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Although the processes that underlie sharing others' emotions (empathy) and understanding others' mental states (mentalizing, Theory of Mind) have received increasing attention, it is yet unclear how they relate to each other. For instance, are people who strongly empathize with others also more proficient in mentalizing? And (how) do the neural networks supporting empathy and mentalizing interact? Assessing both functions simultaneously in a large sample (N ¼ 178), we show that people's capacities to empathize and mentalize are independent, both on a behavioral and neural level. Thus, strong empathizers are not necessarily proficient mentalizers, arguing against a general capacity of social understanding. Second, we applied dynamic causal modeling to investigate how the neural networks underlying empathy and mentalizing are orchestrated in naturalistic social settings. Results reveal that in highly emotional situations, empathic sharing can inhibit mentalizing-related activity and thereby harm mentalizing performance. Taken together, our findings speak against a unitary construct of social understanding and suggest flexible interplay of distinct social functions.
Most instances of social interaction provide a wealth of information about the states of other people, be it sensations, feelings, thoughts, or convictions. How we represent these states has been a major question in social neuroscience, leading to the identification of two routes to understanding others: an affective route for the direct sharing of others' emotions (empathy) that involves, among others, anterior insula and middle anterior cingulate cortex and a cognitive route for representing and reasoning about others' states (Theory of Mind) that entails, among others, ventral temporoparietal junction and anterior and posterior midline regions. Additionally, research has revealed a number of situational and personal factors that shape the functioning of empathy and Theory of Mind. Concerning situational modulators, it has been shown, for instance, that ingroup membership enhances empathic responding and that Theory of Mind performance seems to be susceptible to stress. Personal modulators include psychopathological conditions, for which alterations in empathy and mentalizing have consistently been demonstrated; people on the autism spectrum, for instance, are impaired specifically in mentalizing, while spontaneous empathic responding seems selectively reduced in psychopathy. Given the multifaceted evidence for separability of the two routes, current research endeavors aiming at fostering interpersonal cooperation explore the differential malleability of affective and cognitive understanding of others.
Humans have the capacity to share others' emotions, be they positive or negative. Elicited by the observed or imagined emotion of another person, an observer develops a similar emotional state herself. This capacity, empathy, is one of the pillars of social understanding and interaction as it creates a representation of another's inner, mental state. Empathy needs to be dissociated from other social emotions and, crucially, also from cognitive mechanisms of understanding others, the ability to take others' perspective. Here, we describe the conceptual distinctions of these constructs and review behavioral and neural evidence that dissociates them. The main focus of the present review lies on the intraindividual changes in empathy and perspective-taking across the lifespan and on interindividual differences on subclinical and clinical levels. The data show that empathy and perspective-taking recruit distinct neural circuits and can be discerned already during early and throughout adult development. Both capacities also vary substantially between situations and people. Differences can be systematically related to situational characteristics as well as personality traits and mental disorders. The clear distinction of affect sharing from other social emotions like compassion and from cognitive perspective-taking, argues for a clear-cut terminology to describe these constructs. In our view, this speaks against using empathy as an umbrella term encompassing all affective and cognitive routes to understanding others. Unifying the way we speak about these phenomena will help to further research on their underlying mechanisms, psychopathological alterations, and plasticity in training and therapy.
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
Intersections and Divergences Between Empathizing and Mentalizing: Development, Recent Advancements by Neuroimaging and the Future of Animal Modeling2019 •
Both mentalization and empathy allow humans to understand others, through the representation of their mental states or their mood, respectively. The present review aims to explain those characteristics which are shared between empathy and the Theory of Mind. Research in neuroscience, based on naturalistic paradigms, has shown that abilities to mentalize and to empathize are associated with the activation of different neuro-cognitive circuits. As far as mirror-neuron processes are concerned, some structures (like Anterior Insula, AI; Anterior Cingulate Cortex, ACC) play a role both in the representation of one's own affective states and in comprehension of the same affective state when experienced by others. As for mentalization, the temporal parietal junction (TPj) and temporal poles (TP), the upper posterior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are greatly involved: the latter appears involved in the attribution of one's own and others' temperaments. Interestingly, the ventral/orbital portion of the PFC (orbito-frontal cortex, OFC) is involved in subserving shared affective experience during cognitive mentalizing. This brain region represents a point of overlap, from a psycho-biological point of view, where emotional mirroring and affective cognition meet up. As for animal models, laboratory rodents can well be tested for prosocial behavior. Some examples include deliberate actions, allowing another conspecific the possibility to feed ("giving food"): this willingness can vary across donors, depending on how the recipient is perceived. Other examples include the possibility to let a trapped conspecific come out ("giving help"). The state-of-the-art knowledge about this theme can inform the programming of specific clinical interventions, based on the reinforcement of empathic and/or mentalization abilities.
Mindreading refers to the ability to attribute mental states, including thoughts, intentions and emotions, to oneself and others, and is essential for navigating the social world. Empirical mindreading research has predominantly featured children, groups with autism spectrum disorder and clinical samples, and many standard tasks suffer ceiling effects with neurologically typical (NT) adults. We first outline a case for studying mindreading in NT adults and proceed to review tests of emotion perception, cognitive and affective mentalizing, and multidimensional tasks combining these facets. We focus on selected examples of core experimental paradigms including emotion recognition tests, social vignettes, narrative fiction (prose and film) and participative interaction (in real and virtual worlds), highlighting challenges for studies with NT adult cohorts. We conclude that naturalistic, multidimensional approaches may be productively applied alongside traditional tasks to facilitate a more nuanced picture of mindreading in adulthood, and to ensure construct validity whilst remaining sensitive to variation at the upper echelons of the ability.
Altruistic behavior varies considerably across people and decision contexts. The relevant computational and motivational mechanisms that underlie its heterogeneity, however, are poorly understood. Using a charitable giving task together with multivariate decoding techniques, we identified three distinct psychological mechanisms underlying altruistic decision-making (empathy, perspective taking, and attentional reorienting) and linked them to dissociable neural computations. Neural responses in the anterior insula (AI) (but not temporoparietal junction [TPJ]) encoded trial-wise empathy for beneficiaries, whereas the TPJ (but not AI) predicted the degree of perspective taking. Importantly, the relative influence of both socio-cognitive processes differed across individuals: participants whose donation behavior was heavily influenced by affective empathy exhibited higher predictive accuracies for generosity in AI, whereas those who strongly relied on cognitive perspective taking showed improved predictions of generous donations in TPJ. Furthermore, subject-specific contributions of both processes for donations were reflected in participants' empathy and perspective taking responses in a separate fMRI task (EmpaToM), suggesting that process-specific inputs into altruistic choices may reflect participants' general propensity to either empathize or mentalize. Finally, using independent attention task data, we identified shared neural codes for attentional reorienting and generous donations in the posterior superior temporal sulcus, suggesting that domain-general attention shifts also contribute to generous behavior (but not in TPJ or AI). Overall, our findings demonstrate highly specific roles of AI for affective empathy and TPJ for cognitive perspective taking as precursors of prosocial behavior and suggest that these discrete routes of social cognition differentially drive intraindividual and interindividual differences in altruistic behavior.
2019 •
El cultivo de la autoconciencia y el bienestar emocional en los profesionales que trabajan con el sufrimiento Resumen: Las personas que eligen profesiones de ayuda a otros, poseen una actitud compasiva, que en los sanitarios se orienta a tratar, cuidar y aliviar la enfermedad o el sufrimiento ajeno. Frecuentemente su profesión los lleva a enfrentarse a situaciones de impacto emocional, a menudo con escasas habilidades para afrontarlas. Estar expuesto cotidianamente al sufrimiento, sin la conciencia apropiada para tomar la perspectiva adecuada, gestionar las emociones, y poder responder constructivamente, puede producir en el profesional sobreimplicación emocional, desgaste empático o estrés traumático secundario, y burnout. Recientes avances en neurociencias y psicología, facilitan una mejor comprensión de la relación de ayuda (profesional-paciente), y han evidenciado la influencia positiva de intervenciones formativas, adaptadas de prácticas contemplativas. Éstas permiten entrenar y cultivar habilidades que desarrollan la autoconciencia, una gestión emocional eficiente, mayor resiliencia y compasión. El desarrollo de estas habilidades fundamentales en el trabajo clínico, a través del entrenamiento, permiten evitar el contagio emocional y el distrés profesional, y como consecuencia fomentar una mayor satisfacción profesional. Aquí se revisan, algunas bases neurobiológicas de la empatía, la compasión, y la gestión emocional, y algunas evidencias sobre los beneficios de cultivar atención, autoconciencia, compasión y la metacognición, en el afrontamiento eficiente del sufrimiento y el bienestar de los profesionales que trabajan con el sufrimiento. Se presenta finalmente una propuesta de intervención orientada a promover entre los profesionales, la solidez y flexibilidad emocional necesarios para trabajar de forma segura, eficiente y gozosa, y recuperar el sentido humanista y compasivo de la vocación profesional. Abstract: Professionals that choose to work helping others, present a compassionate attitude, that in clinicians is oriented to treat, take care and ease others illness and suffering. These clinicians usually face situations of high emotional impact and often lack the abilities to deal with them. Being continuously exposed to suffering, without the consciousness to take the proper perspective, manage emotions and answer constructively, can cause professionals' over-implication, emphatic distress, secondary traumatic stress and burnout. Recent advances in psychology and neuroscience lead to a better understanding of the relationship between professionals and patients, as well as evidence the positive influence of training interventions adapted from contemplative practices. These interventions train and develop abilities that help developing an auto-consciousness, an effective emotional management, and a higher resilience and compassion. The development, through training, of these fundamental skills in clinical work, avoids emotional contagion and professional distress, and at the same time promotes a greater professional satisfaction. Herein we review some of the neurological bases of empathy, compassion and emotional management. We also discuss some evidences of the benefits of cultivating awareness, self-consciousness,
2019 •
Las personas que eligen profesiones de ayuda a otros, poseen una actitud compasiva, que en los sanitarios se orienta a tratar, cuidar y aliviar la enfermedad o el sufrimiento ajeno. Frecuentemente su profesión los lleva a enfrentarse a situaciones de impacto emocional, a menudo con escasas habilidades para afrontarlas. Estar expuesto cotidianamente al sufrimiento, sin la conciencia apropiada para tomar la perspectiva adecuada, gestionar las emociones, y poder responder constructivamente, puede producir en el profesional sobreimplicación emocional, desgaste empático o estrés traumático secundario, y burnout. Recientes avances en neurociencias y psicología, facilitan una mejor comprensión de la relación de ayuda (profesional–paciente), y han evidenciado la influencia positiva de intervenciones formativas, adaptadas de prácticas contemplativas. Éstas permiten entrenar y cultivar habilidades que desarrollan la autoconciencia, una gestión emocional eficiente, mayor resiliencia y compasión. El desarrollo de estas habilidades fundamentales en el trabajo clínico, a través del entrenamiento, permiten evitar el contagio emocional y el distrés profesional, y como consecuencia fomentar una mayor satisfacción profesional. Aquí se revisan, algunas bases neurobiológicas de la empatía, la compasión, y la gestión emocional, y algunas evidencias sobre los beneficios de cultivar atención, autoconciencia, compasión y la metacognición, en el afrontamiento eficiente del sufrimiento y el bienestar de los profesionales que trabajan con el sufrimiento. Se presenta finalmente una propuesta de intervención orientada a promover entre los profesionales, la solidez y flexibilidad emocional necesarios para trabajar de forma segura, eficiente y gozosa, y recuperar el sentido humanista y compasivo de la vocación profesional
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
Cognitive, affective, and conative theory of mind (ToM) in children with traumatic brain injury2013 •
Cerebral Cortex
Selective Disruption of Sociocognitive Structural Brain Networks in Autism and Alexithymia2013 •
Frontiers in Psychology
The Role of Orbitofrontal Cortex in Processing Empathy Stories in 4- to 8-Year-Old ChildrenNeuroscience Research
The role of shared neural activations, mirror neurons, and morality in empathy – A critical comment2015 •
Scientific Study of Literature
Burke, M., Kuzmičová, A., Mangen, A., & Schilhab, T. (2016): Empathy at the confluence of neuroscience and empirical literary studies2016 •
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Social and Personality Psychology Compass
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Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
Age-dependent changes in the neural substrates of empathy in autism spectrum disorder2013 •
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Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews
The Functional Architecture of Human Empathy2004 •
Brain Structure and Function
Parsing the neural correlates of moral cognition: ALE meta-analysis on morality, theory of mind, and empathy2012 •
Frontiers in Psychology
The neural mediators of kindness-based meditation: a theoretical model2015 •
2012 •
Translational Psychiatry
Emotional contagion for pain is intact in autism spectrum disorders2014 •