Evil Genes

by Barbara Oakley

  The study is thus the first to describe the neural processes that underlie political judgment and decision making, as well as to describe processes involving emote control, psychological defense, confirmatory bias, and some forms of cognitive dissonance. The significance of these findings ranges beyond the study of politics: “Everyone from executives and judges to scientists and politicians may reason to emotionally biased judgments when they have a vested interest in how to interpret ‘the facts,’” according to Westen.18

  But is emote control really that common—particularly in such areas as public policy, which cry out for reasoned and rational discourse?

  Absolutely.

  For example, well-intentioned, emotionally based concerns about the sanctity of human life have led to the United States withdrawing support for birth control programs to third world countries—despite the fact that many of those in favor of withdrawing support have never lived in those countries and have absolutely no idea of the magnitude or devastating effects of overpopulation there. Interestingly, people who are against such birth control programs, based on the sanctity of human life, are often also firmly pro–death penalty. When I point out the inconsistency of being pro–death penalty but anti–birth control to these friends, they suddenly decide that not quite all human life is sacred. Then they change the subject.

  Similar emotional reasoning has led kindhearted individuals to support “feel-good” programs such as busing, which seemed, on the face of it, to be an outstanding method to integrate school systems. Opponents of this program—whatever their reasons—were seen as racists, which meant that rational concerns about the program were discounted.19 The result was that cities such as Detroit were devastated as the well-to-do moved to the suburbs, out of range of the mandated busing system. This worsened the segregation the busing had been designed to remedy. Similarly, a laudable desire to eliminate shabby housing, drug use, and crime in poor areas led to “the projects,” which were to house even more highly concentrated areas of drug use and crime. Such government-mandated programs as busing and the projects, often generated by emote control related to genuinely altruistic considerations, have wasted billions of taxpayers’ dollars and led to a worsening of the very conditions they were meant to solve.

  No one can claim to be truly unbiased. We all come at issues through our experiences and values, filtered by the emotional and cognitive processes of our hardwired neurological makeup. But if we socialize only with members of our own particular religious persuasion; if we work in an environment with only one-sided political input; if we read only Web sites or other news sources by writers who echo our views, then we strongly reinforce the emotional, rather than logical, basis for our beliefs. After all—if “everyone” we know believes what we believe, we find an emotional reinforcement that helps close off consideration of other perspectives. (So much for the wisdom of crowds.)

  Aren't there times when we as citizens should respond with healthy emotions, to fight for what we believe in, especially when we feel policies are causing people actual harm? Of course. But simply looking at the research results, one must conclude that people's first emotional responses about what's wrong, who is to blame, or how to proceed, particularly in relation to complex issues, must always—always—be considered suspect.20 There is no simple algorithm for teasing rationality from emotion. An ardent Democrat or Republican, a dyed-in-the-wool communist union organizer, a young devotee of Scientology, a Palestinian suicide bomber, or a KKK grand kleagle could each read the above paragraphs and think, I'm not irrational—it's those other idiots who can't see the obvious. But we all have pockets of irrationality, some large, some small, no matter if we are mathematicians who make our living doing proofs, wealthy philanthropists, or stay-at-home housewives.

  If there is one thing that is important for us to know, it is that emote control allows our best traits—love, caring, loyalty, and trust—to be used as manipulative levers. Me-first Milosevic-like Machiavellians, with their convincing masks of integrity and charm, climb in every social hierarchy, schmooze in every community, saunter through every neighborhood. Whether we care about children, students, families, factory workers, fellow followers of Christ, brothers in Islam, blacks, whites, Mongolians, or Democratic or Republican political planks, the successfully sinister have no compunction about using our best intentions to further their own purposes—and themselves. By believing a heartbreaking speech about how important it is for us to be treated “fairly,” or a tale of how we've been victimized, or a plea to put our hearts and minds toward helping others, we may be doing our tiny part to stoke the fires and empower a Machiavellian. It is bitter balm indeed to learn how easily Machiavellians can use our own neurological quirks to fool us into actively working against the very ideals we hold most dear.

  SEEING SUBTLE DEFECTS IN THE EMOTE CONTROL SYSTEM—BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER

  If an irrational emote control is the default mode on even normal people, what happens when there are subtle defects in the emotional system?

  A lot, as it turns out. Some of these defects allow us to be more easily manipulated, as with the Alzheimer's victim who is conned into giving all her money to an “investor,” leaving her with nothing. But other defects can lead, it seems, to some of the insidious, duplicitous, sometimes irrationally self-serving thought processes of the successfully sinister.

  Probably the best way to begin to understand these latter effects—and certainly one of the ways most relevant to Machiavellianism—is to take a careful look at the dysfunction that occurs in borderline personality disorder. In this condition, three sets of neural circuits appear to be disturbed—all involving the neurological areas we've explored thus far. Here's the list:

  emotional dysregulation (moodiness, depression, anxiety, feelings of emptiness): limbic system

  impulsivity: anterior cingulate and orbitomedial prefrontal systems

  cognitive-perceptual impairment: dorsolateral, ventromedial, and orbitofrontal systems

  Superb recent results from imaging and other studies are providing information that can help each of us intuit a sense of what can go wrong with these circuits. We'll examine each in turn.

  Emotional Dysregulation: Limbic System

  In those with borderline personality disorder, we can actually see how some poorly tuned portions of the limbic system seem to cause the characteristic fluctuating moods, depression, anxiety, and feelings of emptiness. The amygdala and the hippocampus of the limbic system play key roles in memory and emotional responses. Magnetic resonance imaging has shown that both organs are noticeably smaller than usual in borderline patients.21 This decrease in the size of the hippocampus is intriguing in that this organ seems to be associated with a person's ability to “catch” contextual cues. Abnormalities in the hippocampus may explain why borderlines don't seem to be able to pay attention to important but placidly unemotional task-relevant information. Instead, their brains seem to key in on emotionally related cues—especially if these cues are negative.22 Just because these cues can be detected, however, doesn't mean the borderline reacts to them in the same way as a person without the disorder.

  In fact, it appears that the amygdala, as well as other parts of the brain, actually function differently in borderlines under conditions that provoke emotional responses. The functional magnetic resonance imaging results above show what happens to cerebral metabolism in borderline patients, as opposed to normal controls, after viewing repulsive images on slides (imagine, if you will, something grotesque, like roadkill.) The light spots indicate unusual excess activity found only in the borderline patients. These spots are related to increased metabolism in the amygdala as well as the prefrontal and temporo-occipital cortex.

  Fig. 8.6. In this view peering down from the top of the head at a cross section of the brain, activated areas are shown in a lighter color. You can see a big difference in the neural responses of patients with borderline personality who viewed repulsive slides (left), compared with hea
lthy volunteers who viewed the slides (right). The borderline patients showed high activity in the amygdalae and the temporo-occipital cortex, while the healthy volunteers showed a normal, subdued response.

  Researchers believe that hyperactive amygdalae are a cause of the intense and slowly subsiding emotions experienced when borderlines suffer even minor irritation. The increased activities in the prefrontal and temporo-occipital cortices—which indicate increased attention to emotionally relevant input from the environment—may be due to the boosted signal from the amygdala. Translated into practical terms, this would explain why a borderline might overreact to a minor constructive criticism by a spouse or friend, evoking an angry response that leads to a major argument.

  Similarly revved-up amygdalae were found after borderline patients were exposed to faces showing various types of emotion. The overly hefty amygdala response is likely to be a key component of borderline emotional vulnerability, especially in the context of disturbed interpersonal relations and the crucial role of the amygdala in processing emotional stimuli and reactions. It may also be related to the borderline hypersensitivity to the state of other people and their uncanny ability to read emotions.23

  Impulsivity: Anterior Cingulate and Orbitomedial Prefrontal Systems

  The second type of dysfunction common in borderlines relates to impulsivity. Borderlines often have difficulty controlling their impulses and behaving in a reasonable and rational manner—especially when they are feeling strongly emotional. One recent study has revealed that borderlines appear to suffer the same problems with impulsivity as those who have suffered damage to their orbitofrontal cortex.24 To understand the revealing recent imaging studies, you might want to look at the augmented version, shown below, of our neural map. In this expanded version of the drawing, several new areas have been added: the dorsal raphe nucleus and the ventral tegmental area.25 These two areas produce key neuromodulators—molecules that can boost or dampen the effect of those chemical flares that ferry information across the synapses. The dorsal raphe nucleus produces the neuromodulator serotonin, while the ventral tegmental area produces the neuromodulator dopamine. As the many spidery connections show, the neurotransmitters of the ventral tegmental area and the dorsal raphe nucleus affect many areas of the brain at both conscious and unconscious levels.

  The next figure gives a sense of the underpinnings of the strange neural behavior of those with borderline personality disorder.26 Neural PET scans of normal subjects are shown in the top row, while similar scans of borderline subjects are shown at the bottom. (“PET” stands for positron emission tomography—which produces images of the brain's chemicals that look almost like color x-rays.) These scans indicate that serotonin levels for borderlines are much lower than normal in many neural regions, including the medial, lateral, and orbital prefrontal cortices—precisely those regions thought to be involved in the increased impulsivity that afflicts borderlines. Other studies have indicated similar problems with imbalances related to neurotransmitters with big-handled names like acetylcholine, norepinephrine, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Indirect evidence also points to problems related to dopamine.27 These neurotransmitter imbalances may well be related to the mood imbalances we discussed in relationship with the amygdala.28

  Fig. 8.7. A more detailed sketch of how various areas of the brain connect to one another.

  The next PET images reveal that glucose metabolism (“feeding” of various areas of the brain), was found to be much larger in borderline patients than in normal people in prefrontal and frontal regions (the patterned area of the images). But glucose metabolism was decreased in the limbic regions of borderlines, for example, the hippocampus.29 Other studies have confirmed unusual activities in these areas. For example, it has been found that when serotonin levels are increased in the gaps between the neurons, borderline patients, unlike normal controls, show decreased metabolism in the anterior cingulate gyrus and orbitofrontal cortex—important areas for inhibiting impulses.30

  Fig. 8.8. A neural PET scan typical of a normal subject is shown at the top—the lightness indicates serotonin levels are high. A borderline patient, shown below, reveals dark shades that indicate lower serotonin levels in many neural regions, including those affiliated with impulsivity.

  Fig. 8.9. Glucose metabolism (“feeding” of various areas of the brain), was much larger than normal for borderlines in the crosshatched areas shown.

  Yet another study showed that borderline subjects had a significantly smaller right parietal lobe—smaller by 11 percent.31 (The parietal lobe stretches from ear to ear in a band around the top of the head.) Less is known about the functions of the parietal than the frontal lobes, but the parietal lobes are thought to play a role in integrating information from the various senses, as well as in using objects. It appears that signals to the parietal lobe may arrive out of sync with signals elsewhere in the brain—this may contribute not only to cognitive impairment and impulsivity but also to the borderline's sense of personality fragmentation, as well as her inability to integrate the positive and negative aspects of herself and the external world.32

  Fig. 8.10. Slow metabolism in borderlines was observed in the left hippocampus (the white area targeted by the crosshairs).

  Interestingly, researchers have found that the smaller the size of the right parietal lobe in relation to the left, the stronger the psychotic symptoms and schizoid personality traits seen in borderlines. Additionally, the volume of the hippocampus has been found to be an extraordinary 17 percent smaller in borderline patients—the smaller the hippocampus, the stronger the borderline symptoms.33 All these deep-set structural differences in the brain, invisible to the naked eye, appear to be profoundly related to the unusual behavioral “choices” of borderlines.

  But there is another important factor to consider. Why do some people show strong indications of borderline personality disorder and, as a result, become clinically diagnosed, whereas others show many of the same symptoms yet are never diagnosed? Oddly enough, the reason may lie beyond mere chance and instead may be related to the nature of their impulsivity.

  Impulsivity, if you'll remember, relates to “bottom-up” kicking of the brain into emotional gear by the limbic system. But it also relates to the ability to exert “top-down” control over those emotions once they've been kicked into gear. Top-down control is a function of the conscious control over your sensory and emotional systems that you exert to stop yourself from, for example, swearing in front of your four-year-old after slamming your finger in the car door. The neurological pathways related to conscious control can be seen by looking back at the second flow chart a few pages back—the dotted lines with arrows indicate the top-down conscious control of the body from the prefrontal cortical areas (the anterior cingulate and orbital prefrontal cortices) back down to the thalamus, the amygdala, and the nucleus accumbens. Note that “top-down” executive control is separate from the “bottom-up” pathway.

  The capability to exert executive control over emotion may be one of the defining differences between a clinically diagnosed borderline and a person who shows many borderline traits. This ability to avoid emotional meltdown, at least when it is imprudent to melt, can allow a person to avoid personality disorder diagnosis, notwithstanding other emotional dysfunction and cognitive-perceptual impairment. It can also allow for the borderline coping characteristic of “situational competence.” As noted psychiatrist Ken Silk has observed, when one of his borderline patients becomes upset, she becomes so swallowed by emotion that she is incapable of logic and is completely unable to assert emotional self control.a. This contrasts markedly with what some refer to as a “high-functioning,” subclinical borderline—a person with many borderline-like traits but who is able to exert executive control as needed. An example of a high-functioning, nonclinically diagnosed person with borderline-like symptoms might be the manipulative supervisor whose angry tirades, threats, and general malicious behavior toward his subordinates is legendary. Yet t
his same supervisor, even in the midst of a raging fit, is able to flip a mental switch and slip smoothly into a calm greeting if the company president were to pop in.

  A difference in circuits related to executive control capability between those clinically and nonclinically diagnosed individuals with borderline traits has been exposed through a recent set of clever experiments from an interdisciplinary group of collaborators led by psychologist Michael Posner from the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology in New York.34 The group hypothesized that there were two differences in temperament between borderline patients and normal controls. The first difference was thought to be in negative affectivity, which lies behind the strongly negative mood and volatile anger of borderline personality disorder. The second involved what the group termed effortful control—that is, conscious control. Problems here underlie instability in relationships, impulsivity, and difficulties in controlling emotion. (Both negative affectivity and effortful control appear to be strongly heritable traits.)35 A test of effortful control and negativity, the Adult Temperament Questionnaire, was given to borderline patients and a control group of one thousand students at New York's Hunter College. As expected, the borderlines revealed far higher levels of negativity and far lower ability to demonstrate effortful control than the controls. Then—and this is the clever part—the researchers combed through the large pool of students to find controls who happened to match the borderlines in their scores on negative affect and apparent degree of effortful control. What, the researchers wondered, was the difference between a clinically diagnosed borderline and a nondiagnosed individual who shared the same, often problematic, temperament?