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Defining Empathy
Empathy: feelings of concern for others, experiencing emotion that match another individuals, knowing what others are thinking/feeling, or blurring the line between self and others.
Three components to empathy
Affective
Cognitive
Behavioral
*Due to this complexity, it is difficult to measure all components
of empathy in the same study.
Human Empathy
Not restricted to kin Does not require prompting by actual
perception of distress or emotional contagion
Can extend to strangers and across species
Empathy is not limited to the cortex, but includes the brainstem, ANS, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and the endocrine system
Key Concepts
Examination of how empathy evolved in the context of parental care in mammals
Neurological mechanisms that underlie empathy
Neurological Mechanisms
For basis affective states, are homologous in all mammals (genetically hardwired)
Evolved for differentiating hostile vs hospitable stimuli and organizing the adaptive response
Architecture maps onto neural circuitry of the limbic system: hypothalamus, parahippocampal cortex, amygdala, and inter-connected areas (septum, basal ganglia, nucleus accumbens, anterior insular cortex, and retrospenial cingulate cortex)
Limbic regions then project to the orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortex for evaluation of emotion as well as decision-making
Evidence for partial independent circuitry for positive or negative stimuli, supported by opposing roles of DA and Ach in the striatum for GABA output (avoidance or approach)
Basic affect circuits emerge earlier than higher cognitive function
Social species care for offspring longer need to respond to
emotional expression of hunger, pain, distress, or fear
Presence of some aspects of empathy in other mammals
Mammalian Parental Care
The nucleus accumbens is critical for attachment and maternal behavior
Neuropeptides like oxytocin, opiods, and prolactin, regulate empathetic responsiveness
Oxytocin facilitates maternal behavior, increases prosocial behavior, and reduces activity in areas associated with separation anxiety
OC nasal spray reduces social stress, can increase mutual trust, reduces amygdala activity and modulates its coupling brainstem regions involved in fear, and contributes to detection of facial expression.
Attachment security leads to more empathetic responses
Pain not only warns but attract attention
Mice study: Females will approach a familiar female in pain more often than a familiar female or a strange female in pain
Mother’s listening to crying babies show increased activity in the medial thalamus, insula, ACC, and OFC as well as rodent maternal structures like the midbrain, hypothalamus, striatum, and lateral septum
fMRI Studies
o Pain circuit is also emulated anticipation, perception or imagination
o Activation of te anterior insular cortex serve to compute a higher order meta-representation
• Plays a role in learning and adaptation of prosocial behavior, guiding decision-making
• To be motivated to help another, one needs to be empathetically aroused
o Empathetic response is more sensitive to:
• Loved ones
• Circumstances surrounding pain
• Prior interactions
• Ethnic groups
• Knowledge and experience of pain
Knowledge and Experience With Pain
Neuroimaging study Subjects shown videos of others
being pricked by needles
Controls show activation of pain matrix
Physicians show activation of cortical regions for executive functions and attention, no activation of pain matrix
Event-related potientials Same conditions
Controls show early response to pain/no pain differentiation
No ERP response for physicians
Frees up cognitive resources for being of assistance
Can Empathy Be Selfish?
Reinforcement by the DA system to the nucleus accumbens
Feedback from others
Reward network engaged when receiving monetary reward or voluntary donation of money
Presence of observers increases donation rates and significantly affects activity in striatal regions