Empathy: enables sharing of emotion, pain, and sensation of others. Perception-action model of...
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Transcript of Empathy: enables sharing of emotion, pain, and sensation of others. Perception-action model of...
Empathy: enables sharing of emotion, pain, and sensation of others.
Perception-action model of empathy› Observing or imagining another person in a particular
emotional state activates a representation of that state in the observer.
› Common activation for experiencing a feeling (i.e. pain) and perceiving the same feeling in someone else.
Empathy for Pain shows activation in:› Anterior Insula (AI) and Fronto-insular Cortex (FI)› Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC)
Hypothesis 1: Pain-related empathic responses in A1/F1 and ACC will be elicited when observing a fair person in pain, but will be reduced or absent when observing an unfair person in pain.
Hypothesis 2: Increase in activation in brain areas known to be important in reward processing due to satisfaction from punishing unfair players.› Ventral Striatum, Nucleus Accumbens, and Orbito-Frontal
Cortex
Subjects: 16 men and 16 women
Scanner: 1.5 T Siemens Sonata MRI scanner
Economic game model: Prisoner’s Dilemma game - used to induce liking or disliking of actors by subjects.
Male/female subjects rated fair players significantly
more fair, agreeable, likeable, and attractive.
Subject plays PDG – induce liking/disliking Pain administered by stimulation through
electrodes to the dorsum of the right hand of all three participants
fMRI -measure brain responses when individuals empathized with pain of someone they liked or disliked.
Rate: stimulation intensity, liking of both actors, and desire for revenge.
Self-felt pain: increase in A1 and ACC activity.
Unfamiliar, but likeable person in pain: significant activation in A1 extending into F1 (both genders) and ACC
(women)
Unfair vs. fair player in pain
Women: • no significant difference in empathy-related pain activation• Significant activation in bilateral A1/F1 and ACC in all three conditions
Men: significant increase in F1 activation for fair player and no increase in F1 activation for unfair players.
Reward processing areas (ventral striatum, nucleus accumbens, and left orbito-frontal cortex) show increase activity in men only.
Men express stronger desire for revenge› Greater activation in
nucleus accumbens
Selfish (unfair) behavior abolishes empathic responses in the brain.
People (men) value gains of others positively only if they are perceived to act fairly.
Humans derive satisfaction from seeing ‘justice’ administered, even if punishment is out of their control.
Strengths
fMRI scanner
Color-coded fMRI images for men/women
Limitations
Experimental design favored men –
punishment related to
physical threat.
Conduct experiment with punishment more relevant
to women – ex:
psychological threat.