Do emotion and reasoning ability lie on the same spectrum?

[rousseau]

Superficially, it seems like people who are very good at logic are sometimes logical at the expense of emotionality/empathy, and vice versa - people who are very feeling/intuitive often are at the expense of logic.

So I'm wondering if, physiologically, these could exist on a spectrum? In other words, it's most adaptive when people have a good mix of both, but the extremes of both empathy and logic can actually cause a person problems.

 

[Jokodo]

Superficially, it seems like people who are very good at logic are sometimes logical at the expense of emotionality/empathy, and vice versa - people who are very feeling/intuitive often are at the expense of logic.

So I'm wondering if, physiologically, these could exist on a spectrum? In other words, it's most adaptive when people have a good mix of both, but the extremes of both empathy and logic can actually cause a person problems.

Superficially, it may seem so.

In reality, there is a not super strong but very much detectible *positive* correlation between teasoning ability and social skills.

We've been through this last time you brought up this particular piece of armchair "sciencing".

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Superficially, it seems like people who are very good at logic are sometimes logical at the expense of emotionality/empathy, and vice versa - people who are very feeling/intuitive often are at the expense of logic.

So I'm wondering if, physiologically, these could exist on a spectrum? In other words, it's most adaptive when people have a good mix of both, but the extremes of both empathy and logic can actually cause a person problems.

Superficially, it may seem so.

In reality, there is a not super strong but very much detectible *positive* correlation between teasoning ability and social skills.

We've been through this last time you brought up this particular piece of armchair "sciencing".

My observations lead me to believe this is true, that at one extreme is the limbic system, our original brain, and at the other end is our neocortex and higher brain functions.

I have experience with bipolar, which is an emotional takeover of the brain. The higher brain function areas actually shrink and the limbic system gets its way with decisions, usually all bad, when normally the higher function areas temper these impulsive urges.

Those higher functioning areas were the last to arrive from an evolutionary perspective so it makes sense. We call bipolar a disorder when in reality it is just a brain arrangement that is out of date, harkening back to a time when humans were primarily impulse driven, when we relied on our rat brains and limbic systems.