Here at the Judeopundit blog, sooner or later we just had to have some posts about middos tovos--good character traits. According to an
article in the (UK) Daily Mail, researches have located the "'kind' part of the brain":
Charity begins...in the posterior superior temporal salcus, according to scientists who have traced the origins of altruism in the brain.
A study found that this part of the brain is more active in people who often engage in helpful behaviour.
The region, which lies in the top and back portion of the brain, is linked to sorting out social relationships.
US scientists scanned the brains of 45 volunteers using a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging which can watch the brain working.
At the same time, participants either played a computer game, or watched the computer play the game on its own. In either case, winning the game earned money for a chosen charity.
Volunteers were also questioned about how often they put others before themselves - in other words, how altruistic they were.
The brain scans revealed that the most charitable showed the most activity in the posterior superior temporal salcus when the computer game was being played. [...]
Not to be outdone by the scientists working on chesed--kindness-- other researchers have been working on simchah--happiness--as related in the following
item from the Independent on "The happiest man in the world":
To scientists, he is the world's happiest man. His level of mind control is astonishing and the upbeat impulses in his brain are off the scale.
Now Matthieu Ricard, 60, a French academic-turned-Buddhist monk, is to share his secrets to make the world a happier place. The trick, he reckons, is to put some effort into it. In essence, happiness is a "skill" to be learned.
His advice could not be more timely as tomorrow Britain will reach what, according to a scientific formula, is the most miserable day of the year. Tattered new year resolutions, the faded buzz of Christmas, debt, a lack of motivation and the winter weather conspire to create a peak of misery and gloom.
But studies have shown that the mind can rise above it all to increase almost everyone's happiness. Mr Ricard, who is the French interpreter for Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, took part in trials to show that brain training in the form of meditation can cause an overwhelming change in levels of happiness.
MRI scans showed that he and other long-term meditators - who had completed more than 10,000 hours each - experienced a huge level of "positive emotions" in the left pre-frontal cortex of the brain, which is associated with happiness. The right-hand side, which handles negative thoughts, is suppressed.
Further studies have shown that even novices who have done only a little meditation have increased levels of happiness. But Mr Ricard's abilities were head and shoulders above the others involved in the trials.
"The mind is malleable," Mr Ricard told The Independent on Sunday yesterday. "Our life can be greatly transformed by even a minimal change in how we manage our thoughts and perceive and interpret the world. Happiness is a skill. It requires effort and time." [...]
If scientists discover the part of the brain that avoids bitul z'man, that could be the end of the J-blogosphere. (Hat Tip for both items:
Drudge)
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