Researchers from UCSD’s Department of Psychiatry and the Stein Institute for Research on Aging have put together the first ever review of the neurobiology of wisdom.
Conducted by UCSD psychiatry professor Dilip Jeste and psychiatry researcher Thomas Meeks, the study was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry on April 6.
‘Defining wisdom is rather subjective, though there are many similarities in definition across time and cultures,’ Jeste said. ‘However, our research suggests that there may be a basis in neurobiology for wisdom’s most universal traits.’
Specific psychological traits ‘mdash;’ including empathy, compassion, emotional stability, tolerance and self-awareness ‘mdash; have been commonly associated with wisdom by a wide variety of cultures.
‘But questions remain: Is wisdom universal or culturally based?’ Jeste said. ‘Is it uniquely human, related to age? Is it dependent on experience or can wisdom be taught?’
The research explored which specific brain circuits and pathways might be associated with different attributes related to wisdom by examining existing studies and publications and focusing on functional neuroimaging studies, neurotransmitter functions and genetics.
The researcher suggests that several common brain regions appear to be related to different aspects of wisdom, and that wisdom’s neurobiology may involve a balance between more primitive brain regions, such as the limbic system, and the newest ones, such as the pre-frontal cortex.’
‘Understanding the neurobiology of wisdom may have considerable clinical significance, for example, in studying how certain disorders or traumatic brain injuries can affect traits related to wisdom,’ Jeste said.