SCIENTISTS have identified the seat of human wisdom by pinpointing parts of the brain that guide us when we face difficult moral dilemmas.

Sophisticated brain scanning techniques have found that humans respond by activating areas associated with the primitive emotions of sex, fear and anger as well as our capability for abstract thought.

The findings, to be published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, represent a significant incursion into territory once regarded as the domain of religion and philosophy.

Dilip Jeste, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the University of California in San Diego, said: “Our research suggests there may be a basis in neurobiology for wisdom’s most universal traits.” Jeste and Thomas Meeks, his colleague, found that pondering a simple situation calling for altruism activated the medial prefrontal cortex, an area linked to intelligence and learning. However, when faced with a difficult moral judgment, the brain activated other areas including those connected with both rational thought and primitive emotions.

Meek said: “Several brain regions appear to be involved in different components of wisdom. It seems to involve a balance between more primitive brain regions, like the limbic system, and the newest ones, such as the prefrontal cortex.”

Such research has been made possible by the increasing sophistication of brain scanning techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

These allow researchers to see which parts of the brain become active when people undertake mental tasks.

Recently, studies at UC San Diego and elsewhere have focused on parts of the brain involved in qualities such as empathy, compassion, emotional stability, self-understanding and tolerance – widely regarded as components of wisdom.

Neuroscientists are also testing to what extent other seemingly intangible aspects of the human condition involve brain processes over which we have little control.

In a recent paper published in Nature, Professor Patrick Haggard of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, tackled some of the basic tenets of the operation of free will. “Modern neuroscience is shifting towards a view of voluntary action being based on specific brain processes, rather than being a transcendental feature of human nature,” he said.

Brain scanning studies into disorders such as obesity and gambling have taken this further, suggesting society could be wrong to blame people suffering from such afflictions. Their brains are wired in such a way that it is much harder to exercise wisdom or self-control.

James Rowe, a consultant neurologist and researcher at Cambridge University, said: “Brain scans of some people suffering from morbid obesity show they have an abnormal response to food. Their brains respond so powerfully that they are driven to eat too much.”

The idea that wisdom and free will are reflections of how someone’s brain has been wired, rather than metaphysical features of the human condition, is unsettling but Jeste believes it has a practical use: “Knowledge of the underlying mechanisms in the brain could potentially lead to developing interventions for enhancing wisdom,” he said.

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