The Neuroscience of Fear, Empathy and Altruism with Dr. Abigail Marsh

Send us a text This episode focuses on fear and empathy in humans and other animals. Dr. Abigail Marsh also talks about our biological predisposition toward empathy and care, how adolescent brains evolved to rebel and take risks, why teens are more anxious than in previous generations, and psychopathy as a spectrum. Find out why fearful expressions evolved to protect us and why we love cute animals so much.  Dr. Marsh was rescued by the heroic act of stranger which led her to study altruism. In studying empathy, she began by studying the brains of those who are empathy deficient, or what we call psychopathic. She found that psychopathy is on a spectrum, which includes people who are anti-psychopathic. She also found it all connects with fear and the neurological function and structure of the amygdala. The amygdala is complicated and it has two main axonal pathways which connect it with other parts of the brain. Oxytocin modulates the amygdala in a way that it supports nurturing care, even in the case of danger or threat, related to protection of others at the expense of protection of self, as with caring for those in need and in the case of saving a stranger"s life.  People with altruistic behaviors have larger amygdalas and people with psychopathic behavior have significantly smaller amygdalas! But there are interventions that can change and influence the development of the brain in adolescence. Children can grow out of callous behaviors.  Dr. Marsh is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Georgetown University where she directs the Laboratory on Social and Affective Neuroscience. She is the author of The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths, and Everyone In-Between.