Okay, this will test your limits

[Deja Q]

http://www.violence.de/prescott/pt/article.html

Excerpt:


Deprived of their mothers, Harry Harlow's monkeys were at times apathetic, at times hyperactive, and given to outbursts of violence. Raised in isolation, they were socially inept: they often held themselves and rocked like autistic children.

What Harlow could not know at the time of his dramatic experiments in the late 1950s and 1960s was that these behavioral disturbances were accompanied by brain damage. More recent studies suggest that during formative periods of brain growth, certain kinds of sensory deprivation -- such as lack of touching and rocking by the mother -- result in incomplete or damaged development of the neuronal systems that control affection (for instance, a loss of the nerve-cell branches called dendrites). Since the same systems influence brain centers associated with violence, in a mutually inhibiting mechanism, the deprived infant may have difficulty controlling violent impulses as an adult.

If confirmed, these studies may have profound implications for human cultures that raise their infants with low levels of touching and movement. Children in these societies may be unable to experience certain kinds of pleasure -- and be predisposed to apathy and violence.

The disturbance, I believe, has its origins in the somatosensory system of the cerebellum, which regulates the sense of movement and balance (vestibular system) and the sense of touch (somesthetic system). More than other senses, such as vision and hearing, touch and movement seem directly tied to emotions like affection. And this portion of the brain is one of those most suspectible to "shaping" -- changes in neuronal structure -- during a child's development. In numerous studies, laboratory animals deprived of tactile and movement stimulation have exhibited abnormal social and emotional behavior.

(snippy-time)

Meanwhile, Austin Riesen at the University of California, Riverside, demonstrated that isolation-reared monkeys exhibit major differences in the brain-cell branches of the somatosensory and motor cortex, but not in the visual cortex. And at the University of Illinois, Mary Floeter and William Greenough found that monkeys raised in colonies had more extensive brain-cell branchlets in parts of the cerebellum than monkeys reared either in isolation or in pairs.

(snippy-time)

In addition, cross-cultural studies have established a significant relationship between the physical affection shown human infants and rates of adult physical violence. In one study of 49 primitive cultures, I found that when levels of infant affection are low -- as among the Comanches and the Ashanti -- levels of violence are high; where physical affection is high -- as among the Maori of New Zealand and the Balinese -- violence is low. I also found that restrictions on premarital sexual affection were associated with high violence.

The possible lesson for modern countries is clear. We seem to be suffering from breakdowns in affectional bonds -- reflected in everything from rates of divorce to sexual crimes, alcoholism, and drug abuse.

(snippy-time)



Question: Is it humane to end the lives of people or monkeys who have been deprived of love and as a result went crackers and suffered from brain damage?

[KathCO]

1. who am i

to decide who lives and dies? Someone who is brain damaged may have a better life than I do even if I don't think they do.

[cosmicaug]

2. Mass euthanasia.

You realize that, given the thesis of that website, answering yes would imply approving the immediate euthanasia of most Americans, don't you?

[mobuto]

12. Well, housing would be more affordable,

and lines would be shorter at the 7-11.

Maybe you're on to something...

[smirkymonkey]

13. Yes, but most of them would probably

be republican...

[BillZBubb]

3. Wow, don't stop with brain damage from lack of love!

We might as well get rid of all those who have brain damage from any source. You know the psychotic, neurotic, retarded and autistic. Heck, people with severe physical afflictions suffer to. Let's be humane and get rid of them. And everyone knows there's something not quite right about those homosexuals. Killing them would be doing them a great and humane service.

Why stop there? Surely there are a lot of other people who are unhappy. Let's polish them off as a benefit to mankind too!

[camero]

8. Exactly

It didn't stop there in Nazi Germany and it won't stop there here either.

[arewethereyet]

4. kill the monkees, leave the people alone

how hard was that ?

[Deja Q]

6. Well, I think you just made Michael, Davy, Peter, and Mickey rather mad...

"MonkeYs..." :D

[arewethereyet]

9. too bad, they insist that they are musicians and disappear

leaving us with the Cowsills and Partridge Family. THey deserve it !

[Carni]

5. How do they know...

That the monkeys didn't just think harry was an idiot? LOL

[teach1st]

7. Not humane, but...

..it may be a way to reduce the number of RW politicians.

[ClintonTyree]

10. Was G.W.

one of those tested in the 50's and 60's? That would explain an awful lot. Maybe the chimp can't help that he's so fucked up, he wasn't handled enough by Babs.

[bpilgrim]

11. substitute

even a 'rag doll'... from time-to-time. works WONDERS ;->

peace