Amygdala makes donors more altruistic.

• Position: Organ Donation - Brief article

Individuals who donate kidneys to strangers have significantly different brain structures than those who do not, according to Georgetown University researchers Abigail Marsh and John VanMeter. Marsh, professor of psychology, worked with VanMeter, director of Center for Functional and Molecular Imaging at GU Medical Center, Washington, D.C., to scan the brains of altruistic kidney donors.

"The results of brain scans and behavioral testing suggests that these donors have some structural and functional brain differences that may make them more sensitive, on average, to other people's distress," explains Marsh.

In the right amygdala, an emotion-sensitive brain region, altruists displayed greater neural activity. 'The brain scans revealed that the right amygdala volume of altruists is larger than that of nonaltruists," Marsh indicates. 'The findings suggest that individual...