Self-others processes: empathy and pro-social behaviour

What does it mean to empathise?

To feel with another person while recognising that the feeling originates from the other, not the self (self-other distinction)

How is empathy different from sympathy?

Sympathy involves feeling for someone (concern or compassion), whereas empathy involves sharing the other’s emotional state

How is empathy different from emotional contagion?

Emotional contagion involves automatic sharing of affect without self-other distinction; empathy requires awareness that the emotion belongs to the other

Emotion to Lockwood (2016) what is empathy distinct from?

Emotional contagion, mimicry, empathic concern, compassion and sympathy

In a broad view of empathy what 3 components are said to play a role in empathy?

Cognitive component- understanding aspect

Affective component- emotional contagion part

Motivational component- may depend on whether you know someone or whether it is a cost to helping

What is the narrow view of empathy?

View empathy as separate processes to other processes such as perspective taking and compassion

What are the two origins of empathy?

Ultimate and Proximate

How is ultimate an explanation for empathy?

Empathy evolved because it supports caregiving, cooperation, and group bonding, increasing fitness

How is Proximate an explanation for empathy?

Shared neural systems that allow individuals to represent others’ emotional states (Preston & de Waal, 2002)

4 findings that prove as evidence for proximate and ultimate

Rats helped trapped peers (Rice & Gainer, 1962)

Monkeys refused food if others shocked (Masserman, 1664)

Chimpanzees console victims (de Waal, 1996)

Infants showed empathy, guilt and altruism: contagion → helping (Zahn-Waxler et al 1983)

What is the Perception-Action model?

The idea that perceiving another’s emotional state automatically activates corresponding neural representations in the self

What processes does PAM link together?

Perception-action → emotional contagion → sympathy → cognitive empathy → prosocial behaviour

How does PAM explain higher-level empathy?

Cognitive control builds on basic perception-action mechanisms rather than replacing them

What are mirror neurons?

Neurons (in ventral premotor cortex/ F5) that fire both when performing an action and when observing the same action by others

How are mirror neurons linked to empathy?

They provide a neural mechanism for simulation, potentially supporting emotional contagion

What bold claim did Ramachandran make about mirror neurons?

That they would revolutionise psychology like DNA did for biology

What did Rizolatti et al. 2010 examine?

Neural activity in monkeys

What did Rizolatti et al. 2010 find?

A spike in response in the monkeys whenever the research carried out an action such as picking up a plate and when the monkeys were carrying out actions such as eating the food

What is the simulation theory?

We understand others’ minds via a process of simulation - “putting ourselves in other’s shoes” (Gallese, 2003)

What is Hickok’s (2008) main criticism about mirror neurons?

Little evidence that mirror neurons are necessary for action understanding in humans or monkeys

What is an alternative explanation for mirror neuron activity?

Learned sensorimotor associations or reward prediction rather than social mirroring

What is vicarious pain?

Experiencing an affective response when observing pain in others

Which brain regions are consistently involved? (Singer et al 2004)

Anterior insula (AI) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)

Why is reverse inference a concern here?

Activation in AI/ ACC does not necessarily mean the person is experiencing empathy

What did Singer et al (2004) assess in their fMRI study?

Brain activity when participants experienced pain or observed other people experiencing pain

Why were the participants couples?

To control for the motivational component of empathy

What were the findings?

Visual cue correlated with painful stimuli on oneself or signal that your partner was experiencing pain

How does placebo analgesia support shared representations?

Reducing one’s own pain also reduces neural and behavioural responses to others’ pain

What does congenital insensitivity to pain show?

Individuals still activate empathy-related regions when viewing others’ pain despite lacking first-hand pain experience

What does this imply?

Vicarious experience relies on both shared and non-shared neural mechanisms

Aspects of various experience may be atypical in psychopathy (don’t have a shared response but can understand/ read someone’s emotions)

What is mirror-touch synaethesia?

overactive somatosensory resonance → blurred self-other boundary

What is self-other control?

The ability to distinguish and regulate representations of self vs other

Why is self-other control crucial for empathy?

Too much empathy leads to distress; too little leads to indifference

What cognitive processes rely on self-other control?

Imitation control

Perspective-taking

Theory of mind

Empathy

How was empathy measured implicity?

Motor Evoked Potentials (MEPs) in response to others’ pain

What technique is used to measure MEPs

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

How does TMS work?

Non-invasively stimulates the motor cortex in the brain

Surface electrodes placed on hand- measures response from hand muscle

Different electrode placement on hand- measure response of thumb muscle

What was the experimental design of Guzman et al. (2016) day 1?

Participants did self-other control training: given a number cue + finger movement

Had to perform a different movement (see a video of lifting index finger but has to lift middle finger instead)

What were the two training conditions in Guzman et al. (2016)?

Decrease self-other control- practice lifting index when cued middle

Increase self-other control- practice lifting middle when cued index (harder- requires inhibition)

What was tested on day 2?

Imitation control task: Participants saw number cues with irrelevant finger movements and responded

Congruent trials (cue matches movement)

Incongruent trials (cue conflicts with movement)- require imitation control

How was corticospinal empathy measured in day 2?

Using TMS to measure MEPs in the finger muscle while observing someone either being prodded with a pencil or needle

Why was this experiment done over two days?

Good measure on whether people have increased self-other control

What were the findings in terms of motor resonance?

Decrease self-other control training increased empathic inhibition

Increase self-other training decreased empathic inhibition

Training affected motor resonance

What were the findings in terms of imitation control?

Decrease self-other control → larger imitation effect

Increase self-other control → smaller imitation effect

Training improved imitation control

What correlation was found between corticospinal empathic inhibition and control of involuntary imitation?

Positive correlation- people with stronger motor resonance suppression had better imitation control

What is the main finding?

Training self-other control in the motor imitation domain produces changes in the empathy domain. This demonstrates domain-general self-other control mechanisms

What does corticospinal empathic inhibition mean?

The ability to suppress automatic motor resonance when observing others’ actions

It is measured by reduced MEPs during action observation- motor system doesn’t automatically mirror what you see

What are some problems raised from this study?

No pre and post-empathy test- differences could reflect empathy differences

MEPs effects are solely linked to changes in corticospinal excitability caused by training

How did they try fix this issue?

Did another study using the same paradigm but used pre-post self-report measures of cognitive and affective empathy

What the key finding of this study?

Only the increased self-other control group showed increased empathy- especially affective empathy

Evidence against empathy being fully automatic?

Cognitive load disrupts empathic responses

Who shows more automatic empathy?

Individuals high in trait empathy show stronger MPFC activity even under load

What is the empathy measurement problem?

Describing someone as ‘lacking empathy’ lacks specificity

What was a formulation of empathy?

Empathy = emotion identification x affect sharing

What is the definition of emotion identification?

Recognising another’s emotion accurately

Which atypical condition has a deficit in emotion identification?

Autism

What is affect sharing?

Experiencing parallel state in self

What atypical condition has a deficit in affect sharing?

Psychopathy

How are empathy and theory of mind related?

Rely on distinct but complementary neural systems

What do they share?

A requirement for self-other distinction to avoid egocentric bias

Why link empathy to leaning?

Empathic individuals may learn more efficiently which actions benefit others

What does prosocial learning research suggest?

Empathy is correlated with prosocial behaviour and motivation to benefit others