Larger, More Active Amygdalas, Autism, and Altruism

Discover magazine reports that extreme altruists have more active and larger amygdalas. These people are more sensitive to "fearful faces." This heightened empathy drives their altrusim.

We also happen to know that people with autism also have more active and larger amygdalas.While some researchers, like Simon Baron-Cohen argue that people with autism are less empathetic, the research reported by Discover would seem to argue that it is not that autistic people are less empathetic, but that they are more so -- so much more so that avoiding faces becomes necessary to avoid being overwhelmed.