Predispositions/Traits

For enter_universim, I had the idea to utilise different traits and predispositions within the gameplay somehow. I figured that, because dreams and nightmares are so unique to the individual, I would attempt to implement that subjectivity into gameplay in the form of these predispositions. I think this could provide a strong basis for game variety and bolster the player's arsenal when developing their offences and defences. I'm going to look for specific predispositions that are interesting to me, that inspire the most ideas in terms of game development.

What is a 'predisposition' or 'trait'?

Predispositions and traits generally speaking are synonymous with the concept of instinct. When learning is taken out of the picture, every organism will act purely on instinct, since our genetics contain behaviours that we do not need to learn. For example, sea turtles will instinctively travel towards the ocean immediately after hatching.

What sort of predispositions and traits are there?

Fear

Fear is an emotion we experience 'in response to perceiving or recognising a threat'. Fear can be experienced through physiological changes that, in turn, produce behavioural changes such as an 'aggressive response or fleeing the threat'.
Fear is an innate capacity of human beings and many other organisms, and is believed to exist as an evolutionary development that helps to protect us from danger.
Individual fears can be both conditioned and/or innate - social factors can boost or diminish our fear towards specific things. For example, research has shown that humans are born with an innate fear of spiders and snakes.
Our experiences can heavily influence the things we are fearful of. For example, I believe my fear of bugs and insects has been exemplified by an allergic reaction I had to a wasp sting as a child - I cannot look at a bug and not associate it with that. I still find many bugs interesting and beautiful, but I could never touch them and despise having to remove them from my room.
Accumulated 'neuroimaging evidence suggests that visual information is transmitted from the retina to the amygdala via a subcortical pathway comprising the superior colliculus and pulvinar'.
The amygdala triggers the release of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline in response to fear stimuli. The physiological changes the fear response elicits 'prepare us to be more efficient in danger: the brain becomes hyperalert, pupils dilate, the bronchi dilate and breathing accelerates//blood flow and glucose to the skeletal muscles increase//Organs not vital to survival slow down'.
Fear can be strongly affected by contextual information due to the involvement of the hippocampus. The hippocampus and the frontal cortex 'process contextual information'. This means that contextual information can inhibit ones fear response. Seeing a spider while you're at home and having to capture and relocate it can be terrifying, but the same person won't experience the same level of fear if they saw the spider contained in a zoo.

Resilience

Psychological resilience is the 'process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands'.
Resilience isn't entirely genetic, but is certainly influenced by them. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) recently identified three new 'susceptibility loci: DCLK2, KLHL36, and SLC15A5'
Resilience can be altered by external factors. For example, traumatic events can significantly reduce our resilience, especially in the case of those with mental health disorders like PTSD. Studies have shown that 'stressful events during development has consistently been shown to produce long-lasting alterations in the HPA axis, which may increase vulnerability to disease, including PTSD and other mood/anxiety disorders'.
Resilience can be built up through techniques such as CBT. The APA (American Psychological Association) suggests ways in which one can build resilience:
- Building Connections (cultivating and maintaining positive relationships)
- Foster Wellness (exercise, eating healthily, meditation)
- Find Purpose (helping others, finding hobbies, actively seek to develop yourself)
- Embrace Healthy Thoughts (accepting change, being hopeful, learning from experience)
- Seeking Help (looking for assistance when times get tough)

Apathy

Apathy is defined as a 'lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern'. It is often characterised by low motivation, less energy, difficulty expressing emotion, and feeling uninterested in things they would usually enjoy. It is often associated with depression, as it can cause apathetic feelings. They can occur separately, however.
A study by the university of Oxford discovered that individuals with more apathetic tendencies showed an 'increased sensitivity to physical effort'. On the neural level, this was 'associated with greater recruitment of regions previously associated with effort'.
Apathy can be altered by external factors, often times occurring as a result of trauma or stress. The APA describes apathy syndrome as 'a pattern of emotional indifference that might develop in survivors of catastrophe or people held as prisoners of war'.

Aggression

Aggression is an 'overt, often harmful, social interaction with the intention of inflicting damage or other harm upon another individual'.
Aggressive tendencies can be innate within us, and is considered to be an evolutionary development that helps us 'gain access to valuable resources such as food and desirable mates or to protect ourselves from direct attack by others'. This aggression is, just like fear, contextual. We weigh up specific situations in order to determine whether aggression is the best solution. If we aggress someone much stronger than us, it's likely to cost us more than we gain, so we tend to 'use aggression only when we feel that we absolutely need to'.
Aggression is controlled in large part by the amygdala, which processes sensory information in relation to aggression in a similar way to fear. Fear also plays a part in conditioning aggression - the reason why dangerous and traumatic events are so memorable and influential is that the amygdala 'stimulates the brain to remember the details of the situation so we learn to avoid it'.
The prefrontal cortex plays a role in analysing the context of situations that could elicit aggressive responses. The 'neural connection between the amygdala and regions of the prefrontal cortex' gives us a stronger ability to 'control our aggressive impulses'. Studies on murderers and death row inmates have demonstrated that 'violent crime may be caused at least in part by a failure or reduced ability to regulate emotions'.
Hormones also play a big role in aggression. Studies into testosterone within male fraternity members have shown that there was a correlation between 'the testosterone levels and descriptions of each of the fraternities'. No study as of yet has been able to prove that testosterone outright causes aggressive tendencies, merely that there is correlation.
Serotonin also appears to play a role in aggression, this time acting to inhibit it. 'Violent criminals have lower levels of serotonin than do nonviolent criminals, and criminals convicted of impulsive crimes have lower serotonin levels than criminals convicted of premeditated crimes'.
Alcohol is capable of increasing aggressive tendencies - alcohol primarily induces aggression by inhibiting our ability to carry out executive functions (abilities that help us plan, organise, achieve goals, control emotions, inhibit behavioural tendencies). Executive functioning occurs within the prefrontal cortex, therefore it 'reduces the ability of the person who has consumed it to inhibit his or her aggression'
Negative emotions can also cause aggressive tendencies. Aggression can be evoked by frustration, pain, even heat. On the contrary, positive emotions can reduce aggression.

Empathy

Empathy is defined as the capacity one has to 'understand and share the feelings of another'.
Empathy is a trait I have personal experience with in terms of development. If I'm being honest, around the ages of 15-18, my humour and personality was quite 'edgy' and generally quite insensitive. I was the type of person who thought poking fun at others and trying to push people's buttons was funny. Of course, it can be fine to be a bit annoying within a friendship circle, but I'd act that way outside of my friendship groups. I think the main reason I don't act this way anymore is down to
- A. the communities and people I am around. The gaming community (whilst there is a massive amount of toxicity unfortunately lingering) has become a safe-space for many marginalised people, all of whom find themselves the subject of a lot of dark and edgy humour. Exposure and interaction within this community has indirectly made me more sensitive and aware of the implications of that.
- B. Relationships. I've had two relationships that have lasted over two years (I am currently in one) and, from my peers, I have received comments about how I have changed positively. I think some of my lack of empathy comes from my social anxiety and inexperience at actually interacting with people frequently, so engaging in a relationship has taught me things like compromise and how words can really deal damage. The most important thing however, is that I've become much more willing to admit to my mistakes - I used to be the type of person to place fault on another for getting offended over a comment, rather than realising that the comment is what caused the offense.
23andMe conducted a study in which it was discovered that genetics do seem to play a role in influencing empathy, but are not as important as environmental factors. Women also have a higher level of empathy than men on average.

Brief Interruption

Initially, I set out to look into specific attributes individuals may have that is inbuilt into ones genetics. However, the research I have carried out so far has made me realise that I should probably divert a bit to help open up my game further. I was fully aware of how significant our environments influence our personalities etc, but I think I overestimated how much our genetics play a role in this.

A better approach to this would be to identify general psychological and genetic traits that can be altered by environmental stimuli. I had a sudden realisation that looking specifically for these malleable traits plays much better into my game, as it allows for manipulation of the individual consciousness you play as. You can modify the attributes of said consciousness to 'buff' them throughout the game. This change in direction will help me identify a lot more traits I can use in my game, which I'm very happy to have realised.

I'm going to be much more general in my research into traits now, and I'm going to look for traits that are generally malleable and interesting to me, without confining them to traits that are dictated by genetics alone.

I also discovered the term 'cognitive abilities', which I will look into too!

What sort of traits can we have?

Courage

Courage is the 'choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation'. Courage is always inspired in the face of fear, and is typically something that arises when there is risk involved. For example, some of us would rather not reveal our feelings to a romantic interest because they fear the embarrassment, but some of us can overcome that fear and accept that there is potential for failure.
Physical courage is 'characterised by overcoming a fear of death or physical harm', moral courage is characterised by overcoming a fear of a 'loss of ethical integrity or authenticity/social disapproval', and psychological courage is characterised by a fear of a 'loss of psychological stability'.
Courage can correlate directly to the fight or flight response, and coincides with the fight part of it.
Studies into mice have shown that the fight response can be instigated by stimulating the 'tract that goes from the nucleus reuniens to the medical prefrontal cortex' and that the flight response can be instigated by stimulating the 'xiphoid nucleus'. This study has shed some light on the potential developments in treating different anxiety related conditions, such as PTSD or extreme phobias.

Memory

Memory is the brain's capacity to process and store information. Information in the brain is stored as neurological pathways, and the recall of information is simply 'the reactivation of a specific group of neurons'.
'Synapse plasticity' is what allows the correct neuron groups to activate for recall of specific information. Synapse plasticity is effectively the strength of the connections (synapses) between neurons. Plasticity refers to how the connections can strengthen with repeated use, and how they weaken with infrequent use.
The hippocampus and neocortex 'actually replays recent events' while we sleep which helps 'update the neocortex on what needs to be stored'.
Neurogenesis is the process in which new neurons are created, and research suggests that this process can occur during exercise - which increases 'the volume of the hippocampus'.

Creativity

Creativity is the 'human capacity to use your imagination and create solutions for complex problems'.
The hippocampus plays a major role in our creative thinking. It can help in 'piecing together details of experiences-people, places, objects, action'. By processing the past, the hippocampus is able to imagine what the future will be like.
A lot of brain regions associated with recalling past experiences also activate when we imagine future experiences. 'Important among them is a large set of cortical regions collectively known as the default network'. The default network connects the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, bilateral inferior parietal lobes, and medial temporal lobes.
The hippocampus and default network are heavily involved in a theory known as 'constructive episodic simulation hypothesis', which suggests that, to imagine the future, we must construct it based on the experiences of the past.
Currently it is unknown if creativity can be 'boosted' in any capacity, but research is being carried out to find out.

Pattern Recognition

Creativity is the 'human capacity to use your imagination and create solutions for complex problems'.
The hippocampus plays a major role in our creative thinking. It can help in 'piecing together details of experiences-people, places, objects, action'. By processing the past, the hippocampus is able to imagine what the future will be like.
A lot of brain regions associated with recalling past experiences also activate when we imagine future experiences. 'Important among them is a large set of cortical regions collectively known as the default network'. The default network connects the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, bilateral inferior parietal lobes, and medial temporal lobes.
The hippocampus and default network are heavily involved in a theory known as 'constructive episodic simulation hypothesis', which suggests that, to imagine the future, we must construct it based on the experiences of the past.
Currently it is unknown if creativity can be 'boosted' in any capacity, but research is being carried out to find out.