT scores at high school, social success and lack of aggression, and forty years on more PFC activation during a frontal task and a lower BMI! Jonathan Haidt argues people's moral decisions are rationalizations rather than using reasoning.
systems, enforced by shame is an emotional reaction to being discovered cheating on a friend.
in collectivist cultures and guilt is an emotion which alerts us to the risk of cheating on a friend. To be culturally effective the individuals must have respect for the law.
in individual ones. There is more in-group bias in collectivist cultures - express high empathy is the capability to relate to another person from their perspective. It is implemented by spindle neurons. It is context dependently mediated by estrogen. It develops over time: Piaget's preoperational stage includes rudimentary empathy, Theory of mind supports the development; initially feeling someone's pain as one integrated being, then for them and eventually as them. In adults, when someone else is hurt the anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala & insula activates projecting [scapegoating] to the vmPFC. If the pain is physical the PAG activates and motor neurons for the area where the other person was injured. The intertwining of the ACC amygdala & insula in adults results in attribution of fault even when there is none which can make it hard to step in and actually help. But in seven-year-olds the activation is concrete: PAG and sensory & motor cortexes with minimal coupling to the rudimentary vmPFC. In older children the vmPFC is coupled to limbic structures. Ten to twelve year olds abstract empathy to classes of people. By adolescence the vmPFC is coupled to theory of mind regions and intentional harm induces disgust via the amygdala. Sapolsky explains adolescent boys are utilitarian and tend to accept inequality more than girls do. But both sexes accept inequality as the way it is. Sociopaths do not develop empathy. & activation of theory of mind of mind is the capability of adults, and even young children, to see that others think and perceive the world differently to them. It typically develops around age three to four. It supports the child's development of empathy. It is associated with the DMPFC, precuneus, superior temporal sulcus & temporoparietal junction. Subsequently more capabilities appear including: Understanding a second person's theory of mind about a third person, Perspectives and Irony.
for in-group observed as in pain amplifies the aggression response of people by interoceptive signalling of brain regions providing social emotions including the PAG projecting to the amygdala; making aggressive people more so and less aggressive people less so. Pain is the main reason people visit the ED in the US. .
It takes one generation for descendants of East Asian immigrants to America to be as individualist as European Americans.

Pastoralists & Southerners

Nomadic herdsmen have
cultural
is how we do and think about things, transmitted by non-genetic means as defined by Frans de Waal. CAS theory views cultures as operating via memetic schemata evolved by memetic operators to support a cultural superorganism. Evolutionary psychology asserts that human culture reflects adaptations generated while hunting and gathering. Dehaene views culture as essentially human, shaped by exaptations and reading, transmitted with support of the neuronal workspace and stabilized by neuronal recycling. Sapolsky argues that parents must show children how to transform their genetically derived capabilities into a culturally effective toolset. He is interested in the broad differences across cultures of: Life expectancy, GDP, Death in childbirth, Violence, Chronic bullying, Gender equality, Happiness, Response to cheating, Individualist or collectivist, Enforcing honor, Approach to hierarchy; illustrating how different a person's life will be depending on the culture where they are raised. Culture:
- Is deployed during pregnancy & childhood, with parental mediation. Nutrients, immune messages and hormones all affect the prenatal brain. Hormones: Testosterone with anti-Mullerian hormone masculinizes the brain by entering target cells and after conversion to estrogen binding to intracellular estrogen receptors; have organizational effects producing lifelong changes. Parenting style typically produces adults who adopt the same approach. And mothering style can alter gene regulation in the fetus in ways that transfer epigenetically to future generations! PMS symptoms vary by culture.
- Is also significantly transmitted to children by their peers during play. So parents try to control their children's peer group.
- Is transmitted to children by their neighborhoods, tribes, nations etc.
- Influences the parenting style that is considered appropriate.
- Can transform dominance into honor. There are ecological correlates of adopting honor cultures. Parents in honor cultures are typically authoritarian.
- Is strongly adapted across a meta-ethnic frontier according to Turchin.
- Across Europe was shaped by the Carolingian empire.
- Can provide varying levels of support for innovation.
- Produces consciousness according to Dennet.
similarities attributed to their tough environments and minimal rule of law and centralized government. Thieves can easily steel a pastoralist's herd. Sapolsky suggests this asymmetric issue results in:

Peter Turchin describes how major pre-industrial empires developed due to effects of geographic boundaries constraining the empires and their neighbors' interactions. Turchin shows how the asymmetries of breeding rates and resource growth rates results in dynamic cycles within cycles. After the summary of Turchin's book complex adaptive system (CAS) theory is used to augment Turchins findings.

Militarism abounds generating warrior classes.
Death in battle is exulted.
Culture of honor is a doomsday machine emotional signal, which Pinker explains as an advertisement of the desire to publically avenge even minor trespasses and insults. .
High rates of polygamy and mistreatment of women.
Authoritarian parenting is a parenting style focused on arbitrary, rigid rules and demands with behavior shaped by punishment. .
Monotheistic religions with hierarchy and interventionism
Ecology significantly shapes culture. Sapolsky notes that culture can then be exported and persist in other environments. So most humans' beliefs reflect the culture developed by preliterate Middle Eastern pastoralists.

Sapolsky explains that people from the old South of the US have a similar violent honor culture that results in far more honor killings. And he notes with caveats, historian David Hackett Fischer proposed this culture was due to the large numbers of herders from Scotland, Ireland and northern England.

Violence Turned Inward

Sapolsky explores honor killings where he suggests girls are considered to have tarnished the reputation of the family by refusing an arranged marriage. So they are executed by blood relatives, the act is rationalized religiously and carried out openly, ignoring any cross
cultural
is how we do and think about things, transmitted by non-genetic means as defined by Frans de Waal. CAS theory views cultures as operating via memetic schemata evolved by memetic operators to support a cultural superorganism. Evolutionary psychology asserts that human culture reflects adaptations generated while hunting and gathering. Dehaene views culture as essentially human, shaped by exaptations and reading, transmitted with support of the neuronal workspace and stabilized by neuronal recycling. Sapolsky argues that parents must show children how to transform their genetically derived capabilities into a culturally effective toolset. He is interested in the broad differences across cultures of: Life expectancy, GDP, Death in childbirth, Violence, Chronic bullying, Gender equality, Happiness, Response to cheating, Individualist or collectivist, Enforcing honor, Approach to hierarchy; illustrating how different a person's life will be depending on the culture where they are raised. Culture:
- Is deployed during pregnancy & childhood, with parental mediation. Nutrients, immune messages and hormones all affect the prenatal brain. Hormones: Testosterone with anti-Mullerian hormone masculinizes the brain by entering target cells and after conversion to estrogen binding to intracellular estrogen receptors; have organizational effects producing lifelong changes. Parenting style typically produces adults who adopt the same approach. And mothering style can alter gene regulation in the fetus in ways that transfer epigenetically to future generations! PMS symptoms vary by culture.
- Is also significantly transmitted to children by their peers during play. So parents try to control their children's peer group.
- Is transmitted to children by their neighborhoods, tribes, nations etc.
- Influences the parenting style that is considered appropriate.
- Can transform dominance into honor. There are ecological correlates of adopting honor cultures. Parents in honor cultures are typically authoritarian.
- Is strongly adapted across a meta-ethnic frontier according to Turchin.
- Across Europe was shaped by the Carolingian empire.
- Can provide varying levels of support for innovation.
- Produces consciousness according to Dennet.
tensions on the girls.

Stratified Versus Egalitarian
Cultures
is how we do and think about things, transmitted by non-genetic means as defined by Frans de Waal. CAS theory views cultures as operating via memetic schemata evolved by memetic operators to support a cultural superorganism. Evolutionary psychology asserts that human culture reflects adaptations generated while hunting and gathering. Dehaene views culture as essentially human, shaped by exaptations and reading, transmitted with support of the neuronal workspace and stabilized by neuronal recycling. Sapolsky argues that parents must show children how to transform their genetically derived capabilities into a culturally effective toolset. He is interested in the broad differences across cultures of: Life expectancy, GDP, Death in childbirth, Violence, Chronic bullying, Gender equality, Happiness, Response to cheating, Individualist or collectivist, Enforcing honor, Approach to hierarchy; illustrating how different a person's life will be depending on the culture where they are raised. Culture:
- Is deployed during pregnancy & childhood, with parental mediation. Nutrients, immune messages and hormones all affect the prenatal brain. Hormones: Testosterone with anti-Mullerian hormone masculinizes the brain by entering target cells and after conversion to estrogen binding to intracellular estrogen receptors; have organizational effects producing lifelong changes. Parenting style typically produces adults who adopt the same approach. And mothering style can alter gene regulation in the fetus in ways that transfer epigenetically to future generations! PMS symptoms vary by culture.
- Is also significantly transmitted to children by their peers during play. So parents try to control their children's peer group.
- Is transmitted to children by their neighborhoods, tribes, nations etc.
- Influences the parenting style that is considered appropriate.
- Can transform dominance into honor. There are ecological correlates of adopting honor cultures. Parents in honor cultures are typically authoritarian.
- Is strongly adapted across a meta-ethnic frontier according to Turchin.
- Across Europe was shaped by the Carolingian empire.
- Can provide varying levels of support for innovation.
- Produces consciousness according to Dennet.
- how unequally resources: land, food, goods, power, prestige; are distributed.

Population: size, density, heterogeneity

Sapolsky notes more of humanity are living in urban cities. He argues these are beneficial with healthier, wealthier is schematically useful information and its equivalent, schematically useful energy, to paraphrase Beinhocker. It is useful because an agent has schematic strategies that can utilize the information or energy to extend or leverage control of the cognitive niche. , better
This page discusses the effect of the network on the agents participating in a complex adaptive system (CAS). Small world and scale free networks are considered.

networked, more innovative is the economic realization of invention and combinatorial exaptation. While highly innovative, monopolies: AT&T, IBM; usually have limited economic reach, constraining productivity. This explains the use of regulation, or even its threat, that can check their power and drive the creations across the economy.
people than in rural populations. And the urban living builds a different brain:

Escalating punishment for norm violations as the population grows, applied by objective third parties - Sapolsky argues this is why moralistic punishing gods appeared.
Increasingly dense populations develop tight cultures: Autocratic, repressive, orthodox; and density exaggerates existing social tendencies. But Sapolsky notes density is not synonymous with aggression in rats or humans.
People from different cultures intermixing need clear barriers to maintain peaceful coexistence.

The Residues of Cultural Crises

Sapolsky notes historically 'tight' countries have had more food shortages, lower food intake, & lower fat and protein in their population's diet. Tightness is predicted by environmental degradation. Sapolsky references Jared Diamond's Collapse highlighting of environmental degradation as explaining collapse in local civilizations.
Signals of disease are sensed by individuals providing behavioral immunity. High historical incidence of: pandemics, communicable diseases, high infant & child mortality; predict tightness & reduce a community's openness to outsiders.
Cultural tightness correlates with a history of floods, droughts, and cyclones. El Ninos is a rise in the equatorial Pacific Ocean's average temperature which occurs about every 12 years. It is part of the Southern Oscillation. El Ninos are associated with warmer, drier weather and droughts and food shortages in many developing countries.
doubled the likelihood of reactivating civil conflicts about power & resources. Sapolsky notes this effect is opposite to the drivers for war in hunter-gatherers and baboons. Climate change is expected to increase global conflict: Interpersonal violence, Group violence driven mainly by more droughts and expanding desertification as well as more usual temperature increase effects.

Oh, Why Not: Religion

Sapolsky notes humanity has invented thousands of religions. He draws out some patterns:

He concludes:

A religion reflects the values of the culture that invented or adopted it, and it transmits those values
Religions foster the best and worst of our behaviors
It's complicated.

Hobbes or Rousseau- how we got there

Sapolsky explains that contemporary evaluations of the applicability of these philosophies leverage data:

Archaeological
Contemporary humans living in pre-state tribal societies

But there are definitional disagreements. University of Illinois's Lawrence Keeley and Harvard's Steven Pinker argue archaeological evidence of war is broad, ancient, & barbaric and violence is declining. They argue that archaeologists are ignoring the evidence to pacify the past. Rutgers R. Brian Ferguson strikes back arguing: Their evidence does not show what they claim and they cherry-picked their data.

Keeley, Pinker & Santa Fe Institute's Samuel Bowles conclude from looking at contemporary hunter-gatherers: New Guinea: Gebusi, Mae Enga; & Borneo head hunters, Maasai & Zulu warriors from Africa, Amazonians: Waorani, Jivaro; Brazilian and Venezuelan Yanomamos is a tribe of contemporary Venezuelan hunter gatherers. They are still isolated from modern societies (Nov 2018). They have been a popular model of historic hunter gatherers: discussed in Behave, and in The Origin of Wealth.
; that warfare is nearly universal. Anthropologists again argue there was cherry-picking with Global surveys showing less violence. There are issues with the statistical analyses. And other studies do not find the levels of violence of the initial reports.

Sapolsky argues 95 to 99% of hominin history was spent in small nomadic bands that foraged for edible plants and hunted cooperatively. Few records exist: cave paintings from forty thousand years ago which show hunting but not war. So most people infer from the current day hunter-gatherer tribes the: Hazda, Mbuti, Batwa, Gunwinggi, Andaman Islanders, Batak, Semang and Inuit cultures. Mostly the men discuss how fantastic their last hunt was while generations of females provide the calories from foraging. Most hunter-gatherers:

Work fewer hours for their food than traditional farmers do and they live longer and are healthier.
Fluid transfers between separate nomadic groups.
University of Alabama at Birmingham's Douglas Fry & Southern California's Christopher Boem view the violence situation as complex. Capital punishment was executed to maintain: Fairness where successful hunters moan about being shortchanged, Indirect reciprocity which works well for unpredictable big-game hunting & sharing, Constraining despotism where the group is careful to punish norm violations by high-status individuals. Sapolsky notes hunter gatherers detect despotism & enforce fairness using gossip is an evolved mechanism to enforce: fairness, indirect reciprocity, and avoidance of despotism. It allows: reality testing, transfer of news, and consensus building; to maintain norms.
.

Sapolsky writes the evidence suggests a mixture of Hobbes & Rousseau. He does not consider hunter-gatherers as angels but sees war as rare until the nomadic lifestyle was abandoned.

So Sapolsky suggests agriculture/herding was one of the all-time human blunders because it:

Makes us dependent on a few domesticated crops and animals resulting in vulnerability to: droughts, blights, zoonotic refers to a disease that transfers between animals and people.
diseases.
Encourages sedentary living forcing humans to live in close proximity to their feces is an efficient way of passing infection from one person to another. It leverages network effects.
.
Generates surpluses resulting in hierarchies.
Enables war.

He concludes by asserting the most consequential aspect of the coevolution of brains and culture is how we do and think about things, transmitted by non-genetic means as defined by Frans de Waal. CAS theory views cultures as operating via memetic schemata evolved by memetic operators to support a cultural superorganism. Evolutionary psychology asserts that human culture reflects adaptations generated while hunting and gathering. Dehaene views culture as essentially human, shaped by exaptations and reading, transmitted with support of the neuronal workspace and stabilized by neuronal recycling. Sapolsky argues that parents must show children how to transform their genetically derived capabilities into a culturally effective toolset. He is interested in the broad differences across cultures of: Life expectancy, GDP, Death in childbirth, Violence, Chronic bullying, Gender equality, Happiness, Response to cheating, Individualist or collectivist, Enforcing honor, Approach to hierarchy; illustrating how different a person's life will be depending on the culture where they are raised. Culture:

Is deployed during pregnancy & childhood, with parental mediation. Nutrients, immune messages and hormones all affect the prenatal brain. Hormones: Testosterone with anti-Mullerian hormone masculinizes the brain by entering target cells and after conversion to estrogen binding to intracellular estrogen receptors; have organizational effects producing lifelong changes. Parenting style typically produces adults who adopt the same approach. And mothering style can alter gene regulation in the fetus in ways that transfer epigenetically to future generations! PMS symptoms vary by culture.
Is also significantly transmitted to children by their peers during play. So parents try to control their children's peer group.
Is transmitted to children by their neighborhoods, tribes, nations etc.
Influences the parenting style that is considered appropriate.
Can transform dominance into honor. There are ecological correlates of adopting honor cultures. Parents in honor cultures are typically authoritarian.
Is strongly adapted across a meta-ethnic frontier according to Turchin.
Across Europe was shaped by the Carolingian empire.
Can provide varying levels of support for innovation.
Produces consciousness according to Dennet.

is childhood, when cultures inculcate individuals. The delayed maturation in humans supports the transition from a juvenile configuration, dependent on parents and structured to learn & logistically transform, to adult optimized to the proximate environment. And it is staged encouraging the adolescents to escape the hierarchy they grew up in and enter other groups where they may bring in: fresh ideas, risk taking; and alter the existing hierarchy: Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates & Paul Allen. It marks the beginning of Piaget's formal operational stage of cognitive development. The limbic, autonomic and hormone networks are already deployed and functioning effectively. The frontal cortex has to be pruned: winning neurons move to their final highly connected positions, and are myelinated over time. The rest dissolve. So the frontal lobe does not obtain its adult configuration and networked integration until the mid-twenties when prefrontal cortex control becomes optimal. The evolutionarily oldest areas of the frontal cortex mature first. The PFC must be iteratively customized by experience to do the right thing as an adult. Adolescents:

Don't detect irony effectively. They depend on the DMPFC to do this, unlike adults who leverage the fusiform face area.
Regulate emotions with the ventral striatum while the prefrontal cortex is still being setup. Dopamine projection density and signalling increase from the ventral tegmentum catalyzing increased interest in dopamine based rewards. Novelty seeking allows for creative exploration which was necessary to move beyond the familial pack. Criticisms do not get incorporated into learning models by adolescents leaving their risk assessments very poor. The target of the dopamine networks, the adolescent accumbens, responds to rewards like a gyrating top - hugely to large rewards, and negatively to small rewards. Eventually as the frontal regions increase in contribution there are steady improvements in: working memory, flexible rule use, executive organization and task shifting. And adolescents start to see other people's perspective.
Drive the cellular transformations with post-pubescent high levels of testosterone in males, and high but fluctuating estrogen & progesterone levels in females. Blood flow to the frontal cortex is also diverted on occasion to the groin.
Peer pressure is exceptionally influential in adolescents. Admired peer comments reduce vmPFC activity and enhance ventral striatal activity. Adults modulate the mental impact of socially mean treatment: the initial activation of the PAG, anterior cingulate, amygdala, insula cortex; which generate feelings of pain, anger, and disgust, with the VLPFC but that does not occur in adolescents.
Feel empathy intensely, supported by their rampant emotions, interest in novelty, ego. But feeling the pain of others can induce self-oriented avoidance of the situations.

of the frontal cortex of the cerebral cortex is at the front of the brain. It includes the: prefrontal cortex, motor cortex. Sapolsky asserts it makes you do the harder thing when it's the right thing to do. The frontal cortex supports working memory to sustain focus on a task. It also coordinates the strategic actions necessary to achieve success. It provides impulse control, regulation of emotion, and willpower. The prefrontal cortex maintains focus by deprioritizing currently irrelevant streams of information. The frontal cortex tracks rules. Over a lifetime, that builds into a costly activity. Once it tires, responses become less prosocial. But practice shifts operation of tasks to the cerebellum. The frontal cortex signals the tegmentum and accumbens with the conclusions of its expectancy/discrepancy calculations. The frontal lobe provides executive function, considering bits of information, assessing patterns and then prioritizing the strategies. The frontal lobe is the most recent part of the brain to evolve and involves a disproportionate percentage of primate-unique genes in its development and operation. It does not complete development until the mid-20s. It includes spindle neurons. It is easily damaged. Sapolsky (Nauta) notes that its ventromedial prefrontal cortex is a quasi-member of the limbic system.
allows for sculpting by the environment including cultural norms.

The Evolution of Behavior

Sapolsky asserts that only

This page reviews the implications of selection, variation and heredity in a complex adaptive system (CAS). The mechanism and its emergence are discussed.

evolution can explain behavior. He argues like anatomy and physiology, behaviors evolve.

Kin selection is a strategy of selfish genes, which aims to maximize gene survival & replication across all the bodies where a copy of the gene probably exists: relatives. Altruism is beneficial to gene replication in this situation. Love supports the agent's prioritization of appropriate altruistic strategies. Sapolsky describes an array of strategies used to identify kin:

Genetically shaped pheromonal signatures. Rodents leverage the immune systems MHC super variable gene regions to develop unique signals. The more similar the signals are the closer is the relative. Pregnancy triggers adult neurogenesis in the olfactory system of rat mothers to allow them to learn the smell of their newborn.
Imprinting on the female whose birdsong a chick heard while still in the egg
Degree of paternalism depending on likelihood of being the father in primates
Humans use cognition

allows relatives to group together to help their genes persist into the next generation. Sapolsky notes that across species mating third-cousins is an evolved behavior. Women prefer the smell of moderately related over unrelated men. Identifying kin works differently across species. Human kin recognition is mainly cognitive is the ability to orchestrate thought and action in accordance with internal goals according to Princeton's Jonathan Cohen.
. Sapolsky notes it is far from accurate which is significant.

Non-kin can also evolve to cooperate through reciprocal altruism benefits another organism at a cost to the behaver. It is differentiated from kin altruism, by Williams and Trivers, since it can apply between unrelated individuals. It can be induced by natural selection when there is mutual survival benefit in group activities and cheating can be detected and discouraged. Humans, leveraging the cognitive niche, can particularly easily, build an evolved amplifier, through sharing information at little cost and significant benefit. But African savanna hunters similarly gain from sharing large game meat with other un-related altruistic group members since the meat would otherwise spoil before it could be eaten.
. Sapolsky notes the strategies to maximize cooperation and limit cheating have been investigated using game theory investigates the optimal strategies for cooperating. The iterative Prisoner's Dilemma scenario was shown by Axelrod & Hamilton to reward a Tit for Tat strategy with perfect signals. An effective way to limit the risks of initiating Tit for Tat in a potential sea of Always Defectors is a genetically encoded signal of cooperation such as the green-beard gene. Other evolved strategies include genetic algorithms. including

Plans change in complex adaptive systems (CAS) due to the action of genetic operations such as mutation, splitting and recombination. The nature of the operations is described.

genetic algorithms.

Sapolsky views the three foundations of behavioral evolution: individual

This page reviews the implications of selection, variation and heredity in a complex adaptive system (CAS). The mechanism and its emergence are discussed.

natural &

This page describes the consequences of the asymmetries caused by genotypic traits creating a phenotypic signal in males and selection activity in the female - sexual selection.
The impact of this asymmetry is to create a powerful alternative to natural selection with sexual selection's leverage of positive returns. The mechanisms are described.

sexual selection, kin selection, reciprocal altruism; as a lens to understand:

But he notes that neo-group selection is David Sloan Wilson and subsequently Harvard's E.O. Wilson's, multi-level evolutionary selection mechanism. It is seen to operate in humans and is explained by Tit for Tat style cooperation and prosociality.
is also a significant force in evolving humans' behaviors.

Still Sapolsky stresses that we are not descended from any of the other living species. He reviews a variety of measures that all suggest we are profoundly confused. We exhibit behaviors: Violence driven by male-male competition for reproductive access to females, Violence against females for coercive sex or punishing rejection; that make sense to an elephant seal or a baboon have asymmetric sizes, and musculature. Males may be much bigger and more muscular than females and have conspicuous facial markings. Sapolsky's tournament primates include: baboons, mandrills, rhesus monkeys, vervets, and chimps. And he additionally lists gazelles, lions, sheep, peacocks, & elephant seals. Selection has supported evolved capture of fighting skills and display. Such males:

Use aggressive conflict to obtain high dominance rankings.
A small percentage of high rank males do all the mating. They will mate with any female anytime. So they have evolved to invest in larger testes and higher sperm counts.
Males do no investment in parenting of their children.
Females look for signals of good genes. This encourages sexual selection of signals of male health, status and dominance.
Females don't compete with each other since they will all breed with the high rank males.

. But other behaviors don't fit that mold: People forgoing reproduction, Individuals sacrificing themselves for strangers.

Sapolsky sees broad evidence of human kin selection. But there are complications:

Clan fighting occurs - but many wars show evidence of families fighting on both sides.
Intra-family individual violence occurs
Patricide occurs, typically as revenge for abuse and fratricide.
Parents killing children because of mental illness, abuse that unintentionally turned fatal
Money is bequeathed to non-kin. Sapolsky judges that our cognitive based kin assessment helps explain these situations. If you 'feel' like a relative to me you are a relative. And we can be manipulated into feeling more or less related to someone than we really are.

Sapolsky asserts reciprocal altruism and neo-group selection drive: rules, laws, treaties, penalties, social conscience, inner voice, morals, ethics, etc. He notes that a study of present day hunter-gatherers showed, only 40% of people within the bands are blood relatives. So we potentially evolved from hunter-gatherers that were driven by reciprocal altruism. And neo-group selection is at the core of cooperation and competition among human groups and cultures is how we do and think about things, transmitted by non-genetic means as defined by Frans de Waal. CAS theory views cultures as operating via memetic schemata evolved by memetic operators to support a cultural superorganism. Evolutionary psychology asserts that human culture reflects adaptations generated while hunting and gathering. Dehaene views culture as essentially human, shaped by exaptations and reading, transmitted with support of the neuronal workspace and stabilized by neuronal recycling. Sapolsky argues that parents must show children how to transform their genetically derived capabilities into a culturally effective toolset. He is interested in the broad differences across cultures of: Life expectancy, GDP, Death in childbirth, Violence, Chronic bullying, Gender equality, Happiness, Response to cheating, Individualist or collectivist, Enforcing honor, Approach to hierarchy; illustrating how different a person's life will be depending on the culture where they are raised. Culture:

Is deployed during pregnancy & childhood, with parental mediation. Nutrients, immune messages and hormones all affect the prenatal brain. Hormones: Testosterone with anti-Mullerian hormone masculinizes the brain by entering target cells and after conversion to estrogen binding to intracellular estrogen receptors; have organizational effects producing lifelong changes. Parenting style typically produces adults who adopt the same approach. And mothering style can alter gene regulation in the fetus in ways that transfer epigenetically to future generations! PMS symptoms vary by culture.
Is also significantly transmitted to children by their peers during play. So parents try to control their children's peer group.
Is transmitted to children by their neighborhoods, tribes, nations etc.
Influences the parenting style that is considered appropriate.
Can transform dominance into honor. There are ecological correlates of adopting honor cultures. Parents in honor cultures are typically authoritarian.
Is strongly adapted across a meta-ethnic frontier according to Turchin.
Across Europe was shaped by the Carolingian empire.
Can provide varying levels of support for innovation.
Produces consciousness according to Dennet.

.

Sapolsky notes that these gene driven behavioral arguments were intended to be threatened by Punctuated Equilibrium is Steven Jay Gould and Niles Eldridge's proposal about how evolution occurs. They suggested that most of the time 'nothing happens' and then there are intermittent rapid lurches. The idea is analogous to Schumpeter's waves of creative destruction. Complex adaptive systems will operate this way driven by the underlying slow mutations of the germ-line schemata and the action of infrastructure and evolved amplifiers.
. While Dawkins dismissed macro mutations and species selection, there is evidence of rapid gene spreading and our understanding of transcription-factors are enzymes which associate with a transcription complex to bind to the DNA and control its transcription and hence translation into proteins. The regulation of DNA transcription and protein synthesis are reviewed by Tsonis. Transcription factors allow environmental state to become reflected in the control of DNA transcription. Transcription factors can regulate multiple genes, allowing network effects & multiple transcription factors can regulate a gene allowing sophisticated control processes. In AWF the transcription, translation and deployment infrastructure of the eukaryotic cell has been abstracted in a codelet based implementation.
, transposons are regions of DNA which are copied and inserted into other areas of the DNA schemata. Their effect and existence was first noted by Barbara McClintock. Plants, when under stress, utilize transposons to rapidly evolve their genomes. Animal's immune systems and neuronal stem cells when forming memories, also leverage transposons. and other

This page reviews the strategy of setting up an arms race. At its core this strategy depends on being able to alter, or take advantage of an alteration in, the genome or equivalent. The situation is illustrated with examples from biology, high tech and politics.

amplifiers enables us to accept macro-mutational events. Still Sapolsky concludes that depending on what genes are being affected, gradualism and punctuated change occur in evolution without the edifice collapsing.

Steven Jay Gould's tinkering exaptation, initially termed preadaptation refers to the coopting of some function for a new use. allows evolution to produce good enough solutions. They suggest other traits were purely spandrels are Steven Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin's evolved traits that appear as side effects of exaptations and have no selection value themselves. A spandrel is an architectural term for the space between two arches. Gould and Lenontin's point was that adaptationists would suggest spandrels were created to provide a medium for the artwork that was often placed on them because they were there.
. Sapolsky suggests there are less adaptations than socio-biologists once asserted and less spandrels than Gould and other critics argued, with reality anchored in the complexity of evolution.

Us Versus Them

Sapolsky explores our tendency to form 'Us' versus 'Them' dichotomies and to favor the former, as detected by the IAT is the implicit association test:

Pictures of likely in-group and out-group members and positive and negative words are displayed on a computer screen
Sometimes the viewer is asked "If you see an in-group member or positive word press the red button; if you see an out-group or negative word press the blue button."
Alternatively the viewer may be asked "If you see an in-group member or negative term press the red button; if you see an out-group or positive word press the blue button."
The discordance of the second rule causes a pause of a few milliseconds before the viewer presses a button. Over a series of views a pattern of delay emerges indicating the viewer's bias.

. He notes how this grouping process is supported by the brain's architecture and happens rapidly:

Bristol's Tajfel showed 'Us' versus 'Them' formed rapidly in minimal group paradigms, demonstrating prosociality is prioritizing benefiting others through: Help, Charity, Truth; even if many are acts of restitution to balance out antisocial acts. Due to the Insula's binding of physical and metaphorical disgust, physically washing your hands can be enough to reduce the need for a prosocial act.
requires only meaningless traits for group identification. It emerges before age three. Sapolsky argues this augments genetic green-beard genes code for expressing an evolved signal, such as a green-beard, and cooperating with other "green-beard displaying" people. Humans can adjust how we view these signals and so how we define us and them. effects which depend on both kin selection is a strategy of selfish genes, which aims to maximize gene survival & replication across all the bodies where a copy of the gene probably exists: relatives. Altruism is beneficial to gene replication in this situation. Love supports the agent's prioritization of appropriate altruistic strategies. Sapolsky describes an array of strategies used to identify kin:

Genetically shaped pheromonal signatures. Rodents leverage the immune systems MHC super variable gene regions to develop unique signals. The more similar the signals are the closer is the relative. Pregnancy triggers adult neurogenesis in the olfactory system of rat mothers to allow them to learn the smell of their newborn.
Imprinting on the female whose birdsong a chick heard while still in the egg
Degree of paternalism depending on likelihood of being the father in primates
Humans use cognition

and reciprocal altruism benefits another organism at a cost to the behaver. It is differentiated from kin altruism, by Williams and Trivers, since it can apply between unrelated individuals. It can be induced by natural selection when there is mutual survival benefit in group activities and cheating can be detected and discouraged. Humans, leveraging the cognitive niche, can particularly easily, build an evolved amplifier, through sharing information at little cost and significant benefit. But African savanna hunters similarly gain from sharing large game meat with other un-related altruistic group members since the meat would otherwise spoil before it could be eaten.
; with psychological equivalents.

Sapolsky suggests what helps define a culture is how we do and think about things, transmitted by non-genetic means as defined by Frans de Waal. CAS theory views cultures as operating via memetic schemata evolved by memetic operators to support a cultural superorganism. Evolutionary psychology asserts that human culture reflects adaptations generated while hunting and gathering. Dehaene views culture as essentially human, shaped by exaptations and reading, transmitted with support of the neuronal workspace and stabilized by neuronal recycling. Sapolsky argues that parents must show children how to transform their genetically derived capabilities into a culturally effective toolset. He is interested in the broad differences across cultures of: Life expectancy, GDP, Death in childbirth, Violence, Chronic bullying, Gender equality, Happiness, Response to cheating, Individualist or collectivist, Enforcing honor, Approach to hierarchy; illustrating how different a person's life will be depending on the culture where they are raised. Culture:

Is deployed during pregnancy & childhood, with parental mediation. Nutrients, immune messages and hormones all affect the prenatal brain. Hormones: Testosterone with anti-Mullerian hormone masculinizes the brain by entering target cells and after conversion to estrogen binding to intracellular estrogen receptors; have organizational effects producing lifelong changes. Parenting style typically produces adults who adopt the same approach. And mothering style can alter gene regulation in the fetus in ways that transfer epigenetically to future generations! PMS symptoms vary by culture.
Is also significantly transmitted to children by their peers during play. So parents try to control their children's peer group.
Is transmitted to children by their neighborhoods, tribes, nations etc.
Influences the parenting style that is considered appropriate.
Can transform dominance into honor. There are ecological correlates of adopting honor cultures. Parents in honor cultures are typically authoritarian.
Is strongly adapted across a meta-ethnic frontier according to Turchin.
Across Europe was shaped by the Carolingian empire.
Can provide varying levels of support for innovation.
Produces consciousness according to Dennet.

is a standardized process binding arbitrary markers: dress, ornamentation, accent; to normally invisible meaningful traits: Values, beliefs, attributions, ideologies; allowing a flag to become a symbol to die for.

Sapolsky notes that the 'Us' process inflates the merits of in-group core values: correct, wise, moral, and worthy; and arbitrary markers. Feelings about 'Us' focus on shared obligations, willingness and mutuality from a high frequency of iterative positive interactions and the power to punish defections. But the prosociality for the in-group is bound quite abstractly. Sapolsky also reports that we act to improve things for 'Us' AND to maximize the gap with 'Them'. Maximizing the gap can result in focusing on loyalty rather than equality. An in-group member, who airs the group's dirty laundry generating a negative stereotype and in-group shame is an emotional reaction to being discovered cheating on a friend.
, will provoke high levels of punishment as a signal, is an emergent capability which is used by cooperating agents to support coordination & rival agents to support control and dominance. In eukaryotic cells signalling is used extensively. A signal interacts with the exposed region of a receptor molecule inducing it to change shape to an activated form. Chains of enzymes interact with the activated receptor relaying, amplifying and responding to the signal to change the state of the cell. Many of the signalling pathways pass through the nuclear membrane and interact with the DNA to change its state. Enzymes sensitive to the changes induced in the DNA then start to operate generating actions including sending further signals. Cell signalling is reviewed by Helmreich. Signalling is a fundamental aspect of CAS theory and is discussed from the abstract CAS perspective in signals and sensors. In AWF the eukaryotic signalling architecture has been abstracted in a codelet based implementation. To be credible signals must be hard to fake. To be effective they must be easily detected by the target recipient. To be efficient they are low cost to produce and destroy.
to outsiders. When someone leaves 'Us' to join 'Them' it may invoke stiff punishment if the commitment to 'Us' is based on sacred values rather than a contract.

Similarly Sapolsky sees patterns in how we view 'Them':

Threatening [to the hierarchy], angry is an emotion which protects a person who has been cheated by a supposed friend. When the exploitation of the altruism is discovered, Steven Pinker explains, the result is a drive for moralistic aggression to hurt the cheater.
, untrust and distrust are evolved responses to sham emotions. During a friendship where no sham emotions have been detected trust will build up.
worthy; is seen consistently. Or
Disgusting is a universal human emotion. Pinker notes it has its own facial expression and is codified in food taboos. The mind must be associated with the proximate environment and parents minimize the risk for their omnivorous children by teaching them what foods to eat and what to avoid. The children's minds are initially receptive to trying all foods but their brains subsequently lock in on the foods they have experienced. These parental choices are affected by schematic influence on what has been beneficial. Adolescent's brain developments undermine these constraints enabling intergroup transfers. Disgust is modulated by the insula cortex which projects signals to the amygdala.
, where we add moral and aesthetic to most animal's basic gustatory disgust. 'Us' versus 'Them' markers enable the
insula
is part of the cerebral cortex folded deep within the lateral sulcus. It includes: anterior, posterior insula; and is overlaid by the operculum. It is assumed to participate in consciousness where it has been linked to emotion, salience & body homeostasis functions:
- Perception,
- Motor control: Hand-&-eye motor movement, Swallowing, Gastric motility, Speech articulation;
- Self-awareness,
- Inter-personal experiences: Disgust at smells, contamination & mutilation which generate visceral responses, that are projected to the amygdala; binding physical and moral aspects of purity (Macbeth effect)
- Homeostatic regulation of the sympathetic network, parasympathetic network, and immune system.
to become active. Establishing that 'They' eat disgusting things assists with deciding that 'They' also have disgusting ethical ideas. People with a low threshold for interpersonal disgust have strong out-group views.
Ridiculous
An emotionally simple homogeneous group with less sensitivity to pain amplifies the aggression response of people by interoceptive signalling of brain regions providing social emotions including the PAG projecting to the amygdala; making aggressive people more so and less aggressive people less so. Pain is the main reason people visit the ED in the US. . Rather than individuals they are an interchangeable, immutable, primitive, icky essence. This essentialism thrives with bad relations or few interactions with the out-group.
Out-grouping is emotion are low level agents distributed across the brain and body which associate, via the amygdala and rich club hubs, important environmental signals with encoded high speed sensors, and distributed programs of action to model: predict, prioritize guidance signals, select and respond effectively, coherently and rapidly to the initial signal. The majority of emotion centered brain regions interface to the midbrain through the hypothalamus. The most accessible signs of emotions are the hard to control and universal facial expressions. Emotions provide prioritization for conscious access given that an animal has only one body, but possibly many cells, with which to achieve its highest level goals. Because of this emotions clash with group goals and are disparaged by the powerful. Evolutionary psychology argues evolution shaped human emotions during the long period of hunter-gatherer existence in the African savanna. Human emotions are universal and include: Anger, Appreciation of natural beauty, Disgust, Fear, Gratitude, Grief, Guilt, Happiness, Honor, Jealousy, Liking, Love, Rage, Romantic love, Lust for revenge, Passion, Sadness, Self-control, Shame, Sympathy, Surprise; and the sham emotions and distrust induced by reciprocal altruism. based with limited cognitive is the ability to orchestrate thought and action in accordance with internal goals according to Princeton's Jonathan Cohen.
cover added [later] if necessary.
The conscious judgments about 'Them' are manipulated in experiments by primes: 'loyalty' or 'equality'; and in real world situations.
Groups tend to be more hostile than individuals. But hostile intergroup relations tend to correlate with reduced intragroup hostility.

Sapolsky notes that humans display unique aspects of 'Us' versus 'Them'. They can maintain:

Multiple categories of 'Us' and crucially which 'Us' is most important constantly shifts.
Taxonomies of 'Them' -

Race intuitions are broad based and cross cultural but are folk-science. Race is a biological continuum, not a discrete category. Hunter-gatherers would be unlikely to meet people of different skin color. And the clasifications vary by culture not biology. Classifications can evaporate rapidly depending on circumstance.
Fiske's
stereotype content model
of Fiske argues there are two axes used to classify out-groups: Warmth - is the individual or group a friend or enemy, nice or nasty? Competence - how effective are they at performing their goal? Sapolsky explains this model results in 'Us' being judged warm and competent and viewed with pride while homeless drug-addicts are judged cold and incompetent and disgusting. The elderly and handicapped are classified as warm and incompetent and are pitied. Ruling classes are typically judged cold but competent by the rest and are envied.
suggests we classify 'Them' according to warmth and competence. Sapolsky notes that turning a group from low warmth & high competence to low warmth low competence accounts for some of the worst documented human savagery. Different types of 'Them' evokes different feelings in us anchored in the neurobiology of fear is an emotion which prepares the body for time sensitive action: Blood is sent to the muscles from the gut and skin, Adrenalin is released stimulating: Fuel to be released from the liver, Blood is encouraged to clot, and Face is wide-eyed and fearful. The short-term high priority goal, experienced as a sense of urgency, is to flee, fight or deflect the danger. There are both 'innate' - really high priority learning - which are mediated by the central amydala and learned fears which are mediated by the BLA which learns to fear a stimulus and then signals the central amygdala.
and disgust is a universal human emotion. Pinker notes it has its own facial expression and is codified in food taboos. The mind must be associated with the proximate environment and parents minimize the risk for their omnivorous children by teaching them what foods to eat and what to avoid. The children's minds are initially receptive to trying all foods but their brains subsequently lock in on the foods they have experienced. These parental choices are affected by schematic influence on what has been beneficial. Adolescent's brain developments undermine these constraints enabling intergroup transfers. Disgust is modulated by the insula cortex which projects signals to the amygdala.
.

'Us' versus 'Them' while feeling badly and concealing it - Kenneth & Mamie Clark's "doll studies" showed young children with IAT biases towards valuing the dominant group. Careful suppression of revealing ones actual categorization depends on suppression by the
PFC
is prefrontal cortex which is:
- The front part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. It evolved most recently. During adolescence when the PFC is still deploying, older brain agents provide equivalent strategies: ventral striatum. The PFC has been implicated in planning, working memory: dorsolateral; decision making: Orbitofrontal cortex; and social behavior. Different PFC circuits track internal reward driven strategies and externally signalled advice. The PFC chooses between conflicting options, letting go or restraint, especially between cognition and emotions. It imposes an overarching strategy for managing working memory. It is essential for thinking about multiple items with different labels. It includes neurons that are interested in particular sub-categories: Dog, Cat. Once it has made a decision it signals the rest of the frontal lobe just behind it. Glucocorticoids decrease excitability of the PFC.
.
Cultural mechanisms that alter the sharpness of 'Us' versus 'Them' - Cuing and priming alter 'Them' categorizations. It is easier to manipulate warmth than competency ratings. The rank order of our multiple 'Us' versus 'Them' catagories allows automatic shifting: Race to shirt color, Math performance association with gender or ethnicity. Increasing the significance of hierarchies can leverage
stereotypes of high warmth low competency or low warmth low competency
of Fiske argues there are two axes used to classify out-groups: Warmth - is the individual or group a friend or enemy, nice or nasty? Competence - how effective are they at performing their goal? Sapolsky explains this model results in 'Us' being judged warm and competent and viewed with pride while homeless drug-addicts are judged cold and incompetent and disgusting. The elderly and handicapped are classified as warm and incompetent and are pitied. Ruling classes are typically judged cold but competent by the rest and are envied.
increases 'Them'ing. But individuals respond differently to the signals based on:
SDO
is social-dominance orientation which is:
- How much someone values: Status and dominance.
&
RWA
(right-wing authoritarianism) is:
- An assessment of how much a person values centralized authority, the rule of law, and convention.
- Has been experimentally correlated with low IQ. Sapolsky explains simple answers are ideal for people with poor abstract reasoning skills.
. High-SDO people's prejudices increase the most under threat, accept bias against low-status out-groups and males tolerate sexism.

Hierarchy, Obedience, and Resistance

Sapolsky argues that hierarchies are about our automatic tendency to favor people close in rank to us over those who are distant. And he notes that as with 'Us' versus 'Them' these tendencies appear:

In other species
Early in life; &

have intertwined cognitive is the ability to orchestrate thought and action in accordance with internal goals according to Princeton's Jonathan Cohen.
& affective are low level agents distributed across the brain and body which associate, via the amygdala and rich club hubs, important environmental signals with encoded high speed sensors, and distributed programs of action to model: predict, prioritize guidance signals, select and respond effectively, coherently and rapidly to the initial signal. The majority of emotion centered brain regions interface to the midbrain through the hypothalamus. The most accessible signs of emotions are the hard to control and universal facial expressions. Emotions provide prioritization for conscious access given that an animal has only one body, but possibly many cells, with which to achieve its highest level goals. Because of this emotions clash with group goals and are disparaged by the powerful. Evolutionary psychology argues evolution shaped human emotions during the long period of hunter-gatherer existence in the African savanna. Human emotions are universal and include: Anger, Appreciation of natural beauty, Disgust, Fear, Gratitude, Grief, Guilt, Happiness, Honor, Jealousy, Liking, Love, Rage, Romantic love, Lust for revenge, Passion, Sadness, Self-control, Shame, Sympathy, Surprise; and the sham emotions and distrust induced by reciprocal altruism. underpinnings and the categorizations and status is a publically accepted, signal that one possesses assets: wealth, beauty, talent, expertise, access & trust of powerful people; to be able to help others.
assessments interact. But Sapolsky notes hierarchy leads in a different & uniquely human direction:

Our alpha individuals may be chosen
Alpha individuals are not only of high rank but also vie to be leaders aims to develop plans and strategies which ensure effective coordination to improve the common good of the in-group. John Adair developed a leadership methodology based on the three-circles model.
, promoting different political ideologies.
Humans express obedience to an authority & to the idea of authority.

Nature and varieties of hierarchies

Across species hierarchies:

Provide benefits to individuals within them: No risk of injury if conflict is resolved by rank, high dominance individuals gain access to more resources.
Can be stable depending on situation. Brains use different networks to handle stable and unstable situations.

Female baboons stay with their
kin
is a strategy of selfish genes, which aims to maximize gene survival & replication across all the bodies where a copy of the gene probably exists: relatives. Altruism is beneficial to gene replication in this situation. Love supports the agent's prioritization of appropriate altruistic strategies. Sapolsky describes an array of strategies used to identify kin:
- Genetically shaped pheromonal signatures. Rodents leverage the immune systems MHC super variable gene regions to develop unique signals. The more similar the signals are the closer is the relative. Pregnancy triggers adult neurogenesis in the olfactory system of rat mothers to allow them to learn the smell of their newborn.
- Imprinting on the female whose birdsong a chick heard while still in the egg
- Degree of paternalism depending on likelihood of being the father in primates
- Humans use cognition
and inherit their rank. So they know the region where they hunt. It is the old experienced females that know where they are going, so others follow.

Provide efficient conflict resolution guidelines
Can be simple: Marmosets have an alpha and everyone else; or
Graduated: baboons & ravens - who both attend to signals about rank in their own and adjacent groups and model expected outcomes. Baboons interact differently depending on the other baboons rank.
May differ by gender

While female baboons inherit their rank, for males, who join the group as
adolescents
in humans supports the transition from a juvenile configuration, dependent on parents and structured to learn & logistically transform, to adult optimized to the proximate environment. And it is staged encouraging the adolescents to escape the hierarchy they grew up in and enter other groups where they may bring in: fresh ideas, risk taking; and alter the existing hierarchy: Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates & Paul Allen. It marks the beginning of Piaget's formal operational stage of cognitive development. The limbic, autonomic and hormone networks are already deployed and functioning effectively. The frontal cortex has to be pruned: winning neurons move to their final highly connected positions, and are myelinated over time. The rest dissolve. So the frontal lobe does not obtain its adult configuration and networked integration until the mid-twenties when prefrontal cortex control becomes optimal. The evolutionarily oldest areas of the frontal cortex mature first. The PFC must be iteratively customized by experience to do the right thing as an adult. Adolescents:
- Don't detect irony effectively. They depend on the DMPFC to do this, unlike adults who leverage the fusiform face area.
- Regulate emotions with the ventral striatum while the prefrontal cortex is still being setup. Dopamine projection density and signalling increase from the ventral tegmentum catalyzing increased interest in dopamine based rewards. Novelty seeking allows for creative exploration which was necessary to move beyond the familial pack. Criticisms do not get incorporated into learning models by adolescents leaving their risk assessments very poor. The target of the dopamine networks, the adolescent accumbens, responds to rewards like a gyrating top - hugely to large rewards, and negatively to small rewards. Eventually as the frontal regions increase in contribution there are steady improvements in: working memory, flexible rule use, executive organization and task shifting. And adolescents start to see other people's perspective.
- Drive the cellular transformations with post-pubescent high levels of testosterone in males, and high but fluctuating estrogen & progesterone levels in females. Blood flow to the frontal cortex is also diverted on occasion to the groin.
- Peer pressure is exceptionally influential in adolescents. Admired peer comments reduce vmPFC activity and enhance ventral striatal activity. Adults modulate the mental impact of socially mean treatment: the initial activation of the PAG, anterior cingulate, amygdala, insula cortex; which generate feelings of pain, anger, and disgust, with the VLPFC but that does not occur in adolescents.
- Feel empathy intensely, supported by their rampant emotions, interest in novelty, ego. But feeling the pain of others can induce self-oriented avoidance of the situations.
, rank is captured by fighting and threats, and is maintained by social skills.

Will differ depending on social group dynamics:
Fission-fusion
come together for some activities and split apart for others. Social complexity is higher in fission-fusion species which require bigger brains to cope. Examples include:
- Baboons spend the morning, evening and night in a large structured group. But they forage at midday in small groups. Fission-fussion primates include: baboons, chimps, bonobos, orangutans, spider monkeys.
- Hyenas hunt in groups but scavenge individually
- Wolfs scavenge in groups but hunt individually
presents situations of additional social complexity and so supports
This page reviews the implications of selection, variation and heredity in a complex adaptive system (CAS). The mechanism and its emergence are discussed.

evolution of a bigger neocortex is the main part of the cerebral cortex in mammals. It was originally thought to exist only in mammals but is also present in reptiles and birds buried behind other areas of the for-brain. The for-brain develops based on a genetic plan consistent across all vertebrates. The neocortex processes vision in the visual hierarchy V1, V2, V3 .. V5 ... V20; and language with areas including Wernicke's and Broca's with sensors in the inner ear. Primate species with bigger social groups have larger cortices. Human cortex size suggests traditional human cultures had an average size of 150 people.
. The larger the group is, the more the
PFC
is prefrontal cortex which is:
- The front part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. It evolved most recently. During adolescence when the PFC is still deploying, older brain agents provide equivalent strategies: ventral striatum. The PFC has been implicated in planning, working memory: dorsolateral; decision making: Orbitofrontal cortex; and social behavior. Different PFC circuits track internal reward driven strategies and externally signalled advice. The PFC chooses between conflicting options, letting go or restraint, especially between cognition and emotions. It imposes an overarching strategy for managing working memory. It is essential for thinking about multiple items with different labels. It includes neurons that are interested in particular sub-categories: Dog, Cat. Once it has made a decision it signals the rest of the frontal lobe just behind it. Glucocorticoids decrease excitability of the PFC.
and
superior temporal gyrus
is involved in:
- Auditory processing including the primary auditory cortex that maps sound frequencies, and Wernicke's area
- Social cognition including: theory of mind.
thicken and couple.

Rank and hierarchy in humans

Human hierarchies resemble those of other species:

Human hierarchies have unique aspects:

Membership in multiple hierarchies - which can overlap and conflict.
The specialization of some ranking systems - while high ranking chimps generally excel at related areas, humans specialize deeply and build hierarchies around these subcultures. It is not obvious these skills generalize.
Internal standards that don't depend on the real world

The view from the top, the view from the bottom

Rank is so important to humans that we dedicate brain activity to judging it:

Sapolsky reviews neurobiological research on hierarchy:

An SES (socioeconomic status) is:

The most permeating form of status among primates. It is reflected in the SES health gradient where
Lower life expectancy and higher incidence and morbidity of numerous diseases for poor people. Stress related diseases are most significant: cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, psychiatric;
Health gets worse for each point down the SES health gradient scale and is mostly associated with psychological impacts of poverty: feeling poor, obvious income inequality.
Poverty instigates poor health with low-SES wombs associated with poorer health as the fetus becomes adult.
The SES health gradient is seen in countries with socialized medicine and universal health care and expresses in diseases that don't require health care access.
Environmental risk factors associated with being poor explain less than a third of the SES health gradient effect.

health gradient is cross-culturally ubiquitous. Material inequality powerfully subjugates the low ranking.

A really odd thing that we do now and then

We have and choose leaders aims to develop plans and strategies which ensure effective coordination to improve the common good of the in-group. John Adair developed a leadership methodology based on the three-circles model.
. Sapolsky notes that is different to a primate power hierarchy. Sapolsky suggests that in choosing leaders we:

Consciously identify as broadly experienced & competent.
Automatically & unconsciously

The orbitofrontal PFC is a rich club hub region of the prefrontal cortex, involved in representing emotion & reward in decision-making. It is positioned immediately above the orbits where the eyes sit. The medial part judges the beauty of faces, minds and acts and will conflate them in social emotion evaluations. The orbitofrontal cortex receives projections from the: hippocampus & associated areas of the cingulate, retrosplenial & entorhinal cortices, anterior thalamus, amygdala, midline thalamus, non-isocortical insula, mediodorsal thalamus. selects the better-looking candidate.
Bias towards candidates who speak on everyone's behalf.
During war time we prefer older, more masculine faces, but in peace time more feminine faces.
During times of building cooperation more intelligent faces are preferred, but not at other times.
From early in life, indicating these are generalized deeply entrenched biases.

Oh, Why not take this one on? Politics and political orientations

Intelligence - low IQ has been correlated with
RWA
(right-wing authoritarianism) is:
- An assessment of how much a person values centralized authority, the rule of law, and convention.
- Has been experimentally correlated with low IQ. Sapolsky explains simple answers are ideal for people with poor abstract reasoning skills.
.
Intellectual style - Research concludes: Conservatives don't like ambiguity, Liberals have greater capacity for integrative complexity - shifting from fast to slow thinking given
Carlo Rovelli resolves the paradox of time.
Rovelli initially explains that low level physics does not include time:
- A present that is common throughout the universe does not exist
- Events are only partially ordered. The present is localized
- The difference between past and future is not foundational. It occurs because of state that through our blurring appears particular to us
- Time passes at different speeds dependent on where we are and how fast we travel
- Time's rhythms are due to the gravitational field
- Our quantized physics shows neither space nor time, just processes transforming physical variables.
- Fundamentally there is no time. The basic equations evolve together with events, not things
Then he explains how in a physical world without time its perception can emerge:
- Our familiar time emerges
time
; Sapolsky concludes liberals are more motivated to spend the time working towards situational explanations. And adding cognitive load or distractions includes the impact of hard thinking by the frontal cortex. As the frontal lobe works to enforce its willpower it becomes difficult for the body to deliver on its metabolic demands. As the frontal lobe weakens the overall effect is for an individual to become more aggressive, less charitable, less honest. The lack of metabolic resources acts as an interoceptive signal to the frontal cortex.
makes us all more conservative. Sapolsky notes parole judges grant at 60% after eating but 0% just before!
Moral cognition - Sapolsky notes that liberals differ from conservatives on their position on Kohlberg's
staged model of moral development
defines a three stage moral process:
1. Preconventional reasoning (until age 8 - 10) initially allows aggression. But around two to four years old adult and peer punishment inhibits the use of aggression. And subsequently rewards become significant in the decision process. When these judgements about aggression don't change at age 8 - 10 it predicts increasing risk of adult sociopathy. For the others post conflict reconciliation decreases glucocorticoid levels and anxiety.
2. Conventional reasoning (adolescents and adults) reviews the consequences to others and if they are friends, as well as what others would likely do. Being well regarded is also significant. The law becomes significant in the later stage of this phase.
3. Post conventional reasoning (Inspiring heroes & insufferable pedants) first increases the value of self-judgement when judging rules. And beyond this are moral acts valued because they represent a position more important than a law.
. Liberals acceptance of civil disobedience motivates them to work to move up the stages. Similarly how they value Haidt's six foundations of morality of morality are: (1) Care versus harm, (2) Fairness versus cheating, (3) Liberty versus oppression, (4) Loyalty versus betrayal, (5) Authority versus subversion, (6) Sanctity versus degradation; with liberals valuing the first three while conservatives strongly value 4 to 6.
separates liberals from conservatives.
Affective psychological differences - Ambiguity & novelty make conservatives anxious is manifested in the amygdala mediating inhibition of dopamine rewards. Major anxiety results in elevated glucocorticoids and reduces hippocampal dendrite & spine density. Some estrogen receptor variants are associated with anxiety in women. Michael Pollan concludes anxiety is fear of the future.
. So conservatives want to return to former glories unlike liberals. And this supports an emphasis on loyalty, obedience and law. Sapolsky suggests impoverished whites vote Republican to maintain stability, limit change and threatening uncertainty, driven by fear is an emotion which prepares the body for time sensitive action: Blood is sent to the muscles from the gut and skin, Adrenalin is released stimulating: Fuel to be released from the liver, Blood is encouraged to clot, and Face is wide-eyed and fearful. The short-term high priority goal, experienced as a sense of urgency, is to flee, fight or deflect the danger. There are both 'innate' - really high priority learning - which are mediated by the central amydala and learned fears which are mediated by the BLA which learns to fear a stimulus and then signals the central amygdala.
, anxiety and worries about mortality.

And of course, some underlying biology

Obedience and conformity, disobedience and nonconformity

Sapolsky notes that obedience and conformity are closely linked. Both reflect value-free terms. Agreement supports the wisdom of crowds.

Roots - Sapolsky notes both conformity and obedience have deep roots being present in other species. Chimps are impressed and learn actions when three of the group each performs the actions. And they will use the leader aims to develop plans and strategies which ensure effective coordination to improve the common good of the in-group. John Adair developed a leadership methodology based on the three-circles model.
's strategy in preference to some other actions. Humans register the rest of the group has chosen a different strategy to themselves within 200 milliseconds and within less than 380 milliseconds an activation profile indicates change of opinion.
Neural bases - conforming and obedience match the benefits of fitting in: mesolimbic dopamine includes projections between the tegmentum and the accumbens, amygdala, hippocampus;
activation. Being out of step activates:
amygdala
contains > 12 distinct areas: Central, Lateral. It receives simple signals from the lower parts of the brain: pain from the PAG; and abstract complex information from the highest areas: Disgust from the insula cortex. It sends signals to almost every other part of the brain, including to the decision-making circuitry of the frontal lobes. It has high levels of D(1) dopamine receptors. During extreme fear the amygdala drives the hippocampus into fear learning. It outputs directly to subcortical reflexive motor pathways when speed is required. Its central nucleus projects to the BNST. It signals the locus ceruleus. The amygdala:
- Promotes aggression. Stimulating the amygdala promotes rage. It converts anger into aggression and when impaired it impacts the ability to detect angry facial expressions.
- Participates in disgust
- Perceives fear promoting stimuli. In PTSD sufferers the Amygdala overreacts to mildly fearful stimuli and is slow to calm down and the amygdala expands in size over a period of months. Fear is processed by the lateral nucleus which serves as the input from various senses, and the central nucleus which outputs to the brain stem (central grey - freezing, lateral hypothalamus - blood pressure, activates paraventricular hypothalamus => crf -> hormone adjustments).
- Has lots of receptors for and is highly sensitive to glucocorticoids. Stress inhibits the GABA interneurons in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) allowing the excitatory glutamate releasing neurons to excite more.
- Is sensitive to unsettling/uncertain social situations where it promotes anxiety. It is also interested in uncertain but potentially painful situations. The amygdala contributes to social and emotional decision making where the BLA supports rejecting an unacceptable offer, as allowed in the Ultimatum Game, by injecting implicit mistrust and vigilance, generating an anger driven rejection that is used as punishment. The amygdala is very rapidly excited by subliminal signals from the thalamus of outgroup skin color. The amygdala subsequently tips social emotions against outgroups unless restrained by the frontal lobe or influenced by subliminal priming to prioritize inclusion. The fast path from the thalamus rapidly but inaccurately signals its identified a weapon.
- Promotes male, but not female, sexual motivation when it is an uncertain potential pleasure.
- Responds to the longing for uncertain potential pleasures and fear that the reward will not be worth it if it happens. The amygdala turns off during orgasm.
- Uses but is not directly involved in vision.
,
insula
is part of the cerebral cortex folded deep within the lateral sulcus. It includes: anterior, posterior insula; and is overlaid by the operculum. It is assumed to participate in consciousness where it has been linked to emotion, salience & body homeostasis functions:
- Perception,
- Motor control: Hand-&-eye motor movement, Swallowing, Gastric motility, Speech articulation;
- Self-awareness,
- Inter-personal experiences: Disgust at smells, contamination & mutilation which generate visceral responses, that are projected to the amygdala; binding physical and moral aspects of purity (Macbeth effect)
- Homeostatic regulation of the sympathetic network, parasympathetic network, and immune system.
; and hearing of the disagreement with others activates the:
vmPFC
is ventromedial prefrontal cortex which is:
- Focused on the impact of emotion on decision making
- A participant in limbic system operations
- Many human behaviors involve interactions between the vmPFC, the limbic system & the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Part of decision making is for the limbic system to internally simulate (often with the help of the sympathetic nervous system) what alternative outcomes of a decision will feel like with the results of these somatic marker analyses being reported to the vmPFC.
- Damage to the vmPFC results in bad decision making: Poor judgement in choosing friends & partners, Failure to respond to negative feedback; because they can't feel the issues.
,
ACC
is either the
- Anterior cingulate cortex which:
- American College of Cardiology
, nucleus accumbens is a region of the basal forebrain rostral to the preoptic area and immediately adjacent to the septum. The nucleus accumbens was closely associated with the limbic system and plays an important role in reinforcement. If a rodent wins a fight on his home territory, there are long-lasting increases in levels of testosterone receptors enhancing pleasurable effects. When prairie voles first mate, epi-genetic state changes are induced in the accumbens to support pair-bonding. The accumbens projects to brain regions associated with movement. The major pathways of dopaminergic neurons begin in the substantia nigra and the ventral tegmental area. The amygdala projects back to the accumbens. The tegmentostriatal system begins in the ventral tegmental area and projects to the nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens includes high levels of D1, D2 and D3 dopamine receptors located on the spine & shafts of dendrites of excitatory cells reduce the transfer of excitation from the dendrites to the cell bodies, so only especially strong excitatory inputs get through to the cell body to elicit excitation. It also has D4 dopamine receptors which are highly variable. The accumbens responds differently to rewards depending on maturity: In juveniles all reward levels result in the same response activity level, During adolescence the accumbens responds to small rewards negatively, and large rewards hugely, In adults the rewards result in measured scaled positive responses. Chronic stress depletes dopamine from the nucleus accumbens biasing humans towards depression. ; warning that your wrong.
Asch, Milgram, and Zimbardo - Three experiments that show situation matters & that some normal people can be coerced into doing terrible things. Asch's famous line length matching study showed how groups could influence the subject to conform to a wrong selection 30% of the time. Milgram showed subjects would inflict pain on another human when told to do so by an authority figure in a uniform. Zimbardo got Stanford college students to dress & behave as guards and prisoners with resulting brutality to and degradation of the prisoners.
Situational forces and what lurks in all of us - Zimbardo concluded that a bad barrel can turn all the apples bad. He argued for a public health approach to blocking such environments.
Some different takes - Psychologists became outraged at what the subjects had been manipulated to do. And Zimbardo's role as superintendent, where he set the rules, raises concerns. Without him the prison experiment has not replicated accurately. Sapolsky stresses that some apples don't go bad.
Modulators of the pressures to conform and obey include:

The nature of the authority or group pressing for conformity
What is being required and in what context
The nature of the victim - once they are known personally they are less likely to be victimized
Things brought to the table by the person being pressured - not valuing conscientiousness, not valuing
RWA
(right-wing authoritarianism) is:
- An assessment of how much a person values centralized authority, the rule of law, and convention.
- Has been experimentally correlated with low IQ. Sapolsky explains simple answers are ideal for people with poor abstract reasoning skills.
.
Stress - threats and time pressure undermine resistance
Alternatives - Another actor going against the group will help break the force to conform

Morality and Doing the Right Thing, Once You've Figured Out What That Is

Sapolsky reviews whether morality provides rules for identifying right from wrong. It develops in stages with children using play to work out rules of appropriate behavior. Kohlberg's 1950s experiments using children led him to conclude moral judgement is a cognitive process that develops in three stages. Sapolsky raises issues with the framework: Its a model, It does not apply to other cultures, Intuition & emotion are as significant as cognition, Moral reasoning doesn't predict moral actions; and notes the capacity of the frontal cortex to regulate emotions and behavior is far more predictive. The marshmallow test, performed on three to six year olds, actually predicted their subsequent SAT scores at high school, social success and lack of aggression, and forty years on more PFC activation during a frontal task and a lower BMI! Jonathan Haidt argues people's moral decisions are rationalizations rather than using reasoning.
is based on emotions are low level agents distributed across the brain and body which associate, via the amygdala and rich club hubs, important environmental signals with encoded high speed sensors, and distributed programs of action to model: predict, prioritize guidance signals, select and respond effectively, coherently and rapidly to the initial signal. The majority of emotion centered brain regions interface to the midbrain through the hypothalamus. The most accessible signs of emotions are the hard to control and universal facial expressions. Emotions provide prioritization for conscious access given that an animal has only one body, but possibly many cells, with which to achieve its highest level goals. Because of this emotions clash with group goals and are disparaged by the powerful. Evolutionary psychology argues evolution shaped human emotions during the long period of hunter-gatherer existence in the African savanna. Human emotions are universal and include: Anger, Appreciation of natural beauty, Disgust, Fear, Gratitude, Grief, Guilt, Happiness, Honor, Jealousy, Liking, Love, Rage, Romantic love, Lust for revenge, Passion, Sadness, Self-control, Shame, Sympathy, Surprise; and the sham emotions and distrust induced by reciprocal altruism. or cognition is the ability to orchestrate thought and action in accordance with internal goals according to Princeton's Jonathan Cohen.
according to scientific investigation:

Context

Sapolsky argues that both reasoning and intuition contribute to moral decisions. He reviews what situations increase one aspect or the other with the help of Josh Greene's neuroscience experiments uses fMRI to follow brain activity of subjects during Josh Greene's experiments with the trolley problem. He used two scenarios, (1) The five people are doomed, would you pull the lever so the trolley will hit and kill someone: (2) Would you push someone onto the tracks to stop the trolley? Consistently 60-70% of people say yes to scenario (1) but only 30% say yes to scenario (2). The fMRI showed the more the vmPFC and/or amygdala activate the more likely the person is to refuse to act in either case. Greene concludes that intuitions about intentionality are what is changing. Pushing that kills someone feels morally wrong. Greene developed a third scenario where the subject throws the switch to save the five but in doing so pushes a person out of the way and in falling to the ground they die. This seems more acceptable. Then Greene adjusts scenario (1) making the side loop switch back to the main track so that if the trolley is not stopped by the body of a person the five will still die - the same result as scenario (2). Described this way 60-70% find pulling the lever acceptable. Greene concludes our intuitions are very local and the additional indirection in this last scenario stops us feeling disturbed.
with the trolley problem is British philosopher Philippa Foot's thought experiment in ethics, which asks if you have the opportunity to switch the tracks ahead of a runaway trolley car so that it kills one person instead of the five on the main track should you: Do nothing or Pull the lever and kill the one. Foot asks what would be the most ethical choice. . Sapolsky concludes moral decision making is highly context dependent, shifting the locality/language impact on intuitionist morals. Sapolsky highlights Alain Cohn's report on banking's impact on morals was studied by University of Zurich's Alain Cohn. He used a coin-toss game with financial rewards for guessing outcomes correctly and possibilities to cheat, and for the researchers to detect the cheating. Cohn then primed the test subjects to implicitly think about their profession. For bankers ONLY, thinking about their profession, or the word banking, increased rates of cheating by 20%. The bankers carried two sets of ethical rules concerning cheating in their heads. Context is important in making moral decisions.
- bank employees cheating increased 20% when they thought about banking, other industries employees did not show the effect!

Cooperation and competition -
Herrmann's studies of public good
is an economic experiment, run by Herrmann et al., where players, from around the world, have tokens which they can share or keep to themselves over a series of rounds. Shared tokens are multiplied and shared evenly among all players. And players could 'pay' to punish others for the size of their contribution. So players can do best if they alone keep their tokens and everyone else share. They will perform worst if they share but no one else does. Herrmann found:
- Across all cultures, people were more prosocial than it was rational to be.
- Some cultures used antisocial punishment because they force everyone to contribute more.
- There was a correlation between antisocial punishment and low social capital in the culture.
found all cultures to be more prosocial is prioritizing benefiting others through: Help, Charity, Truth; even if many are acts of restitution to balance out antisocial acts. Due to the Insula's binding of physical and metaphorical disgust, physically washing your hands can be enough to reduce the need for a prosocial act.
than was rational. But different cultures used antisocial punishment is where someone is punished for being overly generous. People from Greece and Oman, where there is low social capital, were particularly likely to do this.
to differing extents. People in cultures with low social capital is the collective quantity of resources such as trust, reciprocity & cooperation according to Sapolsky. used antisocial punishment most often feeling they don't trust one another and feel they have no efficacy.
Honor is a doomsday machine emotional signal, which Pinker explains as an advertisement of the desire to publically avenge even minor trespasses and insults. and revenge - monotheistic warrior pastoralist cultures differ on moral response to personal affronts.
Shamed collectivists and guilty individualists - contrast by different approaches to the morality of ends & means:

Social roles and duties to the group versus individual rights.
Different enforcement with collectivists using shame is an emotional reaction to being discovered cheating on a friend.
before an audience and individualists using guilt is an emotion which alerts us to the risk of cheating on a friend. To be culturally effective the individuals must have respect for the law.
. Sapolsky notes that gossip is an evolved mechanism to enforce: fairness, indirect reciprocity, and avoidance of despotism. It allows: reality testing, transfer of news, and consensus building; to maintain norms.
leverages shame to allow the weak to attack the powerful. In particular he asserts the legally enforced psychopathic personality of corporations is restrained by shame. And he notes the worrying increase in influence of shame, amplified by the anonymous hate speech of the Internet.

Fools rush in: applying the findings of the science of morality

Sapolsky wonders how these insights can help us be at our best.

Which dead white male was right? He looks for the optimal moral provides rules for identifying right from wrong. It develops in stages with children using play to work out rules of appropriate behavior. Kohlberg's 1950s experiments using children led him to conclude moral judgement is a cognitive process that develops in three stages. Sapolsky raises issues with the framework: Its a model, It does not apply to other cultures, Intuition & emotion are as significant as cognition, Moral reasoning doesn't predict moral actions; and notes the capacity of the frontal cortex to regulate emotions and behavior is far more predictive. The marshmallow test, performed on three to six year olds, actually predicted their subsequent SAT scores at high school, social success and lack of aggression, and forty years on more PFC activation during a frontal task and a lower BMI! Jonathan Haidt argues people's moral decisions are rationalizations rather than using reasoning.
philosophy reviewing the three schools: Virtue ethics identifies culture relative habitually enabled character traits such as Aristotle's list: Moral: Courage, Temperance, Liberality, Magnificence, Magnanimity, Proper ambition, Truthfulness, Wittiness, Friendliness, Modesty, Righteous indignation; Intellectual: Intelligence, Science, Theory; Good sense, Understanding, Practical wisdom, Craftsmanship; that a person can practice to achieve a state of living a proper life. It emphasizes the agent and assumes guilt will help.
- you the
Plans are interpreted and implemented by agents. This page discusses the properties of agents in a complex adaptive system (CAS).
It then presents examples of agents in different CAS. The examples include a computer program where modeling and actions are performed by software agents. These software agents are aggregates.
The participation of agents in flows is introduced and some implications of this are outlined.

agent are a better person and will respond to guilt is an emotion which alerts us to the risk of cheating on a friend. To be culturally effective the individuals must have respect for the law.
, Deontology judges the morality of an action by rules. Bentham coined the term to mean the knowledge of what is right and proper. The rules can be universal, religious or cultural and there is an obligation to obey them. Its moral intuitions about trolley problems focus on the vmPFC, amygdala and insula.
- emphasizes the act and leverages the
This page discusses the physical foundations of complex adaptive systems (CAS). A small set of rules is obeyed. New [epi]phenomena then emerge. Examples are discussed.

rule , Consequentialism argues that the consequences (outcome) of ones actions are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the morality of the conduct. Mohist consequentialism argues outcomes that are good for the community outweigh the importance of individual pleasure and pain in contrast to Bentham's utilitarian aggregate happiness. There are other forms. Consequentialism's moral intuitions about trolley problems focus on the dlPFC and moral reasoning.
- focuses on the implications of the outcome; with our automatic, intuitive moral judgments shaped by evolution to help spread our genes. Consistently 30% of trolley problem is British philosopher Philippa Foot's thought experiment in ethics, which asks if you have the opportunity to switch the tracks ahead of a runaway trolley car so that it kills one person instead of the five on the main track should you: Do nothing or Pull the lever and kill the one. Foot asks what would be the most ethical choice. subjects are deontologists refusing to save the five lives, 30% were utilitarian (consequentialists) pulling the lever and pushing the person, for the rest moral philosophy was context dependent. Sapolsky notes that the mind's architecture demonstrates this balancing act between the
vmPFC
is ventromedial prefrontal cortex which is:
- Focused on the impact of emotion on decision making
- A participant in limbic system operations
- Many human behaviors involve interactions between the vmPFC, the limbic system & the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Part of decision making is for the limbic system to internally simulate (often with the help of the sympathetic nervous system) what alternative outcomes of a decision will feel like with the results of these somatic marker analyses being reported to the vmPFC.
- Damage to the vmPFC results in bad decision making: Poor judgement in choosing friends & partners, Failure to respond to negative feedback; because they can't feel the issues.
& the
dlPFC
is dorsolateral prefrontal cortex which is:
- At the heart of decision making - highly rational, unsentimental
- A major agent of working memory
- The most recently evolved part of the prefrontal cortex.
- Mainly interconnected with other parts of the cortex.
that allow us to consider difficult short and long term trade-offs is Antonio Damasio's proposal that the limbic system can help guide the vmPFC's choice of options by running internal simulations of what the alternative outcomes will feel like.
and unintended consequences. And he asserts that moral intuitions reflect habitual learning of important cognitive conclusions based on cultural beliefs.
Slow and fast: The separate problems of "Me Versus Us" and "Us Versus Them" - Josh Greene used the tragedies of the commons reflects the lack of incentive for individuals to cooperate to sustain a common good when there is no immediate disincentive, even when over time the result will be collapse of the resource base sustaining the group. Josh Greene notes the issue is how to jump-start and maintain cooperation. Sapolsky notes evolution has solved this problem by leveraging bootstrapping processes and helping groups to discourage individuals being selfish. Institutions: religion, nationalism, ethnic pride, team spirit; provide green-beard markers to support this process.
and commonsense morality is Josh Greene's label for how cultural disagreements about who is righter, result in most intergroup conflict. Each group has loaded moral significance on their strategies and priorities, which conflict with the out-group. Greene concludes 'right' is a post-hoc rationalization defending a self-serving, parochial moral intuition.
to explore these. Sapolsky notes that the tragedy of commonsense morality is so terrible because everyone can feel that 'They' are deeply wrong because our
cultural
is how we do and think about things, transmitted by non-genetic means as defined by Frans de Waal. CAS theory views cultures as operating via memetic schemata evolved by memetic operators to support a cultural superorganism. Evolutionary psychology asserts that human culture reflects adaptations generated while hunting and gathering. Dehaene views culture as essentially human, shaped by exaptations and reading, transmitted with support of the neuronal workspace and stabilized by neuronal recycling. Sapolsky argues that parents must show children how to transform their genetically derived capabilities into a culturally effective toolset. He is interested in the broad differences across cultures of: Life expectancy, GDP, Death in childbirth, Violence, Chronic bullying, Gender equality, Happiness, Response to cheating, Individualist or collectivist, Enforcing honor, Approach to hierarchy; illustrating how different a person's life will be depending on the culture where they are raised. Culture:
- Is deployed during pregnancy & childhood, with parental mediation. Nutrients, immune messages and hormones all affect the prenatal brain. Hormones: Testosterone with anti-Mullerian hormone masculinizes the brain by entering target cells and after conversion to estrogen binding to intracellular estrogen receptors; have organizational effects producing lifelong changes. Parenting style typically produces adults who adopt the same approach. And mothering style can alter gene regulation in the fetus in ways that transfer epigenetically to future generations! PMS symptoms vary by culture.
- Is also significantly transmitted to children by their peers during play. So parents try to control their children's peer group.
- Is transmitted to children by their neighborhoods, tribes, nations etc.
- Influences the parenting style that is considered appropriate.
- Can transform dominance into honor. There are ecological correlates of adopting honor cultures. Parents in honor cultures are typically authoritarian.
- Is strongly adapted across a meta-ethnic frontier according to Turchin.
- Across Europe was shaped by the Carolingian empire.
- Can provide varying levels of support for innovation.
- Produces consciousness according to Dennet.
institutions: religion, nationalism, ethnic pride, team spirit; that help green-beards genes code for expressing an evolved signal, such as a green-beard, and cooperating with other "green-beard displaying" people. Humans can adjust how we view these signals and so how we define us and them. make the commons work, drive our worst behaviors in confronting 'Thems' and their different morals provides rules for identifying right from wrong. It develops in stages with children using play to work out rules of appropriate behavior. Kohlberg's 1950s experiments using children led him to conclude moral judgement is a cognitive process that develops in three stages. Sapolsky raises issues with the framework: Its a model, It does not apply to other cultures, Intuition & emotion are as significant as cognition, Moral reasoning doesn't predict moral actions; and notes the capacity of the frontal cortex to regulate emotions and behavior is far more predictive. The marshmallow test, performed on three to six year olds, actually predicted their subsequent SAT scores at high school, social success and lack of aggression, and forty years on more PFC activation during a frontal task and a lower BMI! Jonathan Haidt argues people's moral decisions are rationalizations rather than using reasoning.
. Sapolsky concludes that to find the best in 'Us Versus Them' it is important to think, reason, and question, making the thinking slow and iterative.
Veracity and Mendacity - Sapolsky argues the context dependent good or bad impacts of telling lies and the truth make the biology of honesty and duplicity very muddy. The nature of investigates the optimal strategies for cooperating. The iterative Prisoner's Dilemma scenario was shown by Axelrod & Hamilton to reward a Tit for Tat strategy with perfect signals. An effective way to limit the risks of initiating Tit for Tat in a potential sea of Always Defectors is a genetically encoded signal of cooperation such as the green-beard gene. Other evolved strategies include genetic algorithms. competitive evolutionary games selects for deception and watching for it. Nonhuman primates have developed sophisticated tactics to game other group members. The larger the neocortex is the main part of the cerebral cortex in mammals. It was originally thought to exist only in mammals but is also present in reptiles and birds buried behind other areas of the for-brain. The for-brain develops based on a genetic plan consistent across all vertebrates. The neocortex processes vision in the visual hierarchy V1, V2, V3 .. V5 ... V20; and language with areas including Wernicke's and Broca's with sensors in the inner ear. Primate species with bigger social groups have larger cortices. Human cortex size suggests traditional human cultures had an average size of 150 people.
, the higher the rates of deception, independent of group size! But Sapolsky asserts only humans consciously strategize and feel morally troubled when they act on the strategies: Our facial muscles have the most complex innervation and use massive amounts of motor neurons to control them, We have language allowing us to build distance between the signal and its meaning, We can cognitively is the ability to orchestrate thought and action in accordance with internal goals according to Princeton's Jonathan Cohen.
finesse the truth as long as we can rationalize to make doing so feel less dishonest; using the
dlPFC
is dorsolateral prefrontal cortex which is:
- At the heart of decision making - highly rational, unsentimental
- A major agent of working memory
- The most recently evolved part of the prefrontal cortex.
- Mainly interconnected with other parts of the cortex.
and regions involved in theory of mind of mind is the capability of adults, and even young children, to see that others think and perceive the world differently to them. It typically develops around age three to four. It supports the child's development of empathy. It is associated with the DMPFC, precuneus, superior temporal sulcus & temporoparietal junction. Subsequently more capabilities appear including: Understanding a second person's theory of mind about a third person, Perspectives and Irony.
. Compulsive liers have increased white matter and less grey matter. The
ACC
is either the
- Anterior cingulate cortex which:
- American College of Cardiology
is involved in these conflicting emotional choices - monitoring the conflict between reality and the lie and slowing down the thought process slightly. Sapolsky notes that transcranial direct-current stimulation shows the dlPFC drives the lie. And it is involved in pushing to be honest. People who were capable of cheating used the dlPFC,
vmPFC
is ventromedial prefrontal cortex which is:
- Focused on the impact of emotion on decision making
- A participant in limbic system operations
- Many human behaviors involve interactions between the vmPFC, the limbic system & the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Part of decision making is for the limbic system to internally simulate (often with the help of the sympathetic nervous system) what alternative outcomes of a decision will feel like with the results of these somatic marker analyses being reported to the vmPFC.
- Damage to the vmPFC results in bad decision making: Poor judgement in choosing friends & partners, Failure to respond to negative feedback; because they can't feel the issues.
and ACC to evaluate whether not to lie. But people who never cheat did not depend on cortical evaluation. They had practiced and automatized doing the right thing -- virtue ethics identifies culture relative habitually enabled character traits such as Aristotle's list: Moral: Courage, Temperance, Liberality, Magnificence, Magnanimity, Proper ambition, Truthfulness, Wittiness, Friendliness, Modesty, Righteous indignation; Intellectual: Intelligence, Science, Theory; Good sense, Understanding, Practical wisdom, Craftsmanship; that a person can practice to achieve a state of living a proper life. It emphasizes the agent and assumes guilt will help.
.

Feeling Someone's Pain, Understanding Someone's Pain, Alleviating Someone's Pain

Sapolsky notes that empathy is the capability to relate to another person from their perspective. It is implemented by spindle neurons. It is context dependently mediated by estrogen. It develops over time: Piaget's preoperational stage includes rudimentary empathy, Theory of mind supports the development; initially feeling someone's pain as one integrated being, then for them and eventually as them. In adults, when someone else is hurt the anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala & insula activates projecting [scapegoating] to the vmPFC. If the pain is physical the PAG activates and motor neurons for the area where the other person was injured. The intertwining of the ACC amygdala & insula in adults results in attribution of fault even when there is none which can make it hard to step in and actually help. But in seven-year-olds the activation is concrete: PAG and sensory & motor cortexes with minimal coupling to the rudimentary vmPFC. In older children the vmPFC is coupled to limbic structures. Ten to twelve year olds abstract empathy to classes of people. By adolescence the vmPFC is coupled to theory of mind regions and intentional harm induces disgust via the amygdala. Sapolsky explains adolescent boys are utilitarian and tend to accept inequality more than girls do. But both sexes accept inequality as the way it is. Sociopaths do not develop empathy. 's underlying biology includes sensorimotor, emotional are low level agents distributed across the brain and body which associate, via the amygdala and rich club hubs, important environmental signals with encoded high speed sensors, and distributed programs of action to model: predict, prioritize guidance signals, select and respond effectively, coherently and rapidly to the initial signal. The majority of emotion centered brain regions interface to the midbrain through the hypothalamus. The most accessible signs of emotions are the hard to control and universal facial expressions. Emotions provide prioritization for conscious access given that an animal has only one body, but possibly many cells, with which to achieve its highest level goals. Because of this emotions clash with group goals and are disparaged by the powerful. Evolutionary psychology argues evolution shaped human emotions during the long period of hunter-gatherer existence in the African savanna. Human emotions are universal and include: Anger, Appreciation of natural beauty, Disgust, Fear, Gratitude, Grief, Guilt, Happiness, Honor, Jealousy, Liking, Love, Rage, Romantic love, Lust for revenge, Passion, Sadness, Self-control, Shame, Sympathy, Surprise; and the sham emotions and distrust induced by reciprocal altruism. and cognitive is the ability to orchestrate thought and action in accordance with internal goals according to Princeton's Jonathan Cohen.
building blocks that ensure varied forms which can be sharpened or dulled by quite logical influences. He investigates when does empathy encourage us to do something helpful? When we do act, whose benefit is it for? He concludes our

This page reviews the implications of selection, variation and heredity in a complex adaptive system (CAS). The mechanism and its emergence are discussed.

evolution made us focus on local acts and bound together altruism, is the property that since kin share genes natural selection will improve the replicator's selfish goals by supporting the survival of such relatives. Improving the chances of survival of non-kin is hard to explain with a gene preservation theory. Why help a competitive gene? Trivers explanation of reciprocal altruism shows the special conditions under which it can occur.
and reciprocity benefits another organism at a cost to the behaver. It is differentiated from kin altruism, by Williams and Trivers, since it can apply between unrelated individuals. It can be induced by natural selection when there is mutual survival benefit in group activities and cheating can be detected and discouraged. Humans, leveraging the cognitive niche, can particularly easily, build an evolved amplifier, through sharing information at little cost and significant benefit. But African savanna hunters similarly gain from sharing large game meat with other un-related altruistic group members since the meat would otherwise spoil before it could be eaten.
. And that it helps to have generated learned habits for automatically acting compassionately.

"For" versus "as if" and other distinctions

Sapolsky notes that empathy is the capability to relate to another person from their perspective. It is implemented by spindle neurons. It is context dependently mediated by estrogen. It develops over time: Piaget's preoperational stage includes rudimentary empathy, Theory of mind supports the development; initially feeling someone's pain as one integrated being, then for them and eventually as them. In adults, when someone else is hurt the anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala & insula activates projecting [scapegoating] to the vmPFC. If the pain is physical the PAG activates and motor neurons for the area where the other person was injured. The intertwining of the ACC amygdala & insula in adults results in attribution of fault even when there is none which can make it hard to step in and actually help. But in seven-year-olds the activation is concrete: PAG and sensory & motor cortexes with minimal coupling to the rudimentary vmPFC. In older children the vmPFC is coupled to limbic structures. Ten to twelve year olds abstract empathy to classes of people. By adolescence the vmPFC is coupled to theory of mind regions and intentional harm induces disgust via the amygdala. Sapolsky explains adolescent boys are utilitarian and tend to accept inequality more than girls do. But both sexes accept inequality as the way it is. Sociopaths do not develop empathy. , sympathy is an emotion, the desire to help those in need. Steven Pinker suggests it may develop into a sham emotion to earn gratitide. Sapolsky adds that it can describe someone with the power to help, but who choses not to. Alternately it can indicate feeling sorry for someone elses pain while not understanding it, in contrast with empathy. Or it can mean the emotionally distanced sense of feeling for someone. Or the state of feeling their pain as if it were happening to you where it may cause such distress as to focus you onto alleviating you own distress.
, and compassion indicates an emotional state where resonance with someone else's distress leads one to help them.
are suitcase words have multiple attached meanings which encourage us to think in different ways about the word. Suitcase words are reviewed by Marvin Minsky.
that are about internally motivated states. And insights about these states can be found by observing other animals.

Emotionally contagious, compassionate animals

Sapolsky asserts many animals:

But Sapolsky admits it is not possible to tell if the animals are being self-serving or compassionate indicates an emotional state where resonance with someone else's distress leads one to help them.
.

Emotionally contagious, compassionate children

Sapolsky reminds us of the prior discussion about children & adolescents:

Children develop theory of mind of mind is the capability of adults, and even young children, to see that others think and perceive the world differently to them. It typically develops around age three to four. It supports the child's development of empathy. It is associated with the DMPFC, precuneus, superior temporal sulcus & temporoparietal junction. Subsequently more capabilities appear including: Understanding a second person's theory of mind about a third person, Perspectives and Irony.
on their way to empathy is the capability to relate to another person from their perspective. It is implemented by spindle neurons. It is context dependently mediated by estrogen. It develops over time: Piaget's preoperational stage includes rudimentary empathy, Theory of mind supports the development; initially feeling someone's pain as one integrated being, then for them and eventually as them. In adults, when someone else is hurt the anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala & insula activates projecting [scapegoating] to the vmPFC. If the pain is physical the PAG activates and motor neurons for the area where the other person was injured. The intertwining of the ACC amygdala & insula in adults results in attribution of fault even when there is none which can make it hard to step in and actually help. But in seven-year-olds the activation is concrete: PAG and sensory & motor cortexes with minimal coupling to the rudimentary vmPFC. In older children the vmPFC is coupled to limbic structures. Ten to twelve year olds abstract empathy to classes of people. By adolescence the vmPFC is coupled to theory of mind regions and intentional harm induces disgust via the amygdala. Sapolsky explains adolescent boys are utilitarian and tend to accept inequality more than girls do. But both sexes accept inequality as the way it is. Sociopaths do not develop empathy. and abstraction. And sensory motor contagion becomes empathic states for physical and then emotional pain.

Again Sapolsky notes it is difficult to tell if children are hoping to end a sufferer's distress or their own.

Affect and/or cognition?

The ACC is either the

Anterior cingulate cortex which:

Is a central focus of empathy supporting people relating to other's pain. This is dependent on oxytocin.
In non-human mammals it processes interoceptive signals. The ACC focuses the internal signals into high level 'gut intuitions.' Pain catches the ACC's attention.
Performs discrepancy detection from the outcome that was predicted - at a high level. The ACC cares about the meaning of what is predicted.

If the ACC has been convinced that a pain killer placebo has inhibited pain signals, the ACC will stay silent about actual pain that is signalled from interoceptive networks.
The ACC will signal: physical pain, emotional pain, metaphorical pain, anxiety, disgust, embarrassment, social exclusion especially in adolescence; as one and the same. The ACC's abnormalities being associated with major depression.

Has a bridging role between the empathetic and self-interested pain monitor. Sapolsky notes the ACC is essential for learning fear and conditioned avoidance by observation alone through an intermediate step of shared representation of self. He concludes "At its core the ACC is about self-interest, with caring about the other person in pain as an add-on."

American College of Cardiology

is the center of empathy is the capability to relate to another person from their perspective. It is implemented by spindle neurons. It is context dependently mediated by estrogen. It develops over time: Piaget's preoperational stage includes rudimentary empathy, Theory of mind supports the development; initially feeling someone's pain as one integrated being, then for them and eventually as them. In adults, when someone else is hurt the anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala & insula activates projecting [scapegoating] to the vmPFC. If the pain is physical the PAG activates and motor neurons for the area where the other person was injured. The intertwining of the ACC amygdala & insula in adults results in attribution of fault even when there is none which can make it hard to step in and actually help. But in seven-year-olds the activation is concrete: PAG and sensory & motor cortexes with minimal coupling to the rudimentary vmPFC. In older children the vmPFC is coupled to limbic structures. Ten to twelve year olds abstract empathy to classes of people. By adolescence the vmPFC is coupled to theory of mind regions and intentional harm induces disgust via the amygdala. Sapolsky explains adolescent boys are utilitarian and tend to accept inequality more than girls do. But both sexes accept inequality as the way it is. Sociopaths do not develop empathy. in humans, but in other species it processes interoceptive signals indicate the body's internal state: Pain, Fatigue; seconds to minutes before. The interoceptive 'networks' project to brain regions that implement social emotions.
and monitors disconnects from what it predicted. Sapolsky notes these later two roles intersect in unexpected pain amplifies the aggression response of people by interoceptive signalling of brain regions providing social emotions including the PAG projecting to the amygdala; making aggressive people more so and less aggressive people less so. Pain is the main reason people visit the ED in the US. and its meaning, including for social and emotional pain suggesting the ACC is self-oriented and worried about ones well-being rather than empathy for others. So is an empathic state about one's self? Sapolsky notes the ACC also allows us to 'empathetically feel' someone's pain, under the influence of oxytocin is a peptide hormone which makes humans more prosocial to and socially competent in their in-group and more antisocial to everyone else. The effects are contingent; changing during stress and in the presence of a threatening outgroup. Oxytocin makes people look at eyes longer, encouraging improved accuracy at perceiving emotions. It enhances activity in the TPJ supporting modeling of other people's thinking. Dogs and their owners secrete oxytocin increasing the amount of eye contact between them. It is associated with pair bonding. It is central to female mammals wanting to nurse, nursing, and remembering their child. Its effects are context dependent and so is the regulation of the genes that control oxytocin. Variants of a gene CD38 which facilitates oxytocin secretion from neurons are associated with differing levels of activation of the fusiform face area when looking at faces. Sapolsky describes an oxytocin receptor gene variant that is associated with children showing: Extreme aggression, A callous unemotional style; foreshadowing adult psychopathy. And another receptor gene variant which is associated with childhood social disconnection and unstable adult relationships. Gene/environment interactions complicate the interpretation of the presence of particular gene variants. Hypothalamic neurons send projections to: ventral tegmentum which also becomes more receptive during child birth, nucleus accumbens, hippocampus, amygdala where it inhibits the central amygdala suppressing fear & anxiety consistently in men while still allowing women to respond to threats to their infants, frontal cortex, olfactory network where it helps new rat mums to learn the smell of their offspring; where oxytocin prepares the brain for in-group bonding, out-grouping, birth and maternal behavior. Outside the brain hypothalamic neurons in females send oxytocin to the posterior pituitary where it enters the blood stream stimulating uterine contraction during labor & supporting milk production for weaning. Disorders associated with oxytocin abnormalities include ASD.
, which helps us learn what someone else is going through and bond with them -- an add-on to self-interest.

The insula is part of the cerebral cortex folded deep within the lateral sulcus. It includes: anterior, posterior insula; and is overlaid by the operculum. It is assumed to participate in consciousness where it has been linked to emotion, salience & body homeostasis functions:

Perception,
Motor control: Hand-&-eye motor movement, Swallowing, Gastric motility, Speech articulation;
Self-awareness,
Inter-personal experiences: Disgust at smells, contamination & mutilation which generate visceral responses, that are projected to the amygdala; binding physical and moral aspects of purity (Macbeth effect)
Homeostatic regulation of the sympathetic network, parasympathetic network, and immune system.

Promotes aggression. Stimulating the amygdala promotes rage. It converts anger into aggression and when impaired it impacts the ability to detect angry facial expressions.
Participates in disgust
Perceives fear promoting stimuli. In PTSD sufferers the Amygdala overreacts to mildly fearful stimuli and is slow to calm down and the amygdala expands in size over a period of months. Fear is processed by the lateral nucleus which serves as the input from various senses, and the central nucleus which outputs to the brain stem (central grey - freezing, lateral hypothalamus - blood pressure, activates paraventricular hypothalamus => crf -> hormone adjustments).
Has lots of receptors for and is highly sensitive to glucocorticoids. Stress inhibits the GABA interneurons in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) allowing the excitatory glutamate releasing neurons to excite more.
Is sensitive to unsettling/uncertain social situations where it promotes anxiety. It is also interested in uncertain but potentially painful situations. The amygdala contributes to social and emotional decision making where the BLA supports rejecting an unacceptable offer, as allowed in the Ultimatum Game, by injecting implicit mistrust and vigilance, generating an anger driven rejection that is used as punishment. The amygdala is very rapidly excited by subliminal signals from the thalamus of outgroup skin color. The amygdala subsequently tips social emotions against outgroups unless restrained by the frontal lobe or influenced by subliminal priming to prioritize inclusion. The fast path from the thalamus rapidly but inaccurately signals its identified a weapon.
Promotes male, but not female, sexual motivation when it is an uncertain potential pleasure.
Responds to the longing for uncertain potential pleasures and fear that the reward will not be worth it if it happens. The amygdala turns off during orgasm.
Uses but is not directly involved in vision.

are also involved in developing full empathy.

The cognitive is the ability to orchestrate thought and action in accordance with internal goals according to Princeton's Jonathan Cohen.
dlPFC is dorsolateral prefrontal cortex which is:

At the heart of decision making - highly rational, unsentimental
A major agent of working memory
The most recently evolved part of the prefrontal cortex.
Mainly interconnected with other parts of the cortex.

and theory of mind of mind is the capability of adults, and even young children, to see that others think and perceive the world differently to them. It typically develops around age three to four. It supports the child's development of empathy. It is associated with the DMPFC, precuneus, superior temporal sulcus & temporoparietal junction. Subsequently more capabilities appear including: Understanding a second person's theory of mind about a third person, Perspectives and Irony.

This page discusses the effect of the network on the agents participating in a complex adaptive system (CAS). Small world and scale free networks are considered.

networks: TPJ is the temporoparietal juncture: left, right; where the temporal and parietal lobes meet, an area of the cortex with projections from the thalamus, limbic system, visual, auditory and somatosensory networks. It supports modeling of self and others.
& superior central sulcus; help figure out what's going on. This is especially true for issues of causation and intentionality. These take shape when children distinguish between self- and other-inflicted pain. Sapolsky concludes cognitive processes act as a gatekeeper, deciding whether a particular misfortune is worthy of empathy. And cognition helps when the pain is more abstract or seen indirectly. Human empathy, like in rodents, is contingent on 'Us' rather than 'Them', unless cognition intervenes. With 'Us' empathy is the capability to relate to another person from their perspective. It is implemented by spindle neurons. It is context dependently mediated by estrogen. It develops over time: Piaget's preoperational stage includes rudimentary empathy, Theory of mind supports the development; initially feeling someone's pain as one integrated being, then for them and eventually as them. In adults, when someone else is hurt the anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala & insula activates projecting [scapegoating] to the vmPFC. If the pain is physical the PAG activates and motor neurons for the area where the other person was injured. The intertwining of the ACC amygdala & insula in adults results in attribution of fault even when there is none which can make it hard to step in and actually help. But in seven-year-olds the activation is concrete: PAG and sensory & motor cortexes with minimal coupling to the rudimentary vmPFC. In older children the vmPFC is coupled to limbic structures. Ten to twelve year olds abstract empathy to classes of people. By adolescence the vmPFC is coupled to theory of mind regions and intentional harm induces disgust via the amygdala. Sapolsky explains adolescent boys are utilitarian and tend to accept inequality more than girls do. But both sexes accept inequality as the way it is. Sociopaths do not develop empathy. activates the ACC is either the

Anterior cingulate cortex which:

Is a central focus of empathy supporting people relating to other's pain. This is dependent on oxytocin.
In non-human mammals it processes interoceptive signals. The ACC focuses the internal signals into high level 'gut intuitions.' Pain catches the ACC's attention.
Performs discrepancy detection from the outcome that was predicted - at a high level. The ACC cares about the meaning of what is predicted.

If the ACC has been convinced that a pain killer placebo has inhibited pain signals, the ACC will stay silent about actual pain that is signalled from interoceptive networks.
The ACC will signal: physical pain, emotional pain, metaphorical pain, anxiety, disgust, embarrassment, social exclusion especially in adolescence; as one and the same. The ACC's abnormalities being associated with major depression.

Has a bridging role between the empathetic and self-interested pain monitor. Sapolsky notes the ACC is essential for learning fear and conditioned avoidance by observation alone through an intermediate step of shared representation of self. He concludes "At its core the ACC is about self-interest, with caring about the other person in pain as an add-on."

American College of Cardiology

but with 'Them' the TPJ is the temporoparietal juncture: left, right; where the temporal and parietal lobes meet, an area of the cortex with projections from the thalamus, limbic system, visual, auditory and somatosensory networks. It supports modeling of self and others.
.

Across the socioeconomic spectrum, the wealthier is schematically useful information and its equivalent, schematically useful energy, to paraphrase Beinhocker. It is useful because an agent has schematic strategies that can utilize the information or energy to extend or leverage control of the cognitive niche. people are (or just feel): The less they empathize with people in distress, The poorer they are at recognizing other's emotions are low level agents distributed across the brain and body which associate, via the amygdala and rich club hubs, important environmental signals with encoded high speed sensors, and distributed programs of action to model: predict, prioritize guidance signals, select and respond effectively, coherently and rapidly to the initial signal. The majority of emotion centered brain regions interface to the midbrain through the hypothalamus. The most accessible signs of emotions are the hard to control and universal facial expressions. Emotions provide prioritization for conscious access given that an animal has only one body, but possibly many cells, with which to achieve its highest level goals. Because of this emotions clash with group goals and are disparaged by the powerful. Evolutionary psychology argues evolution shaped human emotions during the long period of hunter-gatherer existence in the African savanna. Human emotions are universal and include: Anger, Appreciation of natural beauty, Disgust, Fear, Gratitude, Grief, Guilt, Happiness, Honor, Jealousy, Liking, Love, Rage, Romantic love, Lust for revenge, Passion, Sadness, Self-control, Shame, Sympathy, Surprise; and the sham emotions and distrust induced by reciprocal altruism. , The greedier they are and the more likely they are to cheat or steal; which is due to seeing these things as beneath 'Us.'

Sapolsky concludes for empathetic states, emotion and cognition both apply but the balance between them shifts with more cognitive work needed as the other person becomes more different.

A mythic leap forward

Sapolsky explains that University of Parma's Rizzolatti and Gallese identified mirror neurons are part of the premotor cortex, responding to signals from the PFC and sending on signals to the motor cortex to drive muscles. This subset of Pre-motor cortex neurons, also respond to observation of other animals performing the same act requested by the PFC. The mirroring can be abstract: See and hear activate same mirror neurons, Activate only when the action has the same intentionality; and none has been shown to be causally related yet.
. Sapolsky notes that some people, including UC San Diego's Ramachandran, have suggested they can help support empathy is the capability to relate to another person from their perspective. It is implemented by spindle neurons. It is context dependently mediated by estrogen. It develops over time: Piaget's preoperational stage includes rudimentary empathy, Theory of mind supports the development; initially feeling someone's pain as one integrated being, then for them and eventually as them. In adults, when someone else is hurt the anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala & insula activates projecting [scapegoating] to the vmPFC. If the pain is physical the PAG activates and motor neurons for the area where the other person was injured. The intertwining of the ACC amygdala & insula in adults results in attribution of fault even when there is none which can make it hard to step in and actually help. But in seven-year-olds the activation is concrete: PAG and sensory & motor cortexes with minimal coupling to the rudimentary vmPFC. In older children the vmPFC is coupled to limbic structures. Ten to twelve year olds abstract empathy to classes of people. By adolescence the vmPFC is coupled to theory of mind regions and intentional harm induces disgust via the amygdala. Sapolsky explains adolescent boys are utilitarian and tend to accept inequality more than girls do. But both sexes accept inequality as the way it is. Sociopaths do not develop empathy. . But there is no evidence of a causal link.

The core issue: Actually Doing Something

Sapolsky asks what actually predicts that someone will do something compassionate indicates an emotional state where resonance with someone else's distress leads one to help them.
to lessen another's pain. Sapolsky argues:

Being in an empathetic state does not guarantee a compassionate act because it can become an endpoint itself or is so powerful as to turn the person's focus inward. The
ACC
is either the
- Anterior cingulate cortex which:
- American College of Cardiology
and
insula
is part of the cerebral cortex folded deep within the lateral sulcus. It includes: anterior, posterior insula; and is overlaid by the operculum. It is assumed to participate in consciousness where it has been linked to emotion, salience & body homeostasis functions:
- Perception,
- Motor control: Hand-&-eye motor movement, Swallowing, Gastric motility, Speech articulation;
- Self-awareness,
- Inter-personal experiences: Disgust at smells, contamination & mutilation which generate visceral responses, that are projected to the amygdala; binding physical and moral aspects of purity (Macbeth effect)
- Homeostatic regulation of the sympathetic network, parasympathetic network, and immune system.
find this easy. To catalyze, an infrastructure amplifier. the compassionate act it is necessary to keep emotional distance. Buddhists do this by thinking about compassion which activates the mesolimbic dopamine pathway includes projections between the tegmentum and the accumbens, amygdala, hippocampus;
.
Codependency can leverage pathological altruism leading to implicit support for your partner's dysfunction but with a focus on solutions to your own empathy derived concerns.
Doing good can feel good. So compassion may be self-rewarding. Especially when the act makes things more equitable and is performed voluntarily. As with morality the prosocial is prioritizing benefiting others through: Help, Charity, Truth; even if many are acts of restitution to balance out antisocial acts. Due to the Insula's binding of physical and metaphorical disgust, physically washing your hands can be enough to reduce the need for a prosocial act.
compassionate act tends to come easiest to a person brought up by parents who were charitable and emphasized charitable acts as a moral provides rules for identifying right from wrong. It develops in stages with children using play to work out rules of appropriate behavior. Kohlberg's 1950s experiments using children led him to conclude moral judgement is a cognitive process that develops in three stages. Sapolsky raises issues with the framework: Its a model, It does not apply to other cultures, Intuition & emotion are as significant as cognition, Moral reasoning doesn't predict moral actions; and notes the capacity of the frontal cortex to regulate emotions and behavior is far more predictive. The marshmallow test, performed on three to six year olds, actually predicted their subsequent SAT scores at high school, social success and lack of aggression, and forty years on more PFC activation during a frontal task and a lower BMI! Jonathan Haidt argues people's moral decisions are rationalizations rather than using reasoning.
imperative.

Metaphors We Kill By

Sapolsky argues language separates a signal, is an emergent capability which is used by cooperating agents to support coordination & rival agents to support control and dominance. In eukaryotic cells signalling is used extensively. A signal interacts with the exposed region of a rece

Primary Navigation

CAS behavior

Summary

Behave

The Behavior

One Second Before

The Amygdala

The Frontal Cortex

The Mesolimbic/Mesocortical Dopamine System

The Anticipation of Reward

A Final Small Topic: Serotonin

Seconds to minutes before

Hours to days before

The endocrinology of Aggression in females

Maternal Aggression

Bare-Knuckled Female Aggression

Perimenstrual aggression and irritability

Stress and imprudent brain function

Some important debunking: Alcohol

Days to Months Before

Adolescence; Or, Dude, Where's my Frontal Cortex?

The nuts and bolts of frontal cortical maturation

Frontal Cortical Changes in Cognition in Adolescence

Frontal Cortical Changes in Emotional Regulation

Adolescent Risk Taking

Peers, social acceptance, and social exclusion

Empathy, sympathy, and moral reasoning

Adolescent violence

Back to the Crib, Back to the Womb

Complexification

Stages

Feeling someone else's pain

Moral Development

Marshmallows

Consequences

Let's start at the very beginning: The importance of mothers

Any kind of mother in a storm

Different routes to the same place

Observing Violence

Bullying

A key question

A sledgehammer

Culture, with both a big and a little c

Collectivist versus individualist cultures

Class differences

Nine long months

Boy and girl brains, whatever that might mean

Expanding the scope of "environment"

Back to when you were just a fertilized egg

Part 1: Genes from the bottom up

Part 2: Genes from the top down--Behavior Genetics

Part 3: So what do genes actually have to do with behaviors we're interested in?

Centuries to millennia before

Hobbes or Rousseau- how we got there

The Evolution of Behavior

Us Versus Them

Hierarchy, Obedience, and Resistance

Nature and varieties of hierarchies

Rank and hierarchy in humans

The view from the top, the view from the bottom

A really odd thing that we do now and then

Oh, Why not take this one on? Politics and political orientations

Obedience and conformity, disobedience and nonconformity

Morality and Doing the Right Thing, Once You've Figured Out What That Is

Context

Fools rush in: applying the findings of the science of morality

Feeling Someone's Pain, Understanding Someone's Pain, Alleviating Someone's Pain

"For" versus "as if" and other distinctions

Emotionally contagious, compassionate animals

Emotionally contagious, compassionate children

Affect and/or cognition?

A mythic leap forward

The core issue: Actually Doing Something

Metaphors We Kill By