Neuroscience of Leaders Who "Work Well With Others"

From my perspective, one of the most troublesome problems of the human species blocking the next evolutionary leap is the apparent reduction in empathy, compassion and the ability to "put oneself in another's shoes."

 During the past decade, the discovery of the "controversial" mirror-neurons in chimps, the potential of non-invasive, magnetic brain  stimulation, and the promise of empathy- enhancing substances such as oxytocin appear to be encouraging breakthroughs.

However, despite these and other physiological advances, the growing stress of living in a dangerously competitive world continues to ignite the flames of fear-based aggression among nations, cultures, races, businesses, families, groups and individuals.

 Moreover, I find it difficult to ignore the willful, self-serving fanning of those flames by powerful governments, industries, politicians and corporations and individuals who profit in many ways from the fear of difference that seems to be rampant on the planet.

 Consequently, my wish for the next advance in brain research would be the development of methods to permit populations to scientifically evaluate the brains of candidates before electing them to powerful positions of authority.

 In such a brave, new world, strength of leadership might include such characteristics as better control of impulsivity, a capacity to tolerate and understand the complexity of reality without false simplifications, better deductive reasoning and higher quality decision-making abilities. And although "even  paranoids may have real enemies," leaders should possess an enhanced capacity for actual empathy and compassion as well as an ability to quickly analyze risk and act decisively when necessary.

And while I'm dreaming, I should recommend development of a Gross National Happiness statistic to be added to the material indices we watch so carefully. It might produce data with which we could really evaluate the  value of our leaders.

Hidden Agendas in American News

More Evidence about the need for skepticism when watching news programs on TV.

• Suboptimal facial expression primes in textual media messages: Evidence for the affective congruency effect

  Original Research Article
• Pages 64-77
• Niklas Ravaja, Jari Kätsyri
• • 
    

  Abstract

  The effectiveness of suboptimal affective primes in real media applications has remained debatable. We investigated the effects of suboptimally (at 10-ms exposure) presented facial expression primes on emotional responses to, and cognitive evaluations of, textual (business news) messages ranging from slightly unpleasant to slightly pleasant among 33 participants. Facial expression primes were presented repeatedly on a simulated small screen of a mobile device during a news reading task. Facial electromyography (EMG) recordings were used as physiological indices of positive and negative emotions. Our results showed affective congruency effects between news messages and facial expression primes: joyful facial expressions, compared to angry primes or no priming, elicited higher positive affect evaluations and more positive facial EMG responses, as well as higher interest, when embedded in affectively more positive news. On the other hand, the mere presence of suboptimal primes was detrimental to the perceived trustworthiness of news. These results suggest that embedding suboptimal facial expression primes into textual media messages may exert an influence on affectively congruent messages; at the same time, our results highlight the potential hazards and difficulties of utilizing such primes.

  Citing articles (0)

Do You Choose Your Thoughts?

NAC

http://www.plosone.org/annotation/listThread.action?root=81739

Increased Coupling of Intrinsic Networks in Remitted Depressed Youth Predicts Rumination and Cognitive Control

Rachel H. Jacobs and 

Lisanne M. Jenkins, et. al.

Published: August 27, 2014DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0104366

"The authors have chosen to investigate a common symptom in most individuals who experience depression as well as those who suffer from many other psychiatric conditions.  Moreover, the capacity to choose what one wishes to think about without the mood-changing interruptions of invasive rumination and obsession may be less common than previously considered in many individuals with or without a psychiatric diagnosis.

Anecdotally, my experience with N-Acetyl Cysteine  in psychiatric patients (as well as personal-development clients with rumination and obsession who carry no official psychiatric diagnosis) suggests a potentially significant beneficial effect.  It would appear that the authors have established an evaluation paradigm with which this finding might be tested.