June 25, 2013
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A Great Read (For Once)
As part of keeping my professional licensure current, I must maintain 12 Continuing Education credit hours annually. I do this through my professional association's bimonthly journal. Lots of times, these articles are boring and written with a perfunctory hand. (I think you can always tell the difference between a subject one cares about and one they are simply penning a few words on.) The one I read today, though, was outstanding, and I wish I could share it with you. Yes, that interesting.
It was about pain and empathy. It was about diagnostic, medical imaging of these things. And it was about alternative management of pain through hypnosis and meditation, and why it works (traditionally and currently) with scientific data supporting that.
It was about the difference between men and women, in their brains and in response to pain, as well as their ability to empathize (a measured, quantitative response). It turns out, male brains don't light up (in the empathetic pathways) when they feel there is injustice. If someone plays unfair or cheats, they don't empathize when that person is subjected to pain. But women? We still do.
Fascinating!
I could go on, but I'd be basically writing out the whole article. This was a great morning read.
Fantastic.
Comments (2)
That IS interesting! So the data suggests/confirms that most men have an inherent inability to empathize? If that's the case, I wonder if the data would indicate a change over time. Meaning, I wonder if men are becoming increasingly apathetic or if this lack of empathy has remained constant.
@MyxlDove - Dude, I totally had to bring out my laptop to answer you, my phone was just going to piss me off as my brain was going to outspeak my fingers...
It isn't that men had an inability to empathize, it's that others things influenced it. Their sense of justice, for instance. More interesting than that, I felt, was that empathy can be learned and developed to be stronger.
Even more interesting, was that music had a profound effect on empathy. When meditative music was played, empathy was increased across the board, as was concentration. These were not feelings that were reported, but the brain activity which was measured - although subjective reports matched the diagnostic findings as well.
It was also interesting to me to note that the more empathetic a woman was, the more children she tended to have. This had evolutionary type implications, as in, "women who were both cognizant of and responsive to their offspring's needs 'likely out-reproduced those who remained indifferent.'" These empathetic differences were essential for survival.
I likened that to women I know currently. It seemed to match. Look even just at Xanga.
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