Mirror Neurons

from newscientist.com:

Brain scans reveal men's pleasure in revenge
by Will Knight
18:47 18 January 2006
NewScientist.com news service

The scans showed that both sexes experienced increased brain activity in the fronto-singular and anterior cingulate cortices – areas that the associated with the direct experience of pain – when watching other players receive a jolt of electricity. Researchers have previously shown that so-called mirror neurons will sometimes fire in empathy with another person's experience.

Both men and women also experienced slightly less activity in these areas when cheaters were given a shock, which suggests the feeling of empathy was dependent on social behaviour.

But tellingly, activity dropped much more in men when watching cheaters being buzzed. In addition, several other regions of male participants' brains "lit up" instead – areas linked to the experience of reward known as the ventral striatum/nucleus accumbens and orbito-frontal cortex.

The results suggest that men not only feel less empathy for cheaters but experience pleasure when they are punished.

Please read the whole article by Will Knight

__________________________________________

Mirror Neurons are an interesting case.

pbs.org for more on mirror neurons.

interdisciplines.org: "What do Mirror Neurons Mean?"--

Today, mirror neurons play a major explanatory role in the understanding of a number of human features, from imitation to empathy, mindreading and language learning. It has also been claimed that damages in these cerebral structures can be responsible for mental deficits such as autism.

and for your consideration:
from pittsburghlive.com
Man's heart stops after Bettis fumble
By Tony LaRussa
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, January 16, 2006

For die-hard Steelers fans, Jerome Bettis' fumble as he tried to score from the 2-yard line was a heart-pounding moment in Sunday's game against the Indianapolis Colts. For Terry O'Neill, of Rinne Street in Arlington, it was a heart-stopping moment -- literally. O'Neill's heart stopped seconds after the crucial play in the final moments of Sunday's divisional playoff game. "Jerome is my hero," O'Neill, 50, said Monday from his bed at UPMC Presbyterian hospital in Oakland, where he was in stable condition. "I wasn't upset that the Steelers might lose," he said. "I was upset because I didn't want to see him end his career like that. A guy like that deserves better. I guess it was a little too much for me to handle."

______________________________________________

More on "mirror neurons" later.

FACTS or DOGMA?

A Defeat For Users Of Medical Marijuana
State Laws No Defense, Supreme Court Rules
By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 7, 2005; Page A01

The Supreme Court dealt a blow to the medical marijuana movement yesterday, ruling that the federal government can still ban possession of the drug in states that have eliminated sanctions for its use in treating symptoms of illness. By a vote of 6 to 3, the court ruled that Congress's constitutional authority to regulate the interstate market in drugs, licit or illicit, extends to small, homegrown quantities of doctor-recommended marijuana consumed under California's Compassionate Use Act, which was adopted by an overwhelming majority of voters in 1996.

FACT!

The ruling does not overturn laws in California and 10 other states, mostly in the West, that permit medical use of marijuana. In 2003, Maryland reduced the maximum fine for medical users of less than an ounce of the drug to $100. But the ruling does mean that those who try to use marijuana as a medical treatment risk legal action by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration or other federal agencies and that the state laws provide no defense.

FACT!

Writing for the court majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said the case was "troubling" because of users' claims that they needed marijuana to alleviate physical pain and suffering. But he concluded that the court had no choice but to uphold Congress's "firmly established" power to regulate "purely local activities . . . that have a substantial effect on interstate commerce."

A little DOGMATIC, but mostly FACT! (more on "'firmly established' power to regulate 'purely local activities'" later)

Echoing an argument advanced by the Bush administration, Stevens expressed concern that "unscrupulous physicians" might exploit the broadly worded California law to divert marijuana into the market for recreational drugs.

DOGMA!

The Bush administration, which has been emphasizing marijuana enforcement in its anti-drug strategy, hailed the ruling.

"Today's decision marks the end of medical marijuana as a political issue," said John P. Walters, President Bush's director of national drug control policy. "Our nation has the highest standards and most sophisticated institutions in the world for determining the safety and effectiveness of medication. Our national medical system relies on proven scientific research, not popular opinion."

DOGMA!

But California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said that "seriously ill Californians will continue to run the risk of arrest and prosecution under federal law when they grow and or they use marijuana as medicine." The ruling, he said, "shows the vast philosophical difference between the federal government and Californians on the rights of patients to have access to the medicine they need to survive and lead healthier lives."

FACT!

Supporters of medical marijuana, noting that Stevens wrote that "the voices of voters allied with these respondents may one day be heard in the halls of Congress," said the fight over federal drug policy will shift to a new battleground.
"The decision highlights the opportunity we have to go to Congress and change these laws," said Robert Raich, a lawyer whose wife, Angel Raich, was one of two women who had sued to block enforcement of federal marijuana laws against them. A House bill that would forbid the use of federal funds to prosecute medical marijuana use in states that permit it was defeated overwhelmingly last year but will be voted on again soon, advocates of medical marijuana said.

FACT!

Yesterday's Supreme Court decision represented a victory for the court's supporters of federal power over its proponents of states' rights. In two cases in the past decade, the court limited Congress's power to make laws in the name of regulating interstate commerce, saying that it had begun to intrude upon local affairs. Backers of medical marijuana had hoped to apply those precedents in this case, Gonzales v. Raich, No. 03-1454. But Stevens concluded that the court was still bound by a 1942 Supreme Court decision that defined interstate commerce broadly to include, under certain circumstances, even subsistence wheat farming.

FACT!

Much modern government regulation exists because of this broad definition of interstate commerce, which permitted the court to uphold, as exercises of Congress's commerce clause power, laws including New Deal farm controls and the ban on racial segregation in hotels and restaurants.

Stevens was joined by the court's three other consistent supporters of federal power, Justices David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. He also picked up the votes of two justices, Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy, who usually support states' rights. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas dissented. Writing for the three, O'Connor noted that she "would not have voted for the medical marijuana initiative" in California, but she chided the majority for stifling "an express choice by some States, concerned for the lives and liberties of their people, to regulate medical marijuana differently."

In a separate dissent, Thomas added that if "the majority is to be taken seriously, the Federal Government may now regulate quilting bees, clothes drives and potluck suppers throughout the 50 states."

A lot of interesting FACTS here (and who knew Justice Thomas was so funny?)

Please read Charles Lane's entire article at washingtonpost.com

************************************************

The Mind in the Cave

Shamanism, Caves and France
By Sally Gosheron,
Atelier de la Rose

How do you begin to explain the truly fabulous images found in prehistoric caves in the Lot and Dordogne regions of France? Why are only certain animals drawn and not others? What is the meaning of giant spotted horses and negative handprints?

Theories that explain the cave images in terms of religion have been proposed by several academics. One of the most recent attempts has been made by a leading French prehistorian, Jean Clottes. He collaborates with people of other academic disciplines in his search to understand the mysterious marks. Clottes' work uses areas of anthropology and neuropsychology to propose that the prehistoric images are the product of a shaman culture (or a succession of shaman cultures).

His theory is speculative, like all the others, but it is one that is highly informed and well argued. He has published his ideas in a book, co-written with David Lewis-Williams, called Les Chamanes de la Préhistoire (The Shamans of Prehistory). Lewis-Williams is an archeologist and anthropologist whose specialist area of study is the San people of South Africa and their shaman belief system.

Our ancestors were hunter-gatherers. Shamanism is most often associated with such cultures in the contemporary world. Nevertheless one cannot blithely transpose modern cultures onto prehistoric ones, which is why Clottes also draws on other disciplines and an analysis of the prehistoric images themselves to provide more convincing links between the ancient and the modern.

Prehistorians do not know how to interpret these marks. Clottes' and Lewis-Williams' book offers an answer. As shamans, of whatever period of history, have the same biological brain as everyone else the study of the brain's functions is relevant and revealing. When one goes into a trance, however this is induced (by sensory deprivation, fasting, intense pain, certain illnesses, drugs or prolonged, rhythmic percussion or dance) one encounters several levels of hallucinations. The initial stage is one of abstract signs: dots, zigzags, grids or a composition of straight and curved lines. At a deeper level of trance one can encounter animals and even seem to become one.

These different levels of hallucinations are universal, although the details of the experience may vary according to the social or cultural background of the subject. Dots, grids and other abstract marks occur in many caves. According to these ideas the spotted horses may well represent several stages of the trance experience.

***********************************************

Please visit the above link to read the whole article.

Revolutions of Consciousness

Psychotropic Plant Consumption and Early Man


What inspired the animal to look to the night sky and see, not just stars, but constellations, deities, and mythological stories? What forces drove the evolution of the primate brain to function beyond the boundaries of behavioral instinct and into a universe of perception which displaced time and space, projected meaning and purpose upon environmental elements, and established synthetic symbols and icons for subsequent cultural manipulation? What was it that initially delineated early humans from the physical constrictions of the natural world?

Carl Sagan speculates on such questions in his book, The Dragons of Eden, and offers a little food for thought. He considers a band of human Pygmies that intoxicate themselves on marijuana while performing mundane tasks like fishing or hunting. He casually ponders the possibility that “in human history the cultivation of marijuana led generally to the invention of agriculture, and thereby to civilization” (Sagan, 201). Of course, the “real” world is perhaps a bit more complex than that. The forces that drive human evolution are vast, and modern science continues to unwrap the mysteries of our ontological existence. The fact that every human culture at some point in history practiced the consumption of at least one version of a psycho active substance shouldn’t be ignored when considering the evolution of the human animal (Weil, et al, 10). Some scientists studying the molecular composition of flora have found evidence to suggest a symbiosis between psychoactive plants (i.e. entheogens) and indigenous wild-life consumers(3).

ENTHEOGENS AND ANIMALS:
Psychoactive plants typically manufacture chemicals analogous to neurotransmitters functioning within the mammalian brain(3). Morphine from the opium plant mimics the function of endorphins, and certain cacti like Peyote produce ergot alkaloids and mescaline, which mimic serotonin(3). Tobacco produces nicotine that mimics acetylcholine, coffee beans produce caffeine which mimics adenosine (3), and marijuana produces THC that mimics Anandamide(3). Anthropologist R.J. Sullivan suggests that many of the psycho active plants which mammals consume provide necessary nutrients for brain operation, especially during times of potential malnutrition when food resources become scarce. During these times, mammals that consume psychoactive plants receive many of the chemical compounds necessary for efficient brain function and can survive until other food sources are found(3). Plants that manufacture analogous neurotransmitters potentially take advantage of ecological niches defined by mammalian consumption. Seeds, which can’t be digested, may be transported by an organism and deposited within excrement to a new location, and the boundaries of a plant’s ecological niche are expanded.

To enhance our perspective of the drug-animal relationship, examples of non-human drug consumption should be considered. Chimpanzees have been known to consume “medicinal” plants. In one case, a sick chimpanzee in Tanzania’s Mahale Mountains National Park with “barely enough energy to defecate”(4) dragged herself over to a Vernonia amygdaline bush and plucked a few leaves. She chewed the leaves to extract the juice and spit out the fibrous leftovers. To the surprise of the observing scientists, she was healthy again and socializing with the rest of her troop the next afternoon(4). Chimpanzees on occasion ambulate for twenty minutes to find Aspilia leaves that they ingest to kill parasitic infection(4). Other stories depicting the animal consumption of psychoactive plants include pack donkeys chewing on tobacco, goats munching on qat (an amphetamine like stimulant), and African elephants feasting on fermented fruit (4). In 1979, Ronald Siegel, psychopharmacologist at the UCLA School of Medicine, discovered a shard from a ceramic bowl in the Peruvian Andes depicting an image of two llamas eating from a branch of coca leaves(4). This image and other stories from tribal lore reflect the notion that animals do consume psychotropic plants, and this sets the stage for the emergence of early man possessing a brain refined by mind-bending plant consumption.

ENTHEOGENS AND HUMAN HISTORY:
Drugs are older than history. People all over the world today consume psychotropic substances, and this behavior follows an ancient line of tradition. Using archaeological evidence, we can speculate on the behavioral practices of pre-historic humans, but during the early millennia of human civilization, the consumption of “medicinal” plants predates the emergence of writing and other facets of social organization. From 10,000 to 2,000 BC ancient texts in Egypt, Sumeria, China, and the New World suggest not only that medicinal herbs were used to treat illness, but the ritualized function of psychotropic plant consumption defined early religious belief as well (Roy, et al, 8). Rock paintings in the Sahara Desert and Algeria dating from 9,000 – 7,000 BC depict scenes of “harvest, adoration, and large masked gods covered with mushrooms” (6) and imply the notion that early humans established mushroom religious cults within the time period of the Paleolithic. Other rock paintings found in Tanzania and Australia date from 40,000 BC and earlier (6). Similar rock paintings depicting images following motifs of the “Round Head Period” (9,000 – 7,000 BC) have been discovered in Tadrart Acacus in Libya, Ennedi in Chad, and also at Jebel Uweinat in Egypt (6). A painting at Jabbaren depicts five people kneeling in a row worshipping three figures, and one of the figures is shaped like a large mushroom (6). Clearly, the consumption of psychotropic mushrooms refined the religious beliefs of early humans. Would this behavior influence the evolution of human culture?

Psychotropic mushrooms are commonly found in the dung of cows, horses, and deer (6). This is significant because dung is commonly used by human hunters to track prey (6). The skills required by human hunters to kill game which are often bigger and faster are honed through the exercise of cultural techniques involving displacement in thought, group strategy, and the efficient construction and use of weaponry. The hunter human must “see” beyond natural instinct in order to survive and provide food and shelter for the human family. In this way, cultures which maintain “super natural” systems to govern subsistence and behavior plasticity will out-compete other organisms for survival, especially in an environment of perpetual change. The evolution of culture in human populations would yield the foundations for human civilization and eventually establish Homo sapiens as the ruler of the animal kingdom.

Psychotropic plants of all varieties are found alongside every human civilization. African populations not only consumed mushrooms, but also Qat (Weil, 54), Yohimbe (Weil, 54), and Ibogaine (Weil, 101) to name a few. Mesopotamian, Asian Indian, and Chinese cultures consumed qat (Weil, 54), betel (Weil, 54), opium (Weil, 82), cannabis (Weil, 114) and psychoactive mushrooms were used in Southeast Asian cultures (Weil, 99). The Greeks and Romans consumed opiates (Weil, 82), and Aristotle, Plato, and Sophocles among many others all participated in rituals involving the ingestion of psychotropic fungi during religious ceremonies at the temple of Demeter in Eleusis (6).

New World cultures maintained a profound relationship with entheogenic plants to a greater degree than other world communities because psychoactive flora grew in abundance. (note- an interesting spin on this subject consists of the idea that perhaps the reason why "old world" entheogens are fewer in number than "new world" entheogens is because humanity's oldest ancestors came from Africa and then spread to other parts of the hemisphere. In this way, our "ancestors" might have had hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years to deplete the Old World populations of native entheogens. Humanity's ancestors are relatively new to the ecological framework of the New World, and therefore perhaps New World entheogens are more numerous because humans have had less time to consume these reasources. ). These plants were: multiple varieties of mushroom (6), peyote and multiple varieties of cacti, convolvulaceae, leguminosae “Red Bean”, Yopo “DMT snuff”, ayahuasca (a culturally varied stew with an MAO inhibitor to catalyze the breakdown of DMT containing vines), coca leaves (Weil, 23), morning glory, (7), and tobacco (3) to name a few. The use of psychoactive plants for recreational, medicinal, and religious purposes is a cultural function shared by humans all over the world. Certainly, such a widespread behavior influenced in some way the evolution of the human mind.

ENTHEOGENS, MIND, AND CULTURE:
Terence McKenna, author of The Invisible Landscape and Food of the Gods, says this in an interview with Alexander Blair-Ewart: “It's a great puzzle for evolutionary biology how it is that in a two million year period the human brain effectively doubled in size. There are evolutionary biologists, Lumsden being one example, who call this the most rapid transformation of a major animal organ in the entire fossil record, and it happened to us.” (8)

It is my belief that the consumption of psychoactive plants contributed to changes in the behavior of early man that influenced this rapid brain development. McKenna suggests that the ritualistic use of psychoactive mushrooms in early human populaces induced radical changes in social behaviors, such as increased visual acuity, stimulated nervous function, increased energy, heightened sexual arousal, and gave rise to religious iconography such as cattle-like “horned goddesses” and other anthropomorphic deities (9). What is significant about this theory is that evolutionary behaviors such as reproductive success and diet can now rapidly adapt, as cultural belief revolutionizes human behavior. A great example of this type of “ontological” transition is found in The Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian by ethnologist Paul Radin. This narrative follows the life of a Winnebago male who enters into the practice of a Peyote cult. Prior to this experience, he lived a life of ambiguous meaning. At a young age, he came to realize that many of his people’s religious rituals were deceptive “shows” to propagate cultural tradition and maintain social order (Radin, 20). He falls away from his tradition and becomes an alcoholic and even lands himself in jail. Finally, some family members convince him join their Peyote cult where he ritualistically consumes peyote and sees “supernatural” visions. Upon experiencing the psychotropic effects of the peyote, he embraces his radical new religious faith, and abandons the polytheistic rituals of his older tradition for the monotheism and enlightenment of the Peyote cult (Radin, 63). In this example, we see the power that the psychedelic experience has on transforming the perceptions AND the behaviors of the psychotropic plant consumer.

In our modern world, human culture influences our evolution in ways unparalleled in the animal kingdom. Humans have invented the symbols of language and math, mythologies, religion, calendars, agriculture, animal domestication, art, science, tools, weapons, material wealth, economies, and all of these creations of the human mind require psychological mechanisms which displace time and space to enhance social function. Although the influence of psychoactive plant consumption on the development of human culture is largely speculative, this idea must be included when constructing any paradigm outlining the evolution of human civilization. Drugs are, after all, older than history.



Bibliography

1) Sagan, Carl. The Dragons of Eden. Ballantine Books. Copyright 1977

2) Weil, Andrew, M.D., et al. From Chocolate to Morphine: Everything You Need to Know About Mind-Altering Drugs. Houghton Mifflin Company. Copyright 1993.

3) Sullivan, R.J., Phd. Psychotropic substance-seeking: evolutionary pathology or adaptation?. http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~roger_s/ADD024.pdf

4) The Sacramental Use of Cannabis Sativa. http://www.kamakala.com/cannabis.htm

5) Porter, Roy, et al. Medicine: A History of Healing- Ancient Traditions to Modern Practices. Barnes and Noble Books. Copyright 1997.

6) Mushrooms: A History of Magic Mushrooms. http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/mus01.htm

7) Schultes, Richard Evans, Ph. D., F.M.L.S. Antiquity of the Use of New World Hallucinogens http://www.heffter.org/review/chapter1.pdf

8) Magical Plants and the Logos: Terence McKenna in a conversation with Alexander Blair-Ewart
http://www.spiritualrealist.com/MINDFIRE/TERENCEM.asp

9) Terence McKenna. “Stoned Ape Theory”. http://users.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/McKenna/Evolution/theory.html

10) Radin, Paul. The Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian- Life, Ways, Acculturation, and the Peyote Cult. Dover Publications, INC. Copyright 1963.