Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have compiled the first-ever review of the neurobiology of wisdom - once the sole province of religion and philosophy.
The study by Dilip V. Jeste, MD, and Thomas W. Meeks, MD, of UC San Diego's Department of Psychiatry and the Stein Institute for Research on Aging, will be 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," said Jeste, who is the Estelle and Edgar Levi Chair in Aging, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience and chief of geriatric psychiatry at UC San Diego. "However, our research suggests that there may be a basis in neurobiology for wisdom's most universal traits."
Wisdom has been defined over centuries and civilizations to encompass numerous psychological traits. Components of wisdom are commonly agreed to include such attributes as empathy, compassion or altruism, emotional stability, self-understanding, and pro-social attitudes, including a tolerance for others' values.
"But questions remain: is wisdom universal, or culturally based?" said Jeste. "Is it uniquely human, related to age? Is it dependent on experience or can wisdom be taught?"
Empirical research on wisdom is a relatively new phenomenon. Meeks and Jeste noted that in the 1970s, there were only 20 peer-reviewed articles on wisdom, but since 2000, there have been more than 250 such publications. However, the researchers found no previous studies using the keyword "wisdom" in combination with the terms neurobiology, neuroimaging or neurotransmitters.
In order to determine if specific brain circuits and pathways might be responsible for wisdom, the researchers examined existing articles, publications and other documents for six attributes most commonly included in the definition of wisdom, and for the brain circuitry associated with those attributes.