NSCI 355 Lecture 7 (Empathy)

What is experience sharing?

The tendency to take on, resonate with, or 'share' the emotions of others; vicariously sharing another's internal state

What are the three main facets of empathy?

Experience sharing (Affective empathy) | Mentalizing (ToM) | Prosocial concern (Empathetic motivation)

What did Blakemore et al. (2005) find regarding experience sharing, specifically touching?

The somatosensory head area (SI head area) was activated in both when you are touched and when you view someone get touched.

How does experience sharing overlap with previous lectures?

Same areas are activated when viewing someone experience fear (amygdala) or disgust (insula)

What did Jabbi et al. (2007) find in terms of empathy in the gustatory cortex?

Empathy scores are able tp predict gustatory IFO (anterior insula + frontal operculum) activation when viewing pleased and disgusted faces.

What area of the brain is activated both when one experiences pain and observes pain as well?

Single neurons in the dACC

What was the setup to study pain and empathy by Singer et al. (2004)?

They recruited couples, one is in the fMRI machine and the other is the one receiving pain. The partner in the machine both receives pain and knows when their partner receives pain.

What regions overlapped in the Singer et al. (2004) study about couples empathy for pain?

Overlap in the ACC and the bilateral insula. Both these areas start spiking for anticipation cue and the actual delivery of pain.

Their empathy scores were positively correlated with ACC and insula activation in the study.

What are the regions in the shared pain network?

ACC & Insula

What did Rutgen et al. (2015) find regarding placebo analgesia and empathetic pain?

They see reduced activity in the Insula and ACC both when receiving pain and when they see others receive pain.

Rutgen et al. (2015) found that placebo analgesia lowers activity in pain network. Can an opioid receptor blocker reverse this effect?

Yes, Naltrexone blocked the placebo effect on empathy for pain.

What did Bruneau, Pluta & Saxe (2012) find when analyzing imagined physical vs emotional pain?

The shared pain network is active (ACC and insula) are active in all types of pain, both physical and emotional.

Emotional pain also showed activity in the mentalizing regions (dmPFC, mPFC)

What did Danziger et al. (2006) find regarding individuals with a condition where they cannot feal pain regarding empathic pain?

When it comes to the self, their pain ratings were way off control participants. However, they were the same when viewing others feel pain. They are able to feel empathy for other people's pain

What are the overall conclusions of Danziger et al. (2006), the study about people who can't feel pain?

High trait empathy can promote pain inference, even without capacity to mirror/simulate

Normal personal experience of pain is not required for perceiving and feeling empathy for other's pain

What did Danziger et al. (2009) find about the vmPFC relation to empathy?

The vmPFC (including the ACC) supports judgements about others' emotional states (emotional perspective taking). PCC also correlated with empathic scores.

What did Zaki et al. (2009) find regarding neural correlates of empathic accuracy?

Imagined emotional pain recruits mPFC and PCC. Empathic accuracy is associated with neural activity in mentalizing structures and mirror system structures.

Overall, this suggests that mentalizing processes can bolster simulation processes in understanding others' painful experiences in the absence of experience.

What did Singer et al. (2006) find regarding trustworthiness and its impact on empathy?

Fair players getting shocked had normal activation of ACC and Insula, but less activity when the unfair player gets shocked (This effect is much greater in men)

What differences did Cheng et al. (2007) find in empathic pain in controls vs. experts (such as doctors)

There is less activation in ACC and Insula in experts that deal with their patients experiencing pain often.

What did Tomova et al. (2016) find about how stress affects empathy?

The more stressed out a person is, the more activity seen in the shared pain network. --> Maybe stress leads to people being more likely to help?

What did Valk et al. 2017 find regarding training subjects to be more empathetic?

You can train others to feel empathy. The more they interacted with their modules, the more their shared pain network activated in subsequent scenarios they viewed.