Still, I'm glad to see this sort of research being done. I understand some philosophers of mind (Jerry Fodor in particular?) look askance at it, and some are generally concerned that empirical brain research is somehow dehumanizing and/or seeks to omit or reduce the influence of environment, but I think it's possible to be a materialist *WHILE* upholding the importance of environmental factors. An interesting article on this point was published in Scientific American a few years back (sorry for being so vague) noting that some brain structures--the hippocampus and amygdala, I think--developed asymmetrically among people who had experienced violent or sexual abuse as children. More recently (and perhaps pertinently to concerns of the list) was an article by Clive Thompson in the 10/26 NYTimes Sunday magazine on the application of neuroscience to *advertising*. It appears that some brands actually stimulate areas of the brain associated with personal identity while others don't. Now there's sure as hell no gene for perferring Coke over Pepsi (the primary example of a brand that stimulated the identity region given in the article), so you must, Must, MUST consider environmental factors.
Maybe one day, homo sapiens will look back on late capitalism and regard it as a social regime toxic to the brain. And perhaps it's the case that those opposed to capitalism suffer from the same conditions but just exhibit different symptoms (hence the circular firing squad nature of lib/left discussion? All speculation here, of course.) But...well, I wanted to write that in the land of the blind, the person with one-eye is sovereign. But that's a cliché.
Curtiss, vexed.
> From Washington University School of Medicine :
>
> Antidepressant drugs may protect brain from damage due to depression
>
> St. Louis, Aug. 1, 2003 -- Studying women with histories of
> clinical depression, investigators at Washington University
> School of Medicine in St. Louis found that the use of
> antidepressant drugs appears to protect a key brain structure
> often damaged by depression.
>
> Previous research has shown that a region of the brain involved
> in learning and memory, called the hippocampus, is smaller in
> people who have been clinically depressed than in those who
> never have suffered a depressive episode. Now, researchers have
> found that this region is not quite as small in depressed
> patients who have taken antidepressant drugs.