In
an older NYT article (“Hijacking the Brain Circuits With a Nickel Slot Machine”),
science writer Sandra Blakeslee offered a curious response to those old
questions regarding the deepest roots of human motivation. She said
neuroscientists were uncovering an inconvenient truth: “The number of things
people do to increase their dopamine firing rates is unlimited.”
Hypothetically, the human “executive brain” should know better. But, across a
broad range of behaviors – from the intoxicating pursuit of money, power, and
celebrity, to all sorts of physical and virtual overconsumption – it appears
not to; and to know no limits to the rationalizations it will spin to justify
all sorts of problematic behaviors.
In his first book (Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind,
published in 2001 – a year before Blakeslee article), neuroscientist Elkhonon
Goldberg once heaped much praise on his protagonist. He even expressed hope
that the bickering states and non-state actors of our ever smaller world could
come together under some sort of global government – as the different parts of
the brain had become integrated under the iron hand of the frontal lobes. But could
things be flowing in the opposite direction – with creeping neurosomatic dysregulation
following the pattern of social and political disintegration in the larger
social world? I dearly wish I could take no for an answer – unless it is just
so much wishful thinking.
