Neuronal Correlates of Empathy: From Rodent to Human explores the neurobiology behind emotional contagion, compassionate behaviors and the similarities in rodents and human and non-human primates. The book provides clear and accessible information that avoids anthropomorphisms, reviews the latest research from the literature, and is essential reading for neuroscientists and others studying behavior, emotion and empathy impairments, both in basic research and preclinical studies. Though empathy is still considered by many to be a uniquely human trait, growing evidence suggests that it is present in other species, and that rodents, non-human primates, and humans share similarities. - Examines the continuum of behavioral and neurobiological responses between rodents—including laboratory rodents and monogamic species—and humans - Contains coverage of humans, non-human primates, and the emerging area of rodent studies - Explores the possibility of an integrated neurocircuitry for empathy

Empathy has been commonly referred to as a catalyst for prosocial behavior (i.e. helping). However, empathy does not always compel one to act in a supportive or helpful manner. This is because empathy is a complex, multidimensional construct which can involve the sharing of emotions with another (an affective process), taking the perspective of another (a cognitive process), and feeling sorrow or concern for another (prosocial concern), features which interact and promote prosocial behavior in varying ways depending on the situation. Neuroscience methods have allowed researchers to examine the neural correlates of these components as individuals undergo an empathic experience. Interestingly, there is evidence that the components of empathy have dissociable neural correlates with differing developmental trajectories. Importantly, neural regions underlying the cognitive component of empathy continue to undergo structural and functional change throughout adolescence, making it a particularly critical stage to investigate how empathy develops and relates to prosocial behavior. Thus, in the present study, 11-17-year-olds viewed the social exclusion of a same-aged peer (Cyberball) as they underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan. After exiting the scanner, participants were given the opportunity to write messages to both the victim and excluders who played in the Cyberball game. Participants' neural activity in Affective Pain (dACC, AI), Mentalizing (pSTS, dmPFC, TPJ), and Prosocial Concern (SA, mOFC) networks while viewing the exclusion (vs inclusion) were extracted and examined in relation to the degree of prosocial behavior participants displayed after the scan. Results revealed gender differences in both state empathy and prosocial behavior in response to viewing the social exclusion, such that girls reported feeling greater empathy for the victim of the exclusion. Affective Pain and Mentalizing networks both showed significant activation across the whole sample when viewing the exclusion episode compared to inclusion, though girls showed significantly greater activity in the Mentalizing network compared to boys. Additionally, there were significant gender differences in how trait perspective taking related to activation in the Affective Pain network during exclusion. In terms of how neural activity predicts subsequent prosocial behavior, the Prosocial Concern network was the only network to relate to prosocial behavior, such that older adolescents (15 to 17-year-olds) showed a significant positive relationship between Prosocial Concern network activity during exclusion and subsequent prosocial behavior. Results suggest important gender differences to consider in understanding empathy and prosocial behavior in adolescence, and reveal that the Prosocial Concern network is uniquely predictive of prosocial behavior amongst older adolescents. The Prosocial Concern network includes neural regions involved in the evolved mammalian and human caregiving systems. Thus, this may suggest that older adolescents have a more mature or developed caregiving system (aligning with the age in which they can physically reproduce), which can be used to support prosocial behavior.

In empathy toward emotional distress, the relationship between empathizer and empathy target may change dependent upon whether empathizers have personal experience with the emotionally distressing event, representing a shared experience between empathizer and empathy target. This research explored the neural and behavioral correlates of two key empathy-related processes, empathic concern and personal distress, as they pertain to shared experience. These processes were examined for empathy for an emotionally distressing event (e.g., the loss of a loved one) in empathizers who themselves had prior experience with losing a loved one compared to empathizers with no experience with loss. In addition to shared experience, Paper 1 examined neural correlates of empathic concern and personal distress using functional near-infrared imagery (fNIRS), and also explored how empathic concern, personal distress, and shared experience each relate to the likelihood of offering support as well as quality of any support offered. Paper 2 examined neural synchrony between empathizers and a storyteller empathy target as it pertained to shared vs. non-shared experience with losing a loved one. Paper 2 also tested the effects of a mindful attention intervention on empathic concern and personal distress, with the goal of reducing personal distress while maintaining empathic concern. Contributions to social neuroscience research and implications for support providers are discussed.

The Neuroscience of Empathy, Compassion, and Self-Compassion provides contemporary perspectives on the three related domains of empathy, compassion and self-compassion (ECS). It informs current research, stimulates further research endeavors, and encourages continued and creative philosophical and scientific inquiry into the critical societal constructs of ECS. Examining the growing number of electrocortical (EEG Power Spectral, Coherence, Evoked Potential, etc.) studies and the sizeable body of exciting neuroendocrine research (e.g., oxytocin, dopamine, etc.) that have accumulated over decades, this reference is a unique and comprehensive approach to empathy, compassion and self-compassion. - Provides perspectives on empathy, compassion and self-compassion (ECS), including discussions of cruelty, torture, killings, homicides, suicides, terrorism and other examples of empathy/compassion erosion - Addresses autonomic nervous system (vagal) reflections of ECS - Discusses recent findings and understanding of ECS from mirror neuron research - Covers neuroendocrine manifestations of ECS and self-compassion and the neuroendocrine enhancement - Examines the neuroscience research on the enhancement of ECS - Includes directed-meditations (mindfulness, mantra, Metta, etc.) and their effects on ECS and the brain

Recent work on empathy theory, research, and applications, by scholars from disciplines ranging from neuroscience to psychoanalysis. There are many reasons for scholars to investigate empathy. Empathy plays a crucial role in human social interaction at all stages of life; it is thought to help motivate positive social behavior, inhibit aggression, and provide the affective and motivational bases for moral development; it is a necessary component of psychotherapy and patient-physician interactions. This volume covers a wide range of topics in empathy theory, research, and applications, helping to integrate perspectives as varied as anthropology and neuroscience. The contributors discuss the evolution of empathy within the mammalian brain and the development of empathy in infants and children; the relationships among empathy, social behavior, compassion, and altruism; the neural underpinnings of empathy; cognitive versus emotional empathy in clinical practice; and the cost of empathy. Taken together, the contributions significantly broaden the interdisciplinary scope of empathy studies, reporting on current knowledge of the evolutionary, social, developmental, cognitive, and neurobiological aspects of empathy and linking this capacity to human communication, including in clinical practice and medical education.

Cross-disciplinary, cutting-edge work on human empathy from the perspectives of social, cognitive, developmental and clinical psychology and cognitive/affective neuroscience. In recent decades, empathy research has blossomed into a vibrant and multidisciplinary field of study. The social neuroscience approach to the subject is premised on the idea that studying empathy at multiple levels (biological, cognitive, and social) will lead to a more comprehensive understanding of how other people's thoughts and feelings can affect our own thoughts, feelings, and behavior. In these cutting-edge contributions, leading advocates of the multilevel approach view empathy from the perspectives of social, cognitive, developmental and clinical psychology and cognitive/affective neuroscience. Chapters include a critical examination of the various definitions of the empathy construct; surveys of major research traditions based on these differing views (including empathy as emotional contagion, as the projection of one's own thoughts and feelings, and as a fundamental aspect of social development); clinical and applied perspectives, including psychotherapy and the study of empathy for other people's pain; various neuroscience perspectives; and discussions of empathy's evolutionary and neuroanatomical histories, with a special focus on neuroanatomical continuities and differences across the phylogenetic spectrum. The new discipline of social neuroscience bridges disciplines and levels of analysis. In this volume, the contributors' state-of-the-art investigations of empathy from a social neuroscience perspective vividly illustrate the potential benefits of such cross-disciplinary integration. Contributors C. Daniel Batson, James Blair, Karina Blair, Jerold D. Bozarth, Anne Buysse, Susan F. Butler, Michael Carlin, C. Sue Carter, Kenneth D. Craig, Mirella Dapretto, Jean Decety, Mathias Dekeyser, Ap Dijksterhuis, Robert Elliott, Natalie D. Eggum, Nancy Eisenberg, Norma Deitch Feshbach, Seymour Feshbach, Liesbet Goubert, Leslie S. Greenberg, Elaine Hatfield, James Harris, William Ickes, Claus Lamm, Yen-Chi Le, Mia Leijssen, Abigail Marsh, Raymond S. Nickerson, Jennifer H. Pfeifer, Stephen W. Porges, Richard L. Rapson, Simone G. Shamay-Tsoory, Rick B. van Baaren, Matthijs L. van Leeuwen, Andries van der Leij, Jeanne C. Watson