Have you ever met someone who was self-centered for a very long time, only to become so generous all of a sudden, after what you term to be a collapse to you? I bet you would say it doesn't happen all the time. I will agree with you also, but I was talking to a friend some days back, and she told me about one of her uncle, who would never share a thing of value with someone without weighing the pros and cons of his action to his wallet who suddenly after what she called a seizure became very generous. She described that he is so into giving now that he could give his arm to anyone who demands for it, and she is happy that he is doing what gives him satisfaction. She explained that while the man is doing what he loves currently, his children have a different view. They believe, he is given away his entire fortune which he labored for.
While I haven't seen this before, I decided to look at the entire scenario, where a person decides to give away their entire fortune because they were just being kind. Could this be a gesture from the heart, or could there be something more to it? While I couldn't ask my friend about how the man reacts when he is alone and other things, I wondered if it was possible that this man had become an all year round Santa Claus, or could there be more to this than the eye catches?
The Brain Controls Everything, Including Father Christmas
Weighing 3 pounds, the human brain is responsible for controlling and regulating actions in our body which includes thoughts, visuals, emotions, breathing, temperature, hunger, and other functions in the body.
Let's do a simple brain anatomy. The brain is made up of two areas, the gray matter and the white matter. The gray matter is the visible outer part of the brain known as the cerebral cortex, while the white matter is the inner tissue of the brain. The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain. It is made up of ridges known as Gyrus (gyri. plural) surrounded by fissures called Sulcus (Sulci. plural). The Cerebral Hemisphere is divided by a longitudinal fissure. When we look in the longitudinal fissure, we could find the falx cerebri, a part of the Dura mater, but I am not going there now. The cerebral cortex of the brain is divided by the central sulcus which divides the frontal lobe, the temporal lobe, in the cerebral hemisphere. Also, at the lateral part of the cerebral hemisphere, there is a lateral sulcus which separates the temporal lobe from the parietal lobe. Let's take a break there, to discuss the function of these lobes, then we can understand where we are going to.
The Frontal lobe is responsible for long term personality characteristics, behavioral strategies, decision making, learning, as well as recognition of smell, and movement, Speech ability (broca's area). Plos.org.
The Parietal Lobe is the middle part of the cerebral cortex. It is responsible for sensory processing which allows for interpretation of senses such as touch, pain, heat and cold, tension, and so on. It is also responsible for identification of objects sizes, shapes and distances. medicalnewstoday.com.
The Temporal lobe is responsible for short term memories, speech, and emotion. medicalnewstoday.com
One part of the brain lobe i didn't mention is the Occipital lobe. It is the smallest part of the cerebral cortex, that's responsible for visual processing which includes; color determination, object identification, distance as well as depth perception, and memory formation. NCBI
This explained, it is important to know that the frontal lobe is going to be responsible for any kind of generosity by anyone since it controls personality characteristics, behavioral strategies, and decision making. So if you are thinking of making a decision to help a person or not, the frontal lobe comes into play, and when you decide to be generous, the frontal lobe is responsible as well. So, what happens when Santa comes bearing gifts every day?
The Frontal Lobe is the Culprit
Understanding that a damaged or impaired frontal lobe could cause a complete change in a person's social behavior, gave me a reason to check out different frontal lobe disorders, starting with Frontal Lobe Syndrome which happens as a result of a damage to the prefrontal cortex, primary motor cortex, and premotor cortex, which all makes up the frontal lobe. The syndrome could be as a result of presence of tumor in the frontal lobe, head injuries, and cerebrovascular diseases. A damaged frontal lobe could be Ventromedial Orbitofrontal Cortex Syndromes, or Anterior Cingulate and Dorsolateral Syndromes. The anterior cingulate and dorsolateral syndromes, do not lead to a complete change in social behaviors and personalities, even though it causes lack of motivation, and attention. Ventromedial Orbitofrontal Cortex Syndromes on the other hand, which occurs as a result of a lesion in the orbitofrontal area of the lobe, could lead to behavioral changes causing the patients to make impulsive decisions. With no doubt, impulsive decisions could include unending giving.
Impulse Control Disorders/dopamine dysregulation syndrome is another disorder that affects the social behavior of the patients, ranging from excessive spending, excessive eating, excessive gambling, kleptomania, compulsive buying, pathological generosity and so on. This could arise as a result of a damaged frontal lobe, from a left lenticulocapsular stroke among other causes such as the side effect from Doparmine replacement therapy (DRT) which is administered to patients who had Parkinson disease.
Conclusion
Everything written above are possible medically, but the fact remains that I haven't met the person who has been giving all he has to anyone who wants it just because he feels good first hand, My post was as a result of my curiosity into why he will be willing to give at all time without any second guessing which he does in the past.
She said the family members see it as a spiritual thing (I guess it is more of a belief in Africa), but I just have this hunch that it is more medical and psychological.
Image Reference
public domain vectors
Interesting never thought about digging the brain physiology of generosity!!
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I never really thought generosity could have its bad side, until we had the quick discussion. It is very funny how being generous could be a disorder.
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It's amazing that a brain damage can affect that particular trait of a person. Perhaps the experience affects them at a psychological level, too, so they could feel like "I was given a second chance, I'll do better this time". Maybe it's both. I can see that you think the same at the end. It could be both organic and psychological.
I had to come to that conclusion of being biological and psychological, since the third is really not a thing. Then why will someone believe they have a second chance, only to give out all they had? It can be very disturbing to a member of the family.
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