Riot police face a mob in Hackney, North London on August 8, 2011. Riot police faced off with youths in fresh violence in London in the third day of disorder after some of the worst rioting in the British capital in years. The riots broke out in the North London district of Tottenham on August 6, following a protest against the death of a local man in a police shooting, and the violence spread to other parts of the city on August 7. AFP PHOTO/KI PRICE
Aggression has been studied in experimental and naturalistic settings, however its definition has caused a lot of controversy in terms of precision among researchers. Some behaviours such as physically pushing, shoving and striking may be qualified as aggressive, while in other situations it may also include ostracizing individuals – which has proven to produce aggressive reactions (DeWall, Twenge, Bushman, Im and Williams, 2010; Wesselmann, Butler, Williams and Pickett, 2010; Warburton, Williams and Cairns, 2006; Williams and Warburton, 2003).
What is defined as aggressive is believed to be partly shaped by societal and cultural norms, for example, among the Amish of Pennsylvania – ostracism is considered as incredibly harsh, whereas among gang subcultures mutilation and murder may be seem as commonplace [situational].
« La Mémoire », by René Magritte, 1948
Finding the reasons behind acts of violence among humans is generally explored through three major theoretical perspectives:
Biological Theories
Biosocial Theories
Social Theories
The biological explanations sides with the nature debate of the nature-nurture controversy where most social psychologists tend to disagree, since some theories seem like a threat to any form of social theory. Biological researchers assume aggression to be part of every human organism as is thus an innate action tendency where modification of the behaviour is possible [but not the organism itself]; an instinct defined by Riopelle (1987) that is goal directed and terminates in a specific outcome, beneficial to the individual and its species, adapted to a normal environment, shared by most members of the species, developed in clear ways during maturation, and is unlearned on the basis of individual experience.
All major three approaches relating to the biological model have argued that aggression is an inherent part of human nature programmed at birth to manifest in a particular way.
The first biological theory proposed by Sigmund Freud in Beyond the pleasure principle (1920/1990) proposed from the model of the Psychodynamic theory that human aggression stems from Thanatos, the ‘Death Instinct’ which is the opposition to Eros, ‘Life Instinct’ – note that the death instinct is not necessarily only directed at oneself, but to others that have negative significance to the individual. Thanatos is however believed to initially be self-destructive but is later redirected towards others during development. Freud attributed the death instinct as a response to the atrocities of the First World War.
Similarly to sexual urges stemming from Eros, Thanatos releases an aggressive urge believed to be built up naturally from bodily tensions which has to be released [one factor theory]. Later neo-Freudians theorists revised the idea and defined aggression as more rational, yet innate, process whereby individuals sought a healthy release to primitive survival instincts basic to all animal species (Hartmann, Kris and Loewenstein, 1949).
Ethology, which is a branch of biology dedicated to the study of instincts among all members of a species when living in their natural environment lead to three books [Konrad Lorenz’s On Aggression (1966), Robert Ardrey’s The Territorial Imperative (1966) and Desmond Morris’s The Naked Ape (1967)] which made the case for the instinctual basis of human aggression on the grounds of comparison with animal behaviour. Similar to neo-Freudians beliefs of aggression as an innate instinct, the behaviour itself is elicited by specific environmental stimuli known as ‘releasers’. Lorenz attributed survival value as an ethological argument to justify aggression, e.g. animals behave aggressively towards members of its species in the distribution of individuals and/or family units to make most efficient use of available resources [sexual selection, mating, food and territory]. Unsurprisingly, those aggressive behaviours have been observed in the wild among Hamadryas baboons.
Image; Babouins Hamadryas / Hamadryas Baboons
Lorenz (1966) extended the argument to humans arguing an inherited fighting instinct. According to Lorenz (1966), aggression in humans is legitimately comparable to other non-human species and is believed to be the result of evolutionary development – he defined aggression as “… the fighting instinct in beast and man which is distinct against members of the same species.” (Gross, 2006 p420).
Another biological explanation believes that certain behaviours are linked to the functioning of particular parts of the brain. This claim was supported by a patient known as “Dawn” who started acting erratically – even worryingly macabre in thought – when her cerebral cortex (the part of the brain responsible for planning, reasoning and ‘rational’ behaviour) would start to shut down as a result of her blood-glucose level drop due to diabetes.
The final biological reason for aggression is related to chemical influences (such as alcohol, drugs, Serotonin) on the brain which can lead to aggression – Putnam et al (2000) observed how levels of serotonin are considerable low in violent criminals. Although strong claims and evidence give Biologically inclined psychologists credibility (with solid laboratory experiments), the deterministic and reductionist views it promotes raise arguable issues; as important factors such as learning and cultural influence are discarded – along with free will and the mind, which defies the essence of human freedom, an explanation many find questionable [i.e. to ignore the mind as an active entity with conscious, preconscious and unconscious proposed forces colliding to find balance – as Jacques Lacan and Sigmund Freud].
Chuck Palahniuk’s 1996 novel, Fight Club, a transgressive work of fiction, captured the gritty battle of modern men dealing with their emotions in a restrictive & often rigid industrialised civilization that hardly accommodates the “humane” side of humans
Finally, the Evolutionary Social Psychology Theory is an ambitious model that assumes an innate basis for aggression but also claim a biological basis to ALL social behaviours (Caporeal, 2007; Kenrick, Maner and Li, 2005; Neuberg, Kenrick and Schaller, 2010; Schaller, Simpson and Kenrick, 2006). Derived from rigid Darwinian logic, this theory proposes that specific behaviour evolved as it promotes survival of genes that allow an individual to live long enough to pass his/her genes to the next generation. Aggression is assumed to be adaptive and linked to living long enough to procreate, for example, the defence and protection of self and/or others [helpful to an individual and its species].
Type A personality is a pattern of behaviour that has been classified after a research by Matthews (1982) which classified individuals of the category as overactive and excessively competitive in their encounters and may be more aggressive towards others competing on an important task (Carver and Glass, 1978).
Type A individuals are more competitive and domineering (Ward & Eisler, 1987) and have “an unrealistic sense of urgency”, are masters at multi-tasking, and are under constant stress (Tirado, 2012). Contrary to their Type B counterparts, Type A people set high expectations on their performance. When performance expectations are not met stress incurs.
Under stress, Type A individuals generally preferworking alone, as such arrangements may shield them from incompetent others and prevent the Type A individuals from the added stress of having to take control the situation (Dembroski and MacDougall, 1978). The characterisation has also been linked to proneness to abuse children (Strube, Turner, Cerro, Stevens and Hinchley, 1984) and to more conflicts in managerial roles in organisational settings with peers and subordinates but not supervisors [controlled aggression].
The plethora of investigative studies about individuals classified as bearing the Type Apersonality type points to the question of whether such a trait isa defining factor, in some degree, of all successful leaders, specially in business.
To conclude with biological theories, the last aggression trigger explored the effects of hormones. Testosterone was found to have a small correlation of 0.14 with aggression in a study conducted by Berman, Gladue and Taylor (1993) where the testosterone levels were measured and the participants divided into Type A and B personality groups. More convincing evidence came from the Netherlands from two studies (Cohen-Kettenis and Van Goozen, 1997; Van Goozen, Cohen-Kettenis, Gooren, Frijda and Van der Poll, 1995) where increased or decreased proneness to aggression was observed in sex reassignment hormonal administration in transsexuals depending on whether gender change was female to male or male to female.
Biosocial theoriesemphasize on both nature and nurture sides of the controversy that emphasize the role of the Social learning theory and context, in some cases incorporating a biological element. Derived from the work of Yale psychologists in the 1930s, one of the theories is the frustration-aggression hypothesis. This links aggression to an antecedent condition of frustration and was used to explain prejudice. Dollard, Doob, Miller, Mowrer and Sears (1939) proposed that aggression was always caused by some kind of frustrating event or situation, a reasoning applied to the effects of job loss on violence (Catalano, Novaco and McConnell, 1997) and the role of socio-economic deprivation in the ethnic cleansing of Kurds in Iraq and non-Serbs in Bosnia (Dutton, Boyanowsky and Bond, 2005; Staub, 1996, 2000).
Ernesto “Che” Guevara (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967) // A doctor, author, diplomat, guerilla leader & military theorist who lead a revolutionary uprising against an oppressive & abusive system’s dictatorial military regime, and who became a symbol of human struggle for justice & fairness worldwide [A 2-part movie by Steven Soderbergh based on his diaries was released in 2008 (Trailer Available Here)]
Speculation over the ineffectiveness of other mechanisms to achieve socioeconomic and cultural goals is also believed as a cause of militant/terrorist aggression [e.g. individuals unlikely to resort to violence unless all channels of social improvement have proved ineffective (e.g. prejudice, adaptative failure, lack of skills, etc)].
The second biosocial theory invokes the concept of drive and is known as Dolf Zillman’s (1979, 1988) excitation-transfer model. This approach defines aggression as a function of a learned behaviour, an arousal or excitation from another source, and an individual’s interpretation of the arousal state such that aggressive responses seem appropriate. Residual arousal transfers are believed to be transferred from one situation to another in a way that promotes likelihood of an aggressive response.
Lastly, Social Learning Theory [SLT] assumes aggression can be learnt as observed in the gradual control of aggressive impulses in early infants (Miles and Carey, 1997). It also features processes responsible for acquisition of a behaviour (or sequence), the instigation of overt acts, and maintenance of a behaviour. It was applied to understand aggression by Bandura (1973) where it was noted that if antisocial behaviours can be learnt, so can prosocial ones. French sociologist Gabriel Tarde’s (1890) book, Les lois de l’imitation, asserted that ‘Society is imitation’.
SLT is unique in proposing that imitated behaviours must be seen as rewarding ‘in some way’ [learning can come from models: peers, parents, siblings, but also extended to media exposure].
Image: Des politiciens dans une démonstration d’agression primitive / Politicians in a display of primitive aggression
Bandura believed aggression from an individual in a particular situation depends on his/her previous experiences of others’ aggressive behaviour, how successful aggressive behaviour has been in the past, the current likelihood that aggression will be rewarded or punished, and the complexity involving cognitive, social and environmental factors in a given situation.
Researchers advocating psycho-social explanations (such as Bandura) support the nurture side of the “nature VS nurture” debate on human behaviour; and believe that a person from birth is influenced by their surrounding and upbringing – which is explanatory in the Social Learning Theory. The theory suggests that aggression is learnt in 2 ways:
[ii]vicarious experience based on Observational Learning.
To support his theory, Bandura (1965) used the ‘Bobo Doll Study’ where male and female participants aged 3 to 5 years old with half of the group exposed to models behaving violently towards the life-sized Bobo doll whilst the other half were exposed to models with no aggression. This lead to the children exposed to the aggressive model reproducing most of the physical and verbal aggression whereas the children unexposed showed virtually no aggression.
Another explanation to aggression is “de-individualisation” where Dr Philip Zimbardo’s (1969) prison experiment proved how constraint on behaviour is weakened when a person loses their sense of individuality – where the group of participants [in the experiment] who were allocated the Guard-role had started acting in an extremely vile and degrading manner towards the participants allocated to “prisoners” when the former had been wearing sunglasses (which heightened their anonymity thus lowering their sense of identity). Such incidents happens in situations when (for e.g.) in crowds, or in a uniform where one can feel less likely to be held responsible for aggressive behaviour.
Other issues relating to aggression include catharsis, which refers to the process of aggression as an outlet or release for pent-up emotion [the cathartic hypothesis].Although it is associated to Sigmund Freud, the idea can be tracked back to Aristotle and the ancient Greek tragedy: by acting out their emotions, people can purify their feelings (Scherer, Abeles and Fischer, 1975).
Alcoholhas also been linked to aggression through the disinhibition hypothesis which explains how the cortical control is compromised by alcohol that leads to increased activity in the more primitive areas of the brain.
Link between alcohol and aggressive behaviour seems firmly established (Bartholow, Pearson, Gratton and Fabiani, 2003; Bushman and Cooper, 1990; Giancola, 2003) and controlled behavioural studies suggest a causal relationship (Bailey and Taylor, 1991; LaPlace, Chermack and Taylor, 1994).
To conclude, we should be focused on Ecological Validity – as the experiments mentioned may not be able to fully predict or provide sufficient explanations to real world situations when a multitude of variables not monitored are in synchronisation and combination with each other due to the controlled conditions of the laboratory-based experiments used to support the assumptions. Furthermore, if we were to completely discard biological factors it would have a negative impact on our conclusions since it is well known and accepted that the physical state/physiology of the brain is vital to fully assess behaviour/cognition based on an individual deemed “healthy & fit”.
*****
References
Bailey, D.S. and Taylor, S.P. (1991). Effects of alcohol and aggressive disposition on human physical aggression. Journal of Research in Personality, 25, 334-342
Bandura, A. (1973). A social learning analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bartholow, B.D., Pearson, M.A., Gratton, G. and Fabiani, M. (2003). Effects of alcohol on person perception: A social cognitive neuroscience approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 627-638.
Berman, M., Gladue, B. and Taylor, S. (1993). The effects of hormones, Type A behavior pattern, and provocation on aggression in men. Motivation and Emotion, 17(2), pp.125-138.
Boakes. R (1984) From Darwin to behaviourism: Psychology and the minds of animals. Cambridge University Press
Bushman, B.J. and Cooper, H.M. (1990). Effects of alcohol on human aggression: An integrative research review. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 341-354
Caporael, L. R. (2007). Evolutionary theory for social and cultural psychology. In A. W. Kruglanski and E. T. Higgins (eds), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (2nd edn, pp. 3-18. New York: Guilford Press.
Carver, C. and Glass, D. (1978). Coronary-prone behavior pattern and interpersonal aggression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36(4), pp.361-366.
Catalano, R., Novaco, R. and McConnell, W. (1997). A model of the net effect of job loss on violence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 1440-1447
Cohen D. (1979) J.B Watson: The Founder of Behaviourism. London, Boston and Henley
Cohen-Kettenis, P.T. and Van Goozen, S.H.M. (1997). Sex reassignment of adolescent transsexuals: A follow-up study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 263-71
Dembroski, T. M., MacDougall, J. M., Shields, J. L., Petitto, J., & Lushene, R.
(1978). Components of the Type A coronary-prone behavior pattern and cardiovascular
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Dembroski, Theodore M.; MacDougall, James M.; Musante, Linda (1984). Desirability of control versus locus of control: Relationship to paralinguistics in the Type A interview.. Health Psychology, 3(1), 15–26.
Dollard, J., Doob, L.W., Miller, N.E., Mowrer, O.H. and Sears, R.R. (1939). Frustration and aggression. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press
Dutton, D.G., Boyanowksy, E.H. and Bond, M.H. (2005). Extreme mass homicide: From military massacre to genocide. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 10, 437-473
Giancola, P.R. (2003). Individual differences and contextual factors contributing to the alcohol-aggression relation: diverse populations, diverse methodologies: An introduction to the special issue. Aggressive Behaviour, 29, 285-287
Gross. R (2005) Psychology: the science of and behaviour. Pp 420-421 London, Hodder and Stoughton Educational
Hartmann, H., Kris, E. and Lowenstein, R. M. (1949). Notes on a theory of aggression. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 3-4, 9-36
Kenrick, D. T., Maner, J. K. and Li, N. P. (2005). Evolutionary social psychology. In D. M. Buss (ed.), Handbook of evolutionary psychology (pp 803-827. New York: Wiley.
LaPlace, A.C., Chermack, S.T. and Taylor, S.P. (1994). Effects of alcohol and drinking experience on human physical aggression. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 439-444Lorenz,K. (1966). On aggression. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.
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Ward, C.H. & Eisler, R.M. (1987). Type A behavior, achievement striving, and dysfunctional self-evaluation system. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 318-326.
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As vast as our universe is, so are its complexities. One of the most complex of objects in it remains the human brain, an organ which when fully grown requires 750 millilitres of oxygenated bloodevery minute to maintain normal activity – of the total amount of oxygen delivered to the body’s tissues by the arteries, 20 % is consumed by the brainwhich only makes up 2% of the body’s weight. It also has 100 billion neurons with each connected to 7000 others, leading to a surprising 700 trillion connections. This complexity is far from excessive as we study the importance of the construction of the brain for civilisation and all life on our planet. This fascinating organ is not only at the basis of low-level biological tasks such as heart rate monitoring, respiration and feeding, but it is also vital in the evolution of our behaviours for survival (e.g. perceiving, learning and making rapid decisions). At the heart of human existence, it is also the organ allowing the human organism to explore higher abilities unique to its kind such as thoughts, emotions, consciousness and love.
While nearly 50% of the Central Nervous System and Peripheral Nervous System are neurons, they are supported by glial cells. The ratio of Neurons to glial cells in the human brain is close to 1:1 (Azevedo et al., 2009) and glial cells come in 3 important types:
Firstly, astrocytes [also known as ‘star cell’] produce chemicals needed for neurons to function such as extracellular fluid, provide nourishment [linked to blood vessel] and clean up dead neurons. They also help keep the neuron in place.
Secondly, oligodendrocytes support the axon by creating a myelin coating which increases the speed and efficiency of axonal conduction [in the PNS myelin is produced by Schwann cells].
Thirdly and lastly, microglia works with the immune system by protecting the brain from infections while also being responsible for inflammation in cases of brain damage.
Neurons are cells that are devised to ensure the reception, conduction, and transmission of electrochemical signals and come in several types depending on their structure and function. The 3 main types are Multipolar, Bipolar and Unipolar neurons.
Most neurons in the brain are multipolar, and these have many extensions from their body: one axon and several dendrites. Bipolar neurons have two extensions: one consisting of dendrites and one of axon and are typically specialised sensory pathways (e.g. vision, smell, sight and hearing). Unipolar neurons are cells with a single extension (an axon) from their body and are mostly somatosensory (e.g. touch, pain, temperature, etc). Although existing in variety, all neurons perform the same overall function: to process and transmit information.
The neuron is composed of three main parts, firstly the cell body [also known as the ‘soma’] is a primary component of the neuron that integrates the inputs received by the neurons to the axon hillock. The body or soma is between 5 and 100 microns in diameter (a micron is one-thousandth of a millimetre) surrounded by a membrane and hosts the cytoplasm, the nucleus and a number of organelles. The cytoplasm resembles jelly-like substances and is in continuous movement, with the nucleus containing the genetic code of the neuron that is used for protein synthesis (e.g. of some types of neurotransmitters). The neuron’s metabolism is dependent on the organelles that perform chemical synthesis, generate and store energy; and provide the structural support (similar to a skeleton) for the neuron.
Secondly, we have the dendrites [derived from Greek ‘Dendron’] which are branched cellular extensions emanating from the cell body that receive most of the synaptic contacts from other neurons. It is important to note that dendrites only receive information from other neurons and cannot transmit any of it to them; their purpose is to propagate information to the axon.
Thirdly, axons which can measure from up to a few millimetres to one metre in length, transmit information from the soma to other neurons, ending with the terminal buttons which store chemicals used for inter-neuron communication. There are 2 types of axons. The first type – myelinated axons – are covered with a fatty, white substance known as myelin which is a sheath that has gaps at places known as the nodes of Ranvier. Myelin acts as a catalyst in making electric transmission faster and more efficient by insulating the axon. Hence, with myelinated axons, myelin is vital for effective electric transmission, and its loss leads to serious neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis, The second type of axons are not covered by myelin, resulting in a slower electric transmission.
Neurons are always active, even when no information is being received from other neurons, and must feed themselves (through blood vessels), maintain physiological parameters within a certain range (homeostasis), and maintain their electrical equilibrium, which is essential in the transmission of information.
The terminal buttons [also known as Axon terminals] are button-like endings of the axon branches which release the information to other neurons via neurotransmitter molecules through synaptic vesicles stored within itself. The neurotransmitter is then diffused across the synaptic cleft [gap between 2 membranes] where a depolarisation from incoming action potentials lead to the opening of Calcium channels and Ca+ triggers vesicles to fuse with pre-synaptic membrane, releasing the neurotransmitter into the synaptic cleft which diffuses across and binds with receptors of the next neuron’s post-synaptic membrane’s receptors; causing particular ion channels to open.
Post synaptic potentials further defines the opening credentials. Excitatory Post Synaptic Potential (EPSP) is the result of depolarisation (+ve) which increases the positive charge after allowing Sodium (Na+) ions inside. Another result could be an Inhibitory Post Synaptic Potential (IPSP) which would be caused by the hyperpolarisation (-ve) due to the opening of Chloride (Cl-) channels. The summation carried out by the Axon Hillock calculates whether it reaches the threshold, if it does; an Action Potential in the Postsynaptic Neuron is triggered and excess neurotransmitter is taken back by the pre-synaptic neuron and degraded by enzymes.
The Neural Signature of Learning
Learning is the process through which memories are formed and it is assumed to be the result of enduring changes in the synapses between neurons – a mechanism called long-term potentiation (LTP), which is the strengthening of connections between two neurons by the synaptic chemical change. Memory storage is the strengthening or weakening of synaptic connections. Hebbian learning is a key principle for long-term potentiation (LTP): “neurons that fire together, wire together” (Hebb, 1949), meaning that any two cells or system of cells that are repeatedly active at the same time will tend to become ‘associated’ – and recent studies seem to also suggest that the growth of new synapses foster learning. A new memory is a change to the nervous system as a result of learning, i.e. a memory is the internal representation of knowledge acquired through experience.
New experiences change the nervous system, a phenomenon known as “neuroplasticity”. One solid example of this process of neuroplasticity is given in the study done by Maguire et al. (2000): where the volume of the hippocampus [an area of the brain essential for learning & memory] of London Taxi Drivers were compared with that of a control group, with the hypothesis that extensive experience with spatial navigation and resulting increase in spatial memory might have led to enduring changes in the brain. Eventually, as predicted the hippocampal volume of the London Taxi Drivers was significantly larger than the normal people in the control group. Furthermore, the hippocampal volume in the taxi drivers correlated positively with the amount of time spent on the job. From such an experiment, it was deduced that new experiences can still change the nervous system in adulthood.
Hebb argued convincingly that enduring changes in the efficiency of synaptic transmission were the basis of long-term memory. If we assume that the repetition of a reverberatory activity induces lasting cellular changes that adds to its stability when an axon of Cell A is near enough to excite a Cell B and repeatedly takes part in its activation, some growth process or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that Cell A’s efficiency as one of the cells activating Cell B is increased.
Scientific evidence for Hebb’s law has been repeatedly found, i.e. when a neuron fires, an action potential travels to the end of the axon, where synaptic vesicles release neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft, these neurotransmitters bind to the postsynaptic receptors on dendrite and trigger an action potential in the next neuron. The strength of such a synaptic connection between neurons is not fixed, but depends on the amount of postsynaptic receptors, the sensitivity of the postsynaptic receptors and the amount of neurotransmitters released by the presynaptic neuron. Correlated activity of presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons result in an increase in the strength of this synaptic connection between neurons, known as long-term potentiation [first observed by Terje Lomo in 1966]. This is the neural signature of learning.
A neuron codes information through its “spiking rate” [response rate] which is the number of action potentials propagated per second. Some neurons may have a high spiking rate in some situations (e.g. during speech), but not others (e.g. during vision), while others may simply have a complementary profile. Neurons that respond to the same type of information are generally grouped together, this leads to the functional specialisation of brain regions. The input a neuron receives and the output that it sends to another neuron is related to the type of information a neuron carries. For example, information about sounds is only processed by the primary auditory cortex because this region’s inputs are from a pathway originating in the cochlea and they also send information to other neurons involved in a more advanced stage of auditory processing (e.g. speech perception). For example, if it were possible to rewire the brain such that the primary auditory cortex was to receive inputs from the retinal pathway instead of the auditory pathway (Sur & Leamey, 2001), the function of that part of the brain would have changed [along with the type of information it carries] even if the regions themselves remained static [with only inputs rewired]. This is worthy of being noted as when one considers the function of a particular cerebral region: the function of any brain region is determined by its inputs and outputs – hence, the extent to which a function can only be achieved at a particular location is a subject open to debate.
Gray matter, white matter and cerebrospinal fluid
Neurons in the brain are structured to form white matter[axons and support cells: glia] and gray matter[neuronal cell bodies]. The white matter lies underneath the highly convoluted folded sheet of gray matter [cerebral cortex]. Beneath the white matter fibers, there is another collection of gray matter structures [subcortex], which includes the basal ganglia, the limbic system, and the diencephalon. White matter tracts may project between different regions of the cortex within the same hemisphere [known as association tracts) and also between regions across different hemispheres [known as commissures; with the most important being the corpus callosum]; or may project between cortical and subcortical regions [known asprojection tracts]. A number of hollow chambers called ventricles also form part of the brain, these are filled with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which serves important functions such as carrying waste metabolites, transferring messenger signals while providing a protective cushion for the brain.
Reflections: From biology to psychology
In the classic essay on the “Architecture of Complexity”, Simon (1996) noted that hierarchies are present everywhere at every level in natural systems – taking the field of physics as an example, in particular the way elementary particles form atoms, atoms form molecules, and molecules form more complex entities such as rocks. Furthering this metaphor as an example, we may also wish to look at the organisation of a book: letters, words, sentences, paragraphs, sections and finally chapters.
In biological systems, a similar type of hierarchical structure can be found at many levels, particularly in the way the brain is organised. Simon seems to convincingly argue that complex systems’ evolution would have had to have benefited from some degree of stability, which is precisely enabled by hierarchical organisation. The main idea is that hierarchical organisations typically have a degree of redundancy – that is, the same functions at the particular level can be carried out by different components; and if one component fails, the system is only slightly affected since other components could perform the functions to some extent. Systems that lack systematic hierarchical organisation tend to lack this degree of flexibility, and a system as complex as the human brain must have a strong hierarchical organisation, or it would not have been able to evolve into such a complex organ.
Using the Limbic system [diagram above] as an example of each level’s specialisation, it is possible to understand how it is responsible for a particular set of functions related but also separate from other parts of the brain. The Limbic system is essential in allowing the human organism to relate to its environment based on current needs and the present situation with experience gathered. This very intriguing part of the brain may in fact be the source of – what many might call – “Humanity” in man as it is responsible for the detection and subsequent expression of emotional responses. One of its parts, the amygdala is implicated in the detection of fearful or threatening stimuli, while parts of the cingulate gyrusare involved in the detection of emotional and cognitive conflicts. Another part, the hippocampus is of major importance in learning and memory; it lies buried in the temporal lobes of each hemisphere along with the amygdala. Other structures of the Limbic system are only visible from the ventral surface [underside] of the brain; the mamillary bodies are two small round protrusions that have traditionally been implicated in memory (Dusoir et al., 1990), while the olfactory bulbs are located under the surface of the frontal lobes with their connections to the limbic system underscoring the importance of smell for detecting environmentally salient stimuli (e.g. food, animals, cattle, cars, etc) and its influence on mood and memory.
One of the main insight of Simon’s analysis is that scientists should be thankful to nature for the existence of hierarchies, since they make the task of understanding the mechanisms involved easier. It can be achieved by simply focusing on one specific level rather than trying to understand the phenomena in all its complexities – because each level has its own laws and principles. On initial approximation, what happens at lower levels may end up being averaged without taking into account all the details and the happenings at the higher levels, which may unfairly be considered as constant.
Naturalist, David Attenborough / Image: Darwin & the tree of life (2009)
Focusing on a popular example, we could look at the biologist and naturalist Charles Darwin when he formulated his theory of evolution. At that time, the structure of DNA [which would be discovered 70 years later] was not a major concern of his, furthermore the latter did not have to consider the way the Earth came to exist. Instead, what the biologist did was to focus on an intermediate level in the hierarchy of natural phenomena (e.g. primates, animals, birds, insects, etc): how species evolved over time. Such example also seems to illustrate a vital point in this analysis: the processes involved at the level we are interested in can be understood by analysing the constraints provided by the levels below and above. What happens at the low levels (e.g. the biochemical level) and what happens at high levels (e.g. the cosmological level) limit how any species evolve; and if the biochemistry of life had been disrupted, and if our planet did not provide the appropriate environmental elements and conditions for life to flourish, evolution would simply not have happened. As science progresses and shatters many outdated perspectives at looking at life & nature on planet Earth, links are being made between these different levels of explanation.
It is now firmly accepted among intellectuals from evidence gathered in Biopsychology (also known as Neuroscience) that the acquisition of skills is dependent on an organism’s ability to learn and develop throughout its lifetime, and DNA is an important factor at the biochemical level for the transmission of heredity traits postulated by Charles Darwin. Hence, human evolution is a process that is continuous, multifaceted, complex, creative & ongoing; and intelligent design [e.g. psychological, educational, linguistic, biological, genetic, philosophical, environmental, dietary, etc] is an undeniably important factor for the intelligent evolution of human societies.
****
References
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Dusoir, H., Kapur, N., Byrnes, D. P., McKinstry, S., & Hoare, R. D. (1990). The role of diencephalic pathology in human-memory disorder-evidence from a penetrating paranasal brain injury. Brain , 113 , 1695-1706.
Gobet, F., Chassy, P. and Bilalic, M. (2011). Foundations of cognitive psychology. 1st ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Hebb, D. O. (1949). Organization of behaviour. NJ: Wiley and Sons.
Lomo, T. (2003). The discovery of long-term potentiation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 358(1432), pp.617-620.
Maguire, E., Gadian, D., Johnsrude, I., Good, C., Ashburner, J., Frackowiak, R. and Frith, C. (2000). Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97(8), pp.4398-4403.
Pinel, J. (2014). Biopsychology 8th ed. Harlow: Pearson.
Simon, H. A. (1996). The sciences of the artificial (3rd edn). Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Sur, M. & Leamey, C. A. (2001). Development and plasticity of cortical areas and networks. Nature Reviews Neuroscience , 2 , 251-262.
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The temporal lobe consists of all the tissues located underneath the lateral (Sylvian) fissureand anterior to the occipital cortex (FIGURE A). The subcortical temporal lobe structures include the limbic cortex, the amygdala, and the hippocampal formation (FIGURE B). The connections to and from the temporal lobe extend to all areas of the brain. Typical symptoms of temporal-lobe disorder or damage generally include drastic deficits in affect and personality, memory problems, and some form of deficits of language.
FIGURE A. Anatomy of the Temporal Lobe | (A) The 3 Major gyri visible on the lateral surface of the temporal lobe. (B) Brodmann’s cytoarchitectonic zones on the lateral surface. Auditory areas are shown in yellow and visual areas in purple. Areas 20, 21, 37 and 38 are often referred to by von Economo’s designation, TE. (C) The gyri visible on a medial view of the temporal lobe. The uncus refers to the anterior extension of the hippocampal formation. The parahippocampal gyrus includes areas TF and TH.
FIGURE B. Internal Structure of the Temporal Lobe | (TOP) Lateral View of the left hemisphere showing the positions of the amygdala and the hippocampus buried deeply in the temporal lobe. The vertical lines show the approximate location of the coronal sections in the bottom illustration. (BOTTOM) Frontal views through the left hemisphere illustrating the cortical and subcortical regions of the temporal lobe.
Subdivisions of the Temporal Cortex
10 temporal areas were identified by Brodman, however many more have recently been discovered in monkeys, and this finding suggests that humans too may have many more areas to explore. The temporal areas on the lateral surface can be divided into those that are auditory (FIG. A. (B), Brodman areas 41, 42 and 22) and those that make up the Ventral Visual Stream on the lateral temporal lobe (FIG. A. (B), areas 20, 21, 37 & 38). These regions specific to vision are often referred to as the Inferotemporal Cortex or by von Economo’s designation, TE.
FIGURE C. Cytoarchitectonic Regions of the Temporal Cortex of the Rhesus Monkey | (A) Brodmann’s Areas. (B) Von Bonin and Bailey’s Areas. (C and D) Lateral and ventral views of Seltzer and Pandya’s parcellation showing the multimodal areas in the superior temporal sulcus. Subareas revealed in part C are generally NOT visible from the surface.
A huge amount of cortex can be found within the sulci of the temporal lobe as shown in the frontal views at the bottom of FIGURE B, particularly the lateral (Sylvian) fissure which contains the tissue forming the insula: an area that includes the gustatory cortex and the auditory association cortex. The Superior Temporal Sulcus (STS) divides the superior and middle temporal gyri, and also contains a fair amount of neocortex. FIGURE C. shows the many subregions of the Superior Temporal Sulcus, the multi-modal, or polymodal cortex that receives input from auditory, visual, and somatic regions, and from another two polymodal regions (frontal & parietal) along with the paralimbic cortex.
FIGURE D. Mutlisensory Areas in the Monkey Cortex | Coloured areas represent regions where anatomical or electrophysiological data or both types demonstrate multisensory interactions. Dashed lines represent open sulci. (After Ghazanfar and Schroeder, 2006.)
The medial temporal region (limbic cortex) includes the amygdala and the adjacent cortex (uncus), the hippocampus and surrounding cortex (subiculum, entorhinal cortex, perirhinal cortex), and the fusiform gyrus (see FIGURE B). The entorhinal cortex is Brodmann’s area 28, and the perirhinal cortex comprises Brodmann’s areas 35 and 36.
Cortical areas TH and TF at the posterior end of the temporal lobe (see FIGURE C) are often referred to as the parahippocampal cortex. The fusiform gyrus and the inferior temporal gyrus are functional parts of the lateral temporal cortex (see FIGURE A and FIGURE B).
Connections of the Temporal Cortex
One major fact about the temporal lobes is that they are rich in internal connections, afferent projections from the sensory systems, and efferent projections to the parietal and frontal association regions, limbic system, and basal ganglia. The corpus callosum connects the neocortex of the left and right temporal lobes, whereas the anterior commissure connects connects the temporal cortex and the amygdala.
FIGURE E. Major Intracortical Connections of the Temporal Lobe | (A) Auditory and visual information progresses ventrally from the primary regions toward the temporal pole en route to the medial temporal regions. Auditory information also forms a dorsal pathway to the posterior parietal lobe. (B) Auditory, visual, and somatic outputs go to the multimodal regions of the superior temporal sulcus (STS). (C) Auditory and visual information goes to the medial temporal region, including the amygdala and the hippocampal formation. (D) Auditory and visual information goes to two prefrontal regions, one on the dorsolateral surface and the other in the orbital region (area 13).
Five distinct types of cortical-cortical connections have been revealed through studies on the temporocortical connections of the monkey (see FIGURE E), and each projection pathway subserves a particular function:
A Hierarchical Sensory Pathway. This pathway is essential for stimulus recognition. The hierarchical progress of connections derives from the primary and secondary auditory and visual areas, ending in the temporal pole (see FIGURE E (A)). The visual projections form the ventral stream of visual processing , whereas the auditory projections form a parallel ventral stream of auditory processing.
A Dorsal Auditory Pathway. Projecting from the auditory areas to the posterior parietal cortex (FIGURE E(A)), the pathway is analogous to the dorsal visual pathway and thus concerned with directing movements with respect to auditory information. The dorsal auditory pathway likely has a role to play in the detection of the spatial location of auditory inputs.
A Polymodal Pathway. This pathway is a series of parallel projections from the visual and auditory association areas into the polymodal regions of the superior temporal sulcus (see FIGURE E(B)). The polymodal pathway seems to underliethe categorisation of stimuli.
A Medial Temporal Projection. Vital for long-term memory, the projection from the auditory and visual association areas into the medial temporal, or limbic, regions goes first to the perirhinal cortex, then to the entorhinal cortex, and finally into the hippocampal formation or the amygdala or both (see FIGURE E(C)). The hippocampal projection forms the perforant pathway – disturbance of this projection leads to major dysfunction in hippocampal activity.
A frontal-lobe projection. This series of parallel projections, necessary for various aspects of movement control, short-term memory, and affect, reaches from the temporal association areas to the frontal lobe (see FIGURE E(D)).
These five projection pathways play a unique and major role in temporal-lobe functions.
A Theory of Temporal Lobe Functions
The temporal lobe is multi-functional and comprises the primary auditory cortex, the secondary auditory and visual cortex, the limbic cortex, and the amygdala and hippocampus. The hippocampus works in combination with the object-recognition and memory functions of the neocortex and has a fundamental role in organising memories of objects in space. The amygdala is also responsible for adding affective tone (emotions) to sensory input and memories.
Based on the cortical anatomy, 3 basic sensory functions of the temporal cortex can be identified:
Processing auditory input
Visual object recognition
Long-term storage of sensory input
Temporal-lobe functions are best explained by considering how the brain analyses and processes sensory stimuli as they enter the nervous system. A good example would be a hike in the woods where on a journey, one would notice a wide variety of birds. Furthering this example, let us assume that the individual on the hike decides to keep a mental list of all the birds encountered to report to his/her sister who happens to be an avid nature lover and birder. Now let us assume that the individual upon exploring has encountered a rattlesnake in the middle of his/her path; it is highly likely that he/she would change direction and look for birds in a safer location. Let us now consider the temporal-lobe functions engaged in such activity.
Sensory Processes
We shall use the hiking example above to explain the processes as we progress. In the case of birds of different types, the awareness of specific colours, shapes and sizes would be vital, and such a process involving object recognition is the function of the ventral visual pathway in the temporal lobe.
Speed is also of the essence in such natural situations since birds may not remain static for extended amounts of time, thus, we would tend to spot them fast from sighting to sighting (e.g. lateral view vs rear view). The development of categories for object types is vital to both perception and memory, and this depends on the inferortemporal cortex. The process of categorisation may also require some form of directed attention, since some aspects of a stimuli tend to play a more important role in the process of classification than do others [e.g. language, culture & speech in human beings].
For example, classifying two different types of yellow birds would requireattention to be directed away from colour, to instead focus on shape, size and other individual characteristics. It has been revealed that damage to the temporal cortex leads to deficits in identifying and categorising stimuli. However, such a patient would have no difficulty in the location of stimulus or in recognising that the object is physically present, since these activities are functions of another part of the brain: the posterior parietal and primary sensory areas respectively.
As the individual would continue the journey to spot birds, he/she may also hear a bird song, and this stimulus would also have to be matched with the visual input. This process of matching visual and auditory information is known as cross-modal matching, and likely depends on the cortex of thesuperior temporal sulcus.
As the journey progresses, the individual may come across more and more birds which would require the formation of memory for later retrieval of their specificity. Furthermore, as the birds vary, their respective names would have to be accessed from memory; these long-term memory processes depend on the entire ventral visual stream as well as the paralimbic cortex of the medial temporal region.
Affective Responses
Image: A Grand Canyon Pink Rattlesnake
Using the encounter with the snake as an example, the individual would first hear the rattle, which is an alert of the reptilian danger, and stop. Next, the ground would have to be scanned visually to spot the venomous creature, to identity it while dealing with a rising heart rate and blood pressure. The affective response in such a situation would be the function of the amygdala. The association of sensory input (stimulus) and emotion is crucial for learning, because specific stimuli become associated with their positive, negative or neutral consequences, and behaviour is shaped/modified accordingly.
If such an affective system was to be cancelled out from a person’s brain, all stimuli would be treated equally – consider the consequences of failing to associate a rattlesnake, which is venomous, with the consequences of being bitten. Furthering the example, consider an individual who is unable to associate good & positive feelings (such as honesty, warmth, trust & human love) to a specific person.
Laboratory animals with amygdala lesions/damage generally become extremely placid and lack any form of emotional reaction to threatening stimuli. For example, monkeys that were formerly terrified of snakes become indifferent to them [and of the fatal consequences] and may reach and pick them up. Spatial Navigation
When the decision to change directions is made by the individual, the hippocampus becomes active and it contains cells that code places in space that allow us to navigate in space and remember our position [location].
As the general functions of the temporal lobes [sensory, affective & navigational] are considered it is fairly obvious how devastating the consequences on behaviour would be for a person who loses them: the inability to perceive or remember events, including language and loss of affect. However, such a person lacking temporal-lobe function would still be able to use the dorsal visual system to make visually guided movements and under many circumstances, would shockingly appear completely normal to many.
The Superior Temporal Sulcus & Biological Motion
The hiking example above has lacked an additional temporal-lobe function, a process that most animals engage in known as biological motion: movements that have particular relevance to a particular species. For example, among humans in Western Europe, many movements involving the eyes, face, mouth, hands and body have social meanings – the superior temporal sulcus analyses biological motion.
FIGURE F. Biological Motion | Summary of the activation (indicated by dots) of the Superior Temporal Sulcus (STS) region in the left (A) and right (B) hemispheres during the perception of biological motion. (After Allison, Puce, and McCarthy, 2000.)
The STS plays a role in categorising stimuli from received multimodal inputs. One major category is social perception, which involves the analysis and response of actual or implied bodily movements that provide socially relevant information about a person’s actual state. Such information has an important role to play in social cognition, or “Theory of Mind”, that allows us to develop hypotheses about another individual’s intentions. For example, the direction of an individual’s gaze provides some information about what that person is attending (or not attending) to.
In a review, Truett Allison and colleagues proposed that cells in the superior temporal sulcus have a key role to play in social cognition. For example, cells in the monkey STS respond to various forms of biological motion including the direction of eye gaze, facial expression, mouth movement, head movement and hand movement.
In the case of advanced social animals such as primates, the ability to understand and respond to biological motion is critical information needed to infer the intention of others. As shown in FIGURE F , imaging studies revealed the activation along the STS during the perception of a variety of biological motion.
One major correlate of mouth movements is vocalisation, and so it is possible to predict that regions of the STS are also implicated in perceiving the specific sounds of a particular species. In monkeys for example, cells in the Superior Temporal Gyrus, which is adjacent to the STS and sends connections to it, show a preference for “monkey calls”. In humans too, imaging studies have revealed that the superior temporal gyrus is activated by both human vocalisations and by melodic sequences.
The activation in some part of the superior temporal sulcus in response to a combination of visual stimulus (mouth movements) and talking or singing could be predicted, and presumably sophisticated speech and vocal performances (singing) are perceived as complex forms of biological motion. Hence, it is fairly obvious that people with temporal-lobe injuries that lead to impairments in the analysis of biological motion will likely be correlated with deficit in social awareness/judgement. Indeed, the studies of David Perrett and his colleagues illustrate the nature of processing in the STS, who revealed that neurons in the superior temporal sulcus may be responsive to particular faces viewed head-on, faces viewed in profile, the posture of the head, or even the specific facial expressions. Perrett also found that some STS cells are extremely sensitive to primate bodies that move in a particular direction, another characteristic biological motion (see FIGURE G below). Such finding is quite remarkable since the basic configuration of the primate stimulus remains identical as it moves in different directions; solely the direction changes.
FIGURE G. Neuronal Sensitivity to Direction of Body Movements | (Top) Schematic representation of the front view of a body. (Bottom) The histogram illustrates a greater neuronal response of STS neurons to the front view of a body that approaches the observing monkey compared with the responses to the same view of the body when the body is moving away, to the right and to the left, or is stationary. (After Perrett et al., 1990.)
Visual Processing in the Temporal Lobe
All visual information goes through the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN) which is part of the thalamus. The LGN directs visual information into the brain where most of it is sent straight to the occipital cortex/lobe. The dorsal and ventral streams are primary pathways to visual cortex V1 located around the calcarine fissure in the occipital lobe [V1 is critical for sight, loss leads to blindness]. It is believed that human beings possess two distinct visual systems.
When visual information leaves the occipital lobe (visual cortex), it follows two streams:
1) The Ventral Stream begins with V1 and passes through vision region V2, then V4 and to the inferior temporal cortex. It is known as the “What Pathway” and is responsible for processes related to form recognition and object representation; and is also linked to the formation of long-term memory. The ventral stream is associated to a concept of “vision in the brain”, which allows humans to make sense of the visual information they receive. Vartanian & Skov (2014) have recently found activity in the anterior insula [emotion experiencing part] and in the ventral stream when viewing art paintings. Sustained damage to the ventral stream would allow a subject to see, perceive colours, movements, understand the underlying expectation of meaning to an object or face; but yet fail to perceive “what” the object/face is. This condition is known as agnosia which means the “failure to know”; where patients lose the ability to identify by sight but have no difficulties with memory for word or descriptive language.
Visual agnosia appears to be the result of not a primary vision problem but an associative function in the brain to give definition.
Lissauer (1890) defined 2 types of visual agnosias; apperceptive visual agnosia and associative visual agnosia.
In the apperceptive type subjects cannot identify, draw, copy but identify the object upon touch (Benson and Greenberg, 1969). In associative visual agnosia, subjects can “perceive” the object but cannot associate it with correct vocabulary; showing that the knowledge is present along with touch recognition and verbal description but not object identification; although they can copy even if extensive time is taken on simple figures.
2) The Dorsal Stream also known as the “where” stream begins with V1, goes through vision region V2, then through the dorsomedial area and V5, then to the posterior parietal cortex. Known as the “Where” or “How” Pathway it is believed to play a major part in the processing of motion, location of particular objects in the viewer’s range, fine motor controls of the arms and eyes. Damage to the dorsal stream disrupts visual spatial perception and visually guided behaviour; but not conscious visual perception.
The famous case of A.T the woman who could not grasp unfamiliar objects seen had her dorsal route interrupted due to a lesion of the occipitoparietal region. She was able to recognise objects & demonstrate size with fingers but was incorrect in object directed movements along with ability to properly grip with her fingers; instead tried grabbing awkwardly with bad finger synchronisation.
FFA [Fusiform Face Area] & PPA [Parahippocampal Place Area]
The selective activation of the FFA [Fusiform Face Area] an the PPA [Parahippocampal Place Area] related to categories of visual stimulation that include a wide range of different exemplars of the specific categories raises the interesting question of how such dissimilar objects could be treated equivalently by specialised cortical regions. Different views of the same object are not only linked together as being the same, but different objects appear to be linked together as being part of the same category as well. Such an automatic categorisation of sensory information has to be partially learned since most humans categorise unnatural objects such as cars or furniture; the brain is unlikely to be innately designed for such categorisations.
To understand how the brain learns such processes, researchers have looked for changes in neuronal activity as subjects learn categories. Kenji Tanaka started by attempting to determine the critical features for activating neurons in the monkey inferotemporal cortex. Tanaka and his colleagues presented a range of three-dimensional animal and plant representations to find the effective stimuli for specific cells, then they tried to determine the necessary and sufficient properties of theses cells. They found that most cells in the TE (see FIGURE C) require complex features for activation such as orientation, size, colour and texture.
FIGURE H. Columnar Organisation in Area TE | Cells with similar but slightly different selectivity cluster in elongated vertical columns, perpendicular to the cortical surface.
As shown in FIGURE H, Tanaka has found that cells with similar, although slightly different selectivity, tend to cluster vertically in columns. These cells were not similar in their stimulus selectivity; so an object is likely represented not by the the activity of a single cell but rather by the activity of many cells within a columnar module.
Two remarkable features of the inferotemporal neurons in monkeys have also been described by Tanaka and others. First, the stimulus specificity of these neurons is altered by experience. In a period of one year, monkeys were trained to discriminate 28 complex shapes. The stimulus preferences of inferotemporal neurons were then determined from a larger set of animal and plant models. Among the trained monkeys, 39% of the inferotemporal neurons gave a maximum response to some of the stimuli used in the training process, compared with only 9% of the neurons in the naïve monkeys.
Traduction(EN): “”If we can train lesser primates to change their perception, going as far as to alter their neuronal physiology, then I have strong hope for human beings.” -Danny D’Purb
These results confirm that the temporal lobe’s role in visual processing is not fully determined genetically but is subject to experience even in adults. It can be speculated that such experience-dependent characteristics allows the visual system to adapt to different demands in a changing visual environment. This is a feature important for human visual recognition abilities that have demands in forests that greatly differ from those on open plains or in urban environments. Furthermore, experience-dependent visual neurons ensure that we can identify visual stimuli that were never encountered in the evolution of the human brain.
The second interesting feature of inferotemporal neurons is that they may not only process visual input but also provide a mechanism for the internal representation of the images of objects. Joaquin Fuster and John Jervey demonstrated that, if monkeys are shown specific objects that are to be remembered, neurons in the monkey cortex continue to discharge during the “memory” period. Such selective discharges of neurons may provide the basis for visual imagery, i.e. the discharge of groups of neurons that are selective for characteristics of particular objects may create a mental image of the object in its absence.
Most humans on earth spend more time in the analysis of faces that any other single stimulus. Infants tend to look at faces from birth while adults are particularly skilled at identifying faces despite large variations in the expressions and viewing angles, even when the faces are modified visually [with beards, spectacles, or hats]. Faces also have an incredible number of muscles to convey a wealth of social information, and humans are unique among all primate species in spending a great deal of time in looking directly at a wide range of faces from other members of our species on earth. The importance of faces as visual stimuli has led to the assumption that special pathways exist specifically for human faces, and several lines of evidence support the view.
FIGURE I. A Model of Distributed Human Neural System for Face Perception | The model is divided into a core system (TOP), consisting of occipital and temporal regions, and an extended system (BOTTOM), including regions that are part of neural systems for other cognitive functions. (After Haxby, Hoffman, and Gobbini, 2000.)
The face-perception system is extensive and includes regions in the occipital lobe as well as several different regions of the temporal lobe. Figure I above summarises a model by Haxby and his colleagues in which different aspects of facial perception (such as facial perception VS identity)are analysed in core visual areas in the temporal part of the visual stream. This model has also included other cortical regions as an “extended system” that includes the analysis of other facial characteristics such as emotion and lip reading. The key point to note is that the analysis of human faces is unlike any other stimuli: faces may indeed be special objects to the brain. A clear asymmetry exists in the role of the temporal lobes in facial analysis: right temporal lesions/damage have a greater effect on facial processing that do similar left temporal lesions/damage. Even in normal subjects, researchers have noted the asymmetry in face perception.
FIGURE J. The Split-Faces Test | Subjects were asked which of the two pictures, B or C, most closely resembles picture A. Control subjects chose picture C significantly more often than picture B. Picture C corresponds to that part of picture A falling in a subject’s left visual fied. The woman pictured chose B, closer to the view that she is accustomed to seeing in the mirror. (After Kolb, Milner, and Taylor, 1983).
Photographs of faces as illustrated in FIGURE J, were presented to subjects. Photographs B and C are composites of the right or left sides, respectively, of the original face shown in Photograph A. When asked to identify the composite most similar to the original face, normal subjects consistently matched the left side of photograph A to its composite in photograph C. Participants did so whether the photographs were presented inverted or upright. Furthermore, patients with either right temporal or right parietal removals failed to consistently match either side of the face in either the inverted or upright scenario.
These results of the split-faces do not simply provide evidence for asymmetry in facial processing but also raises the issue of the nature of our perceptions of our own faces. Self-perception seems to provide a unique example of visual perception, since the image of our face tends to come from the mirror whereas the image that the world has of our face comes from each individuals direct view, and the inspection of FIGURE J illustrates the implications of this difference.
Photograph A is the image that most people perceive of the female subject shown above. Since humans have a left-visual-field bias in their perception, most right-handers choose photograph C as the picture most resembling the original A. However, upon asking the female subject in the photograph to choose the photograph most resembling her, she chose photograph B, as her common view of herself in the mirror seemed to match her choice although it is the reverse of most other people.
This intriguing consequence is the simple result of most people’s biased self-facial image of their opinion of personal photographs. Members of the general public tend to complain about their photographs not being photogenic, that their photographs are never taken at the correct angle, and other complaints about the image. The truth is that the problem may be rather different: people are accustomed to seeing themselves in the mirror and hence when a photograph is presented, most are biased to look at the side of the face that is not normally perceived selectively in the mirror, hence the person has a glimpse of himself/herself from the eyes of the rest of the world. Indeed people tend to not see themselves as others see them – the greater the asymmetry of a human face, the less flattering the person will see his or her image to be.
One major critical question about facial processing and the FFA remains however. Some researchers have argued that although face recognition appears to tap into a specialised face area, the exact same region could be used for other forms of expertise and is not specific for faces. For example, imaging studies have revealed that real-world experts show an overlapping pattern of activation in the FFA for faces in control participants, for car stimuli in car experts, and for bird stimuli in bird experts. The main scientific view is that the FFA is fairly plastic as a consequence of perceptual experience and training, and is innately biased to categorise complex objects such as faces but can also be recruited for other forms of visual categorisation expertise.
Study: Does your face tell people how healthy you are? / Henderson, A., Holzleitner, I., Talamas, S. and Perrett, D. (2016). Perception of health from facial cues.Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 371(1693), p.20150380.
Auditory Processing in the Temporal Lobe
A cascade of mechanical and neural events in the cochlea, the brainstem, and, eventually, the auditory cortex that results in the percept of sound is stimulated whenever a sound reaches the ear. Similarly to the visual cortex, the auditory cortex has multiple regions, each of which has a tonotopic map.
Although the precise functions of these maps are still to be fully understood, the ultimate goal lies in the perception of sound objects, the localisation of sound, and the decision about movements in relation to sounds. A great amount of cells in the auditory cortex respond only to specific frequencies, and these are often referred to as sound pitches or to multiples of those frequencies. Two of the main and most important types of sound for humans are music & language.
Speech Perception
Unlike any other auditory input, human speech differs in three fundamental ways.
Speech sounds come mainly from three restricted ranges of frequencies, which are known as formants. FIGURE K(A) shows sound spectrograms of different two-formant syllables. The dark bars indicate the frequency bands seen in more detail in FIGURE K(B), which shows that the syllables differ both in the onset frequency of the second (higher) formant and in the onset time of the consonant. Notice that vowel sounds are in a constant frequency band, but consonants show rapid changes in frenquency.
The similar speech sounds vary from one context in which they are heard to another, yet all are perceived as being the same. Thus, the sound spectrogram of the letter “d” in English is different in the words “deep”, “deck” and “duke”, yet a listener perceives all of them as “d”. The auditory system must have a mechanism for categorising varying sounds as being equivalent, and this mechanism must be affected by experience because a major obstacle to learning a new language in adulthood remains the difficulty of learning equivalent sound categories. Thus, a word’s spectrogram depends on the context – the words that precede and follow it (there may be a parallel mechanism for musical categorisation).
Speech sounds also change very rapidly in relation to one another, and the sequential order of the sounds is critical to understanding. According to Alvin Liberman, humans can perceive speech at rates of as many as 30 segments per second. Speech perception at the higher rates is truly astonishing, because it far exceeds the auditory system’s ability to transmit all the speech as separate pieces of auditory information. For example, non-speech noise is perceived as a buzz at a rate of only about 5 segments per second.It seems fairly obvious that the brain must recognise and analyse language sounds in a very special way, similar to the echolocation system of the bat which is specialised in the bat brain. It is highly probable that the special mechanism for speech perception is located on the left temporal lobe. This function may not be unique to humans, since the results of studies in both monkeys and rats show specific deficits in the perception of species-typical vocalisations after left temporal lesions.
FIGURE K. Speech Sounds | (A) Schematic spectrograms of three different syllables, each made up of two formants. (B) Spectrograms of syllables differing in voice onset time. (After Springer, 1979.)
Music Perception
Music is different from language since it relies on the relations between auditory elements rather than on individual elements. And a tune is not defined by the pitches of the tones that constitute it but by the arrangement of the pitches’ duration and the intervals between them. Musical sounds may differ from one another in three major aspects: pitch (frequency), loudness (amplitude) and timbre (complexity).
FIGURE L. Breaking Down Sound | Sound waves have 3 physical dimensions – frequency (pitch) amplitude (loudness) & timbre (complexity) – that correspond to the perceptual dimensions
Pitch (Frequency) refers to the position of a sound on the musical scale as perceived by the listener. Pitch is very clearly related to frequency: the vibration rate of a sound wave. Let us take for example, middle C, described as a pattern of sound frequencies depicted in FIGURE M. The amplitude of the acoustical energy is conveyed by the darkness of the tracing in the spectrogram. The lowest component of this note is the fundamental frequency of the sound pattern, which is 264 Hz, or middle C. Frequencies above the fundamental frequency are known as overtones or partials. The overtones are generally simple multiples of the fundamental (for example, 2 x 264, or 528 Hz; 4 x 264, or 1056 Hz), as shown in FIGURE M. Overtones that are multiples of the fundamental freqency are known as harmonics.
Loudness (Amplitude)refers to the magnitude of a sensation as judged by a given person. Loudness, although related to the intensity of a sound as measured in decibels, is in fact a subjective evaluation described by simple terms such as “very loud”, “soft”, “very soft” and so forth.
Timbre (Complexity)refers to the individual and distinctive character of a sound, the quality that distinguishes it from all other sounds of similar pitch and loudness. For example, we can distinguish the sound of a guitar from that of a violin even thought they may play the same note at a similar loudness.
FIGURE M. Spectrographic Display of the Steady-State Part of Middle C (264 Hz) Played on Piano | Bands of acoustical energy are present at the fundamental frequency, as well as at integer multiples of the fundamental (harmonics). (After Ritsma, 1967)
If the fundamental frequency is cancelled out from a note by the means of electronic filters, the overtones are sufficient to determine the pitch of the fundamental frequency – a phenomenon known as periodicity pitch.
The ability to determine pitch from the overtones alone is likely due to the fact that the difference between frequencies of various harmonics is equal to the fundamental frequency (for example, 792 Hz – 528 Hz = 264 Hz = the fundamental frequency). The auditory system can determine this difference, and hence one perceives the fundamental frequency.
One major aspect of pitch perception is that, although we can generate (and perceive) the fundamental frequency, we still perceive the complex tones of the harmonics, and this is known as the spectral pitch. When individual subjects are made to listen to complex sounds to then be asked to make judgements about the direction of shifts in pitch, some individuals base their judgement on the fundamental frequency and others on the spectral pitch. This difference from one to the other is not based or related to musical training but rather to a basic difference in temporal-lobe organisation. The primary auditory cortex of the right temporal lobe appears to make this periodicity-pitch discrimination.
1885 – 1886 – The Beginner (Margaret Perry) by Elisabeth (Lilla) Cabot Perry
Robert Zatorre (2001) found that patients with right temporal lobectomiesthat include the removal of primary auditory cortex (area 41 or Heschl’s gyrus) are impaired at making pitch discriminations when the fundamental frequency is absent but are normal at making such discriminations when the fundamental frequency is present, however their ability to identify the direction of the pitch change was impaired.
Timing is a critical component of good music, and two types of time relations are fundamental to the rhythm of musical sequences:
(i) The segmentation of sequences of pitches into groups based on the duration of the sounds
(ii) The identification of temporal regularity, or beat, which is also professionally known as meter.
Both of these two components could be dissociated by having the subjects tap a rhythm versus keeping time with the beat (such as the spontaneous tapping of the foot to a strong beat)
Robert Zatorre and Isabelle Peretz came to the conclusion after analysing studies of patients with temporal-lobe injuries as well as neuroimaging studies, that the left temporal lobe plays a major role in temporal grouping for rhythm, while the right temporal lobe plays a complementary role in meter (beat). However, the researchers also observed that a motor component of rhythm is also present, and it is broadly distributed to include the supplementary motor cortex, premotor cortex, cerebellum, and basal ganglia.
In seems clear that music is much more than the perception of pitch, rhythm, timbre and loudness. Zatorre and Peretz reviewed the many other features of music and the brain, including faculties such as music memory, emotion, performance (both singing and playing), music reading, and the effect of musical training. The importance of memory to music is inescapable since music unfolds over time for one to perceive a tune.
The retention of melodies is much more affected by injuries to the right temporal lobe, although injury to either temporal lobe impairs the learning of melodies. While both hemispheres contribute to the production of music, the role of the right temporal lobe appears to be greater in the production of melody, and the left temporal lobe appears to be mostly responsible for rhythm. Zatorre (2001) proposed that the right temporal lobe should have a special function in extracting pitch from sound, regardless of whether the sound is speech or music. However, when processing speech, the pitch (frequency) will contribute to the “tone” of the voice, and this is known as prosody.
Image: Solfège en France [La formation musicale, autrefois appelée le solfège, est une spécificité française] / FranceMusique
Earlier, we learned from Kenji Tanaka’s studies of visual learning about how cells in the temporal lobe alter their perceptual function with experience [training]. Unsurprisingly, the same appears to be valid for musical experience. Zatorre and Peretz reviewed noninvasive imaging studies and concluded not only that the brains of professional musicians have more-pronounced responses to musical information than to those of non-musicians [or non musically oriented], but also that the brains of musicians have a completely different morphology in the area of Heschl’s gyrus. Peter Schneider and his colleagues estimated the volume of gray and white matter in Heschl’s gyrus and found much larger volumes in both temporal lobes in the musicians (see FIGURE N).
FIGURE N. Music and Brain Morphology | (A) At left, a three dimensional cross section through the head showing the primary auditory cortex (AC) in each hemisphere, with the location of auditory evoked potentials shown at red and blue markers. At right, reconstructed dorsal views of the right auditory cortical surface showing the difference in morphology among three people. Heschl’s gyrus is shown in red. (B) Examples from individual brains of musicians (top row) and non-musicians (bottom row) showing the difference in morphology between people who hear fundamental frequency and those who hear spectral pitch. Heschl’s gyrus is bigger on the left in the former group and bigger on the right in the latter group. Note: Heschl’s gyrus is bigger overall in the musicians. (From: Schneider, Sluming, Roberts, Scherg, Goebel, Specht, Dosch, Bleeck, Stippich and Rupp, 2005).
These gray matter differences are positively correlated with musical proficiency, i.e. the greater the gray-matter volume, the greater the musical ability. It has also been revealed that fundamental-pitch listeners exhibit a pronounced leftward asymmetry of gray-matter volume in Hechl’s gyrus, whereas spectral-pitch listeners have a rightward asymmetry, independent of musical training (see FIGURE N (B)). The results of these studies from Schneider imply that innate differences in brain morphology are related to the way in which pitch is processed and that some of the innate differences are related to musical ability. Practice and experience with music seem likely to be related to anatomical differences in the temporal cortex as well, however the relation may be difficult to demonstrate without brain measurements before and after intense training in music.
Although the role of the temporal lobes in music is vital [similar to language which is also distributed in the frontal lobe], music perception and performance also include the inferior frontal cortex in both hemispheres. Sluming et al. (2002) have demonstrated that professional orchestral musicians have significantly more gray matter in Broca’s area on the left. Such frontal-lobe effect may be related to similarities in aspects of expressive output in both language and music. The main point however, is that music likely has widespread effects on the brain’s morphology and function that science has only started to unravel.
This bone flute found in Hohle Fels cave is believed to be around 43, 000 years old and comes as evidence that, like modern humans, Neanderthals likely had complementary hemispheric specialisation for music and language, which means that these abilities seem to have biological & evolutionary roots. While this assumption seems obvious for language, it comes as less obvious for music, which has often been perceived as an artifact of culture. However considerable evidence suggests that humans are born with a predisposition for music processing. Young infants display learning preferences for musical scales and are biased towards perceiving the regularity (such as harmonics) on which music is built. One of the strongest evidence for favouring the biological basis of music is that a surprising number of humans are tone deaf, a condition known as congenital amusia. It is believed that these amusic types of humans have an abnormality in their neural networks for music, and no amount of musical training leads to a cure. [Credit: Jensen / University of Tubingen]
Asymmetry of Temporal-Lobe Function
Epileptiform abnormalities have often been linked to sensitive temporal lobes, and the surgical removal of the abnormal temporal lobe tends to benefit patients suffering from epilepsy. These surgical cases have also allowed neuropsychologists to study the complementary specialisation of the right and left temporal lobes.
From a comparison of the effects of right and left temporal lobectomy by Brenda Milner and her colleagues, it has been revealed that specific memory defects vary depending on the side of the lesion. Deficits in non-verbal memory (e.g. faces) is associated to damage to the right temporal lobe, and deficits in verbal memory to the left temporal lobe.
In a similar sense, right temporal lesions would be associated with deficits in processing certain aspects of music, while left temporal lesions would be associated with deficits in processing speech sounds. However, much remains to be learnt and discovered regarding the relative roles of the left and right temporal lobes in social and affective behaviour. Right, but not left, temporal-lobe damage/lesions lead to impairments in the recognition of faces and facial expressions; so it seems fairly obvious that these two sides play different roles in social cognition. From experience, clinical cases suggest that left and right temporal lobe lesions have different effects on personality. Liegeois-Chauvel and colleagues studied musical processing in large groups of patients with temporal lobectomies, and confirmed that injury to right superior temporal gyrus impairs various aspects of processing necessary for the discrimination of melodies. Furthermore, a dissociation between the roles of the posterior and anterior regions of the superior temporal gyrus on different aspects of music processing suggest their relative localisation within the superior temporal gyrus.
Hence, it would be incorrect to assume that the removal of both temporal lobes merely doubles the symptoms of damage seen in unilateral temporal lobectomy. Bilateral temporal-lobe removal produces dramatic effects on both memory and affect that are orders of magnitude greater than those observed subsequent to unilateral lesions.
*****
References
Fuster, J.M. & Jervey, J.P. (1982). Neuronal firing in the inferotemporal cortex of the monkey in a visual memory task. Journal of Neuroscience. 2, 361-375
Kolb, B. and Whishaw, I. (2009). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology. NY: Worth Publishers
Liegeois-Chauvel, C., Peretz, I., Babai, M., Laguitton, V., and Chauvel, P. (1998). Contribution of different cortical areas in the temporal lobes to music processing. Brain. 121, 1853-1867.
Perrett, D. I., Harries, M. H., Benson, P. J., Chitty, A. J. & Mistlin, A. J. (1990). Retrieval of structure from rigid and biological motion: An analysis of the visual responses of neurones in the macaque temporal cortex. In A. Blake & T. Troscianko, Eds. AI and the Eye. New York: Wiley
Tanaka, J. W. (2004). Object categorisation, expertise and neural plasticity. In M.S. Gazzaniga, Ed. The Cognitive Neurosciences III, 3rd ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Tanaka, K. (1993). Neuronal Mechanism of object recognition. Science, 262, 685-688
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[Cet essai est actuellement en cours d’édition et de mise à jour. Veuillez vous abstenir de le lire pour éviter toute interprétation erronée due à son état incomplet…]
[This essay is currently being edited and updated. Please refrain from reading to prevent misinterpretation from incompleteness…]
Mis-à-jour le Jeudi, 3 Août 2023
«L’Uomo vitruviano» ou «L’Homme de Vitruve» par Léonard de Vinci (1490)
In the modern Westernized world that the majority of individuals live in, most human beings work because they have financial responsibilities to meet in order to be able to exist, live at a decent standard and stay alive, while also meeting their needs as living organisms. The focus of occupational psychology and organizational psychology are primarily on the workplace: the efficient management of human resources, i.e. people.
What is the purpose of work?
Why do we work? This is a fundamental and profound question which is often left in the dark, when it is a fact that the answers come with deep philosophical meaning for both individuals and society at large. As such, we are going to explore this question in a concrete and straightforward approach because many people live a life where work takes a large proportion of their time and have never questioned the purpose of their behaviour in regards to work.
The French philosopher, André Comte-Sponville gave a short lecture in 2016 at the Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève in regards to the sense and meaning of work, and proposed a philosophical reflection around work and health. The latter pointed out that everyone in the world is enthusiastic about being happy but as for working, most people would prefer not to. Addressing the employees of the Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève, Comte-Sponville asked the fundamental question: what are employees running after?
« Nous courons tous après le bonheur. » / Traduction[EN]: “We are all chasing happiness.” – André Comte-Sponville (Photo Alexandre Marchi/L’Est Républicain/PhotoPQR)
What do employees run after?
– Do employees run after work itself?
This question lead us to the conclusion that most people do not enthusiastically chase work; this is because work is not an end, an objective, or a goal itself, but simply a means. The nature of any means is to serve something other than itself, i.e. the means leads to a further objective. As such, we can confidently assume that human beings do not chase work because work is a means that is meant to lead to something else.
– Do employees run after ethics/virtue and/or the moral value of work?
Comte-Sponville observed that we do not pay people to be loving or generous, because love and generosity are by definition moral values, and those are priceless and are not for sale. Hence, the popular notion of “work ethics” that many people have been indoctrinated with in regards to work, as Comte-Sponville notes, is not a moral value, it is a mercantile value.
Unlike moral values such as love and generosity that are not financially compensated for, all work needs to be remunerated, i.e. all work deserves a salary, or a payment. This fundamental fact confirms that work is a mercantile value and not a moral value. Comte-Sponville ironically points out that in the bible, it is not prescribed to work together as your heavenly father works; but instead it is said that we should love one another as our heavenly father loves us – this is completely different! Love is a moral value and work is not!
Comte-Sponville shared an anecdote about his experience with business owners whenever he shares the biblical statement, and related that he often has one business owner who points out that in the bible it is said that one will earn one’s bread with the sweat of one’s brow, and the philosopher is then faced with the question: if this is not work, then what else could it be? Most certainly, it is work that is being referred to, but it isa punishment after the original sin. We have to admit that it would be a very strange paradox to interpret a punishment as a moral value. Comte-Sponville ironically suggests that using the biblical statement as a justification for work as a moral value could be likened to using the whip as an emblem of management. Thus, work itself is a means but not a moral value; he argues that if some people have a strong feeling of guilt or a sense that their personal moral value decreases spectacularly as soon as they allow themselves a few weeks of rest, it is a situation that would reveal less morality than possible pathologies. So, we can conclude that people do not chase the moral value of work because work is a mercantile value and not a moral value.
This fundamental conclusion should be an inspiration to human civilization in a world where the common mainstream and average Neo-Liberal politicians worldwidehave mechanizedand transformed human civilization into a group indoctrinated by a culture of mass consumption; where the merchants of the world, through ruthless marketing campaigns – through mass-oriented platforms owned and monopolized by them – have been allowed to condition the masses to consume excessively and mindlessly on the basis of whether one “wants” something, and not thoughtfully and wisely on the basis of whether one “needs” something [an observation also made by French philosopher Michel Clouscard]. In a book entitled “Gouverner par l’Emploi” (French for: Governing by Employment) published at the Presses Universitaires de France, written by Camille Dupuy and François Sarfati in 2022, the authors bring forward the great moral questions: (i) Should employment be the great organizing foundation of the social life of human beings?; and (ii) Should all forms of educational training simply be at the service of employment? They argue that to govern by employment is to consider employment as a shrine, that it is the object around which, and for which, human civilizationmust organize itself; those who govern and those who are governedare thus becoming part of the neo-liberal conception of our world in which the State becomes a simple tool at the service of the market and its consumption trends. In such a neo-liberal conception of our world, individualsagree to surrender their rights in the hope of obtaining a job and with it a place in the society designed by neo-liberalism and the politicians at its service, who could be compared to puppets controlled by the totalitarian dictatorshipimposed by the mass market’s consumption trends. In his book, “Der Steppenwolf” published in 1927, which is a story that reflects the profound spiritual crisis of writer Hermann Hesse, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946, he famously wrote:
« Pour celui qui veut de la musique au lieu de bruit, de la joie au lieu de plaisir, de l’âme au lieu d’argent, du travail au lieu de fabrication, de la passion au lieu d’amusettes, ce joli petit monde-là n’est pas une patrie… »
-Hermann Hesse
French for:
“Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours.“
-Hermann Hesse
This quote from Hesse will trigger some interesting creative thoughts among the intellectual community of our times regarding the rights, purpose and place of the individual, personal values such as “nobility of mind”, and ethics of existence in the so-called “modern world” we live in; and also give a clearer definition in regards to the wide range of activities that are part of the concept of “work” but which do not always necessarily involve “employment”, while still being fundamental ethical contributions to the betterment of civilization through the triggering of vital philosophical questions in a wide range of inter-connected fields related to human existence universally.
– Do employees run after money?
This is the main objective: money. Most employees are after money, this is the reason why people work, Comte-Sponville observes; it is not for the love of the directors, the clients or the patients in the case of the employees of the Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève. People are after money as a reason for working and this is known as wage or labour employment. Sharing an anecdote with the audience, Comte-Sponville explained that a business owner claimed that money has never motivated anyone; money gives the ability to motivate; logically, if we do not pay the employees they will not be motivated – but we would not be asking the question in that case.
Money may not motivate employees, especially those on a fixed salary, however there are different situations where there are commission and variable rates involved. But in the case of fixed salary, Comte-Sponville notes that it does not motivate, arguing that those who only work for the fixed salary have no reason to even do a little bit more of what is expected of them in order not to be fired. Motivation starts when an employee does a little bit more than the strict minimum required to not be fired.
People work because they are running after money, but money itself does not motivate. During his time lecturing, Comte-Sponville relates another anecdote of acknowledgement from a business owner who admitted that the philosopher was right about employees working for their salary, and that they would stop working if they were not paid – quite obviously! But the business owner pointed out that he does not set the salary, rather it is the labour market that does. This scenario of wage rates is both applicable to private enterprises and also hospitals. The business owner claimed that his extra value as a manager is not in the salary itself, but in all the other reasons that lead to his employees coming to work for him, but more importantly that causes them to stay in employment with him; adding that after analysing every angle of the problematic question, the only answer he could conclude with was that if his employees come to work for him and remain with him, it is because they find some kind of pleasure in it and a feeling of happiness. Comte-Sponville noted that it seemed that the latter was right.
– Happiness: the motive of all actions of all men
What do we all run after? It is not work itself, neither moral values, nor solely money or salary. First and foremost we all run after happiness! Taking the example of the employees of the Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève, Comte-Sponville pointed out that they go to work every day because they believe that they will be happier by working there instead of someplace else, or not working at all. In the same logic, their patients come to seek treatment at the Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève because they believe that they will be happier by being treated there than elsewhere, or not being treated at all.
« Tous les hommes cherchent le bonheur, même ceux qui vont se pendre. » / Traduction[EN]: “All men seek happiness, even those who hang themselves.” – Blaise Pascal
Comte-Sponville speculated about critics questioning his belief about happiness since he did not know all the employees of the Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève personally. As such, he argued that whoever they may be, it cannot be denied that they are all human beings; and just like Blaise Pascal, he can be allowed to think that all human beings have the desire to be happy, i.e. to live a life in the absence of suffering [as the Epicureans would also argue]. The famous thoughts of Blaise Pascal points out that all men seek to be happy and this is without exception.
Man’s will never takes the slightest step towards anything but this object, happiness. It is the motive of all actions of all men up to those who are going to hang themselves. The final touch of those who go as far as to hang themselves, an extreme act in all its noirceur, its beauty and profoundness is very Pascalian according to Comte-Sponville; it is also very real in its depth because one who goes to kill oneself decides to do so in order to stop suffering; that cessation and absence of suffering for a person who has been in atrocious pain through suicide, is the last form of happiness – purely negative however. Suicide among health professionals is rare but not uncommon. In 2015, the cardiologist Jean-Louis Mégnien comitted suicide by throwing himself out of the 7th floor window from the hospital he worked at. Comte-Sponville extrapolates Pascal’s argument and observes that if man wants to be happy, even the one who goes to hang himself, then he asks to be allowed to think like Blaise Pascal, that every man, every woman also wants to be happy, including the one who comes to work at the Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève.
Simply Business: core departments that structure most companies
Most businesses involve buying, selling and making a profit in the transaction. This simple concept started centuries ago among merchants in early civilizations and continues to be the core foundation of all business, however small or big the company might be. When one talks about buying and selling, it usually involves products [for e.g. basic food items, clothing, fine cuisine, kitchenware, electronics, etc], but in some cases the product being sold may also be in the form of a service, for example, a consultant or psychologist selling his advices, a doctor selling his care, an architect selling his design skills, an accountant selling his services, a lawyer selling his negotiation or advisory skills, etc. All businesses however revolve around this simple logic, i.e. buying, selling and profit.
In order for most businesses to thrive and remain active, they have to generate a minimum amount of cash in order to pay for their expenses, such as staff wages, utility bills, rent (in some cases where the business owner does not own the working space or did not start the company in a garage), supplier payments for products, and so on. As such, most people work for companies that are businesses [even a university is a business selling its product in the form of educational services and training]; and most businesses aim for profit.
In order to succeed and thrive, all businesses look to increase the number of transactions [i.e. buying and selling] so that their profits are increasing, and the funds received may be used to expand the business in multiple ways – this will obviously vary depending on the types of businesses, the products being dealt with and the market they belong to. For example, a business in the fast food market, may try to increase its profits by relying on a range of ways to attract customers, which may range from meal deals to widening the choice of their menu. Those are usually sales strategies devised by the marketing department.
The 3 core departments of most businesses are:
(i) Human Resources (ii) Marketing (iii) Finance (also known as Accounting & Finance)
We may also find other departments added in some companies, such as “Production” [where the conception of products are involved], “Research and Development” [where we may be dealing with the creation of new drugs in the pharmaceutical industry] and some other departments in order to break down tasks into small segments to facilitate the organisation of the management of the company, and also to better allocate staff and prevent confusion and/or lack of synchronisation. However, a great amount of the added departments are generally related to the 3 core departments listed above, i.e. Human Resources, Marketing and Finance.
If some of you out there may be thinking of starting a business, whatever industry you may be planning to get into and whatever the scale of your business, it will be helpful to first divide your company into the 3 core departments mentioned; because doing so will provide clarity, bring a sense of organisation, and also allow you to scale in the future while respecting the model of most businesses in our modern Westernized world.
Now, we are going to explore those different departments in a concrete, simple, and straightforward manner that should clear up a lot of confusion among many of you out there who may not genuinely understand how a business is organized, and how to start one. It will forever be empowering to remember that business simply means “buying, selling and profit” [abbreviate, “BSP“].
(i) Human Resources
The term itself means resources in the form of humans, which simply points out that this department deals with managing the humans that the company will rely on for its operations…
[This essay is currently being edited and updated. Please refrain from reading to prevent misinterpretation from incompleteness…]
Occupational psychology
Occupational psychology is the study of human behaviour and experience in the workplace, it may be described as the application of psychological principles and theory in order to help organisations and their team. As occupational psychology also includes a focus on organisations in general, it may be wise to take great care when referring to the world of “employment” or “work”. This is simply because a small amount of people may work very hard for charitable organisations as volunteers or dedicate their work to the betterment of mankind; those contributions may not always be focused on the increase of profits (although it may involve increasing productivity), and money may not be the main driving and motivating factor – depending on the organization’s field, values, philosophy and goals.
Image: Apollo, the Greek god of arts, music, masculine beauty, poetry & the conductor of the 9 muses. He is also the god of purification and healing.
Hence, occupational psychology tends to focus on the improvement of organisations’ effectiveness in terms of the work performed within, while respecting and managing the conditions leading to the satisfaction of the employees and employers.
Occupational psychology today generally requires sound knowledge and understanding in these three main categories:
(A) Human factors (B) Personnel work (C) Organisational psychology
(A) Human Factors
(i) Human-machine interaction
This field of study is also known as “ergonomics” and is primarily concerned on the study of human interaction with machines. For example, it has also been reported (Kelso, 2005) that the city of London was selected to host the 2012 Olympics due to the syndrome known as “fat finger” – the use of buttons too closely spaced, caused panel members with the syndrome to vote wrongly. This common error is considered to be the main factor leading to London being the host, since one panel member voted for Paris instead of Madrid, leading to the former winning by two votes and thus being London’s opponent instead of Madrid. City experts believed London would not have been able to win against Madrid. This very particular syndrome, namely “the fat finger syndrome” has also been blamed for several multi-million pound errors, for instance the mistaken purchase of 50,000 shares rather than £ 50 000 worth of shares.
(ii) Design of Environment and Work: Health and Safety
The next area has to do with health and safety, and focuses on factors regarding light, noise, general work space, ventilation, risk factors and occupational stress. It is to be noted that this is an incredibly important area, and a good example of a modern disaster reflecting the incredible importance of intelligent design in the field of health and safety, is the Fukushima disaster. The whole world was left unprepared to deal with the nuclear leak caused by the over flooding of the reactors due to the badly design of the walls not being high enough to withhold the excessive water brought in by the tsunami.
Explosion of the Challenger shuttle in 1986
Another disastrous example is the loss of the US space shuttle Challenger in 1986, which for the very first time transported a teacher who was to have spoken from the spaceship to the American president Reagan and her pupils. The horrific explosion happened live on television and millions of people who had been watching remember the iconic shot as a ‘flashbulb memory’.
The likely cause of the explosion was a set of defective ‘O’ ring seals about which many engineers had complained about repeatedly; grave doubts were raised about the launching since the rings had never been used in temperatures as cold as that on the launch day. Irrational group decisions were made, and the launch proceeded despite the doubts – as the warning signs were explained and brushed away. A one third ‘burn out’ (erosion) of the Challenger ‘O’ ring on past launches was considered as a ‘safety factor’ of three (there would be two-thirds left, after all!) (Reason, 1990). This kind of irrational ‘rationalising’ is a feature of groupthink – no one wished to be responsible for delaying the launch and therefore disrupting the arrangement with Reagan. The people in ultimate control were highly cohesive and to some extent separated from those with the doubts. ‘Mind guards’ ensured that the engineers’ complaintswere not heard by the decision-makers.
The presidential commission investigating the decision-making process revealed that a major problem lay with a system of communication within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration organisation. The decision system was ambiguous; it was not clear which decision should go to the very top and it was consequently very hard to attribute clear responsibility.
Bystander CPR not only saves lives, it lessens disability, study finds / Source: Medical Xpress
(B) Personnel Work
(i) Personnel Selection and Assessment (including Test and Exercise Design)
An organisation hiring the wrong staff can be costly in terms of productivity, quality of service delivery and company / organisation reputation. Occupational psychologists and consultants throughout the years have contributed in the effective monitoring and filtering of quality in staff recruitment.
(ii) Performance Appraisal and Career Development
Psychologists and knowledgeable consultants can assist and advise organisations on how to run staff appraisals in order to create two-way relationships that employees respect and value, since career development is essential. However, this may also lead to the staff being extremely attractive to competing organisations. This would be beneficial to the individual but not so much for the organisation.
(iii) Counselling and Personal Development
This area comprises most of the skills found in general counselling psychology. Professionals skilled in occupational psychology may also practice as career advisors or stress management counsellors among a variety of other roles [being a versatile field that applies to various aspects of the human organism’s behaviour across a wide range of environments]. In these cases [when dealing with organisations and their staff], emphasis is primarily in being an attentive listener, demonstrating empathy and being accepted as genuine.
(iv) Training
A productive workforce is a well-trained workforce, and one that avoids costly or dangerous errors. Good professionals in occupational psychology tend to spend the majority of their time focussing on identifying training needs[to refine individuals’ skills, performance and delivery], and the design and delivery of training programmes.
(C) Organisational Psychology
(i) Employee Relations and Motivation
A wide range of aspects in mainstream social psychology was developed through the study of the ways that small groups interact and perform in a work context. This area includes research into conformity, obedience, teamwork, team building, attitudes, communication and especially leadership. It also investigates theories of work motivation.
Who Works The Most Hours Every Year? / Source: Statista
Where The Most Workers Put in A 60-Hour Week / Source: Statista
(ii) Organisational Development & Change
Organisations tend to be dynamic and continually evolving structures. External influences [such as research, cultural demands and trends] force change on organisations in the competitive economic world of today’s industries. For example, most organisations in Western Europe have had to comply with the equal opportunities legislation and also with health and safety directions [e.g. concerning smoking at work].
In other cases organisation sometimes also have to overhaul or downsize the general managerial policies and culture. This is where professionals in occupational psychology advise, help & guide organisations during change; while altering attitudes, through reasoning, findings and theory from social psychology and group dynamics with the practical experience and judgement of organizational development.
As most of the research we tend to focus on revolves around the individual organism’s development and well-being, we will look at the human factors in occupational psychology; these generally revolve around:
Designing or redesigning jobs
The Design of Equipment to match Human Features and Capabilities
The services offered by psychologists in the personnel area tend to include:
(i) Selection and Assessment of Personnel
E.g. of a complete selection process in hiring a Lecturer:
Imagine we were part of a team that has to select a new lecturer for a University. Where exactly should we start? A good starting point would be to consider the essential demands of the task required of a lecturer. It is clear that lecturers have a whole lot more to do than simply lecturing. We should consider the importance of each aspect of the job. Next, we should be asking ourselves what a successful employee in the profession of lecturing would need to be able to cover in order to perform each of the academic tasks successfully; then devise a way of assessing each candidate for these abilities. It also goes without saying that an advert would have to be placed with the job description so the applicants may know exactly what they are applying for and whether or not they are suitable for the position and demands of the task. Finally, the selection process will have to be organized, where the candidates can be assessed with the successful one being selected [with a backup] for an appointment. The process does not stop here, however – as we may want to know whether the selection process was well designed and effective. We will also have to evaluate the procedure, not on the one appointment, but over several selections, by keeping track of the performance of each appointee over their first two years, for example, with their performance at the selection process. This is a method to find out whether our appointment procedures are effective and whether they produce the appropriate & desired results.
(ii) Appraisal of Work Performance (iii) Training Programmes (iv) Career Guidance and Counselling (v) Issues of Equal Opportunity at Work
In the area of organizational development, psychologist and consultants may also run projects concerning:
(i) Attitude and Opinion Surveys (ii) Team building, Leadership and Management (iii) Industrial Relations (iv) The Modification, Update and Change of the Organizational Culture (v) Enhancing the Quality of Working Life (vi) Improvement of the Quality and Effectiveness of Communications
All these procedures contribute in a harmonious organizational environmentand culture where productivity, employee and employer satisfaction are the main concerns, while minimizing stress levels across the organisation.
As we are now going to find out, stress can be devastating to both the mind and the body. Hence, design and selection are key stepsin achieving stability, harmony and productivity through an efficient organizational culture.
Total percentage of those aged 18-24 not in employment, education or training (NEET) – 2011
Sustained Stress may have a fatal impact on Physiological Health
Stress is known for causing the increased secretion of cortisol, a hormone that could halt the production of cytokines, which are vital for maintaining a functional immune system (Kiecolt-Glaser et al., 2002). Over the years, a large number of research has also found positive correlations between daily cortisol levels and general health. The different levels of cortisol secretory activity have been linked to health problems such as hypertension, burnout, emotional distress, upper respiratory illness and eating behaviour.
However, cortisol is paramount to increasing access to energy during stressful experiences and is released on a daily pattern by 2 well defined components; the “Cortisol Awakening Rise”; and the Diurnal levels that gradually decrease over the day. It has also been found that high levels of stress could lead to less cortisol being produced in the morning (O’Connor et al., 2009b). An individual going through a serious series of stressful events would have an increased risk of developing an infectious disease with no regards to their age, sex, education, allergic status and/or body mass index (Cohen, 2005).
As physicians age, a required cognitive evaluation combined with a confidential, anonymous feedback evaluation by peers and coworkers regarding wellness and competence would be beneficial both to physicians and their patients / Source: Dellinger, E., Pellegrini, C. and Gallagher, T. (2017). The Aging Physician and the Medical Profession. JAMA Surgery, 152(10), p.967.
Two types of stress associated with increased health deficiency
Cohen et al. (1998) identified two types of stress associated with increased health deficiency; these were:
– interpersonal problems with family and friends; and/or
– enduring problems associated with work
As further research unveiled the dangers of stress, Janice Kiecolt et al. (1995) found that wound healing was also prolonged on people exposed to continuous stress, along with the lower levels of cytokine. Similarly, Marucha, Kiecolt-Glaser and Favagehi (1998) also concluded to findings over healing being prolonged on test subjects (dental students) where quicker healing was observed on vacation and not before their exams. Eventually, the conclusion of stress being a response to stressors lead to the latter being investigated in our daily lives by researchers for improvement.
Stress may be perceptual deficiency depending on whether subjective appraisal is Positive or Negative
Stress is generally perceivedas negative perceptions and reactions when pressure is excessive. The transactional approach devised by Lazarus defines stress as “a particular relationship between the person and the environment that is appraised by the person as taxing or exceeding his or her resources and endangering his or her well-being” (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984, p.19) The theory has so far been one of the most solid finds in the field of occupational and organisational psychology and continues to be applied to various sections in the quest to enhance quality of both work and output.
Occupational Psychology in the Workplace: Stressors
In the field of Occupational psychology, the main focus has been on the study of human behaviour and experience in the workplace. As the world of work in the present generation is constantly changing, with companies adopting more flexible styles – along with developing technology – Lazarus and Folkman’s theory has been used in most stages of the employment life cycle in order to minimise the effects of stress on employees while maintaining a sensible amount of “good stress”(pressure) to maintain motivation. The concept is based on such solid logic that it could be applied to most areas of human interactive environment.
Applying Lazarus and Folkman’s theory of stress to occupational psychology will consider all elements that cause stress in the workplace connected to the physical requirements of the job. Stress can be physical, with factors such as noise, unsafe heights or slippery floor. These factors when present will not only cause the employee to be on guard but also likely distract them from being fully concentrated on their job for fear of harm. The solution would be to make a safer and more comfortable environment, however too safe is known to affect performance. The perfect fit would be right balance between motivational factors (incentives) and physical environment (not overly comfortable), that would lead to a design for the best fit of the job to the person (Morgeson & Campion, 2002).
The human element should also not be forgotten in the case of a sociotechnical system (Trist & Bamforth, 1951) present where a Swiss cheese defence system might be in place to correct possible human errors. As mentioned, the stress element requires modelling according to Lazarus’ Theory which proves to be versatile for its huge range of application when considering different types of stressors and how to balance their effect on the employee.
Organisational “Culture”: Synchronised Workforce through situational patterns of performance-oriented behaviour
A strong culture is also essential for the organisation as this ensures the employee fits in with the organisation’s values. The organisation also has to ensure that most stressors are regulated and checked in order to ensure a stable functioning of the workforce.
According to Richard Lazarus’ transactional theory of stress, minor day to day problems known as “hassles” can accumulate and cause stress. However one coping mechanism from the theory comes from coping which follows the appraisal stage. When a task is being appraised, the outcome defines whether the employee will see it as stress. However, the stressor can be approached positively and be re-appraised to instead fit the employee’s belief and capacity.
Different appraisals usually define how the employee copes, such as understanding employee needs using Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs (1974). It is assumed that some needs are basic and innate and have to be met to sustain motivation. Managers can provide environments that harmonise with the needs of employees after learning what they are.
Maslow’s model puts forth the belief that safety and security have to be met before one can realize their full potential. Once this basic need is satisfied, Maslow assumes the attention is shifted to the next need, which in this case would be a motivated move towards achieving the job. However, if this need is not satisfied, this gives rise to discomfort. Indirectly, Maslow’s model is applying the logic of Lazarus & Folkman (1984), as the stressors – which in this case is the inability to feel safe and secure – are being targeted while the manager would try to motivate the employee. Some criticism however questions the flexibility of the model for its assumption. Assuming several needs become important & crucial simultaneously how would the motivation of the employee be affected? Furthermore, self-actualization is hard – if not impossible – to define, therefore it is hard to confidently know whether someone has reached the stage.
Mismatch between employee & job may cause Occupational Stress
Mismatch between an employee and a job can also cause occupational stress (French, 1973). If the job demand is appraised as too high, the employee could feel discouraged if the task creates demands than exceeds his/her capabilities, unless he has a stake in the outcome of his/her performance, motivation will not be successful.
Lazarus and Folkman’s theory of stress is once again applied with great efficiency, as it opens the door for reasoning in how to deal with stressful situations and find the right coping mechanism that would allow the employee to carry on without negative attributions. One example of this application is to organisational development, which is premised on the assumption of planned transformational change.
Organisational development has been defined as “a systematic effort applying behavioural science knowledge to planned creation and reinforcement of organisational strategies, structures and processes for improving an organisation’s effectiveness” (Huse & Cummings, 1985). The aim is to achieve commitment from the whole organisation dedicated to change.
Organisational development intervention looks to a range of planned programmatic activities pursued by both clients & consultants. French, Bell and Zawacki (1994) differentiate between interventions directed at individuals (coaching, counselling), dyads (arbitration), teams (feedbacks), inter group configurations (Survey, Feedback, etc) and organisations as a whole (business process re-engineering). As the focus is swapped from one level to the next, the number of dimensions to consider increases, this adds to the complexity of the intervention process. However, all interventions tend to rely on organizational diagnosis [the assumption that something is not performing well enough and needs to be changed).
Photo // Bryan Christie Design
Tuning the Environment to balance Stress Levels
Appreciative inquiry is an organizational development model that focuses on how things might have been or might be better (Cooperrider & Srivasta, 1987). The whole concept of organizational development follows the logic of Lazarus & Folkman (!984), as the transitions are all supported by teams of professionals [counselling / accustoming] which are geared at balancing the stress levels of accustoming the workforce to the new changes through a combination of modifications to the environment, motivational factor and security and support.
As organizational psychology deals with the administrative side and operational psychology deals with the task itself, they are still very closely associated. Changesin operational hassles will reduce the stress on the employee, as this would make the task at hand much more simple and straightforward. Changes in organizational hassles will increase the job satisfaction of the employee, as his time at work would be less cumbersome.
Interventions: Better Outcome when the Source of Stress is the Primary Focal Point
The main concepts of interventions usually concentrate primarily on reducing the source of stress, and secondly by reducing the impact on individuals; which has been found to be more effective on people than reducing the risk (LeFevre, et al. 2006). Such an example can be seen when dealing with occupational problems, such as the termination of employment. Such an event can have a devastating effect on an employee’s life, especially if it was unpredicted [redundancy, released]. One way to deal with such a situation would be to:
– provide counselling support to the released employee; these include trained professionals with listening, questioning & goal setting skills who help people to carry on in life (Egan, 1996) by clarifying with employees, the employable, marketable skills and helping them to plan short term goals by which skills might be applied in other situations.
– allow the person concerned to release their feelings by speaking out over vocational and personal concerns, and helping them assess their resources.
– help them find a placement or employment while also reinforcing with the employee, reminding them that they are skilled and mature and that their redundancy was a purely professional decision.
What the whole process seems to have once again applied, is the logic of Lazarus & Folkman (1984) that proves itself as a solid formula applicable in most situations where stress is involved. In this context, the employees have been professionally re-appraised and should be better mentally to deal with upcoming challenges for fresh employment.
Réflexion
Appraisal & Subjective Perception is Key
The particular relationship between a person and his/her environment will vary in being either positive or negative depending on their appraisal [i.e. their constructed perception of the situation]. Appraisal can sometimes be instinctive, and/or influenced by an individual’s perception which can in turn be a result of other biological factors (hunger, pain). This shows that no matter how deep the causes of stress may be, Lazarus’ formula – although simple – has an application that can logically construct or deconstruct most situations resulting from occupational and organisational stress.
One of the main points worth considering however, is the fact that men tend to experience more stress than women from the “need for recognition” pressure, while women experience more stress from health issues;social support benefits stress levels for males and females but affects them differently: organisational commitment in males & state of mind in females.
Video: Stress is one of the factors that can trigger cancer. Jean-Baptiste ALEXANIAN explains…
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