The Empathic Brain
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1
Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (KNAW), Netherlands
One of the most remarkable features of human interactions is our intuitive sense that the people around us have intentions, sensations and emotions like our own. In this talk, I will review evidence that neurons and brain regions involved in controlling our own actions become activated while we see or hear those of others (1, 2). I will address the less recognized fact that regions involved in sensing our own body (SI/SII) become active while we see the movements and tactile sensations of others (3). I will show that insular and cingulate cortices become active while we view the emotions of others (4). These three sets of data show that we have an empathic brain: a brain that activates representations of our own actions, sensations and emotions whenever we see those of others, as if we were in their stead. I will suggest, that these vicarious activations are not the mysterious product of some genetic predisposition to empathize with others, but, at least in part, the result of simple Hebbian learning between executing an action and seeing/hearing oneself do the action (5). I will then review evidence, that disturbing regions of the empathic brain can lead to impairments in understanding the inner states of others. I will then present behavioral data from a study in which we find evidence for empathy in rats (6), and data from a study with participants with psychopathy where we find the empathic brain to be hypoactive.
Further Reading: the book The Empathic Brain by Christian Keysers, (www.amazon.co.uk/dp/9081829203/ or www.booktopia.com.au/prod9789081829205.html)
References
1. Gazzola V, Aziz-Zadeh L, & Keysers C (2006) Empathy and the somatotopic auditory mirror system in humans. Current Biology 16(18):1824-1829
2. Gazzola V & Keysers C (2009) The Observation and Execution of Actions Share Motor and Somatosensory Voxels in all Tested Subjects: Single-Subject Analyses of Unsmoothed fMRI Data. Cerebral Cortex 19(6):1239-1255
3. Keysers C, Kaas JH, & Gazzola V (2010) Somatosensation in social perception. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 11(6):417-428
4. Bastiaansen JA, Thioux M, & Keysers C (2009) Evidence for mirror systems in emotions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences 364(1528):2391-2404
5. Keysers C & Perrett DI (2004) Demystifying social cognition: a Hebbian perspective. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8(11):501-507
6. Atsak P, et al. (2011) Experience Modulates Vicarious Freezing in Rats: A Model for Empathy. Plos One
Keywords:
Empathy,
emotion,
Intentions,
Sensation,
social neuroscience
Conference:
ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 29 Nov - 2 Dec, 2012.
Presentation Type:
Keynote Talk
Topic:
Emotion and Social
Citation:
Keysers
C
(2012). The Empathic Brain.
Conference Abstract:
ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2012.208.00001
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Received:
12 Oct 2012;
Published Online:
26 Oct 2012.
*
Correspondence:
Prof. Christian Keysers, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (KNAW), Amsterdam, Netherlands, c.keysers@nin.knaw.nl