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Related Concept Videos

Empathy02:34

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Some researchers suggest that altruism operates on empathy. Empathy is the capacity to understand another person’s perspective, to feel what he or she feels. An empathetic person makes an emotional connection with others and feels compelled to help (Batson, 1991). Empathy can be expressed in several ways, including cognitive, affective, and motor.
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Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotion Regulation
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Published on: August 26, 2011

Functional neural plasticity and associated changes in positive affect after compassion training.

Olga M Klimecki1, Susanne Leiberg, Claus Lamm

  • 1Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig 04103, Germany.

Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
|June 5, 2012
PubMed
Summary

Compassion training enhances positive emotions when witnessing distress. This study reveals neural changes in brain regions linked to positive affect and affiliation, offering a new coping strategy.

Keywords:
Socio-affective Video Taskaffective trainingbrainempathyfMRI

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychology
  • Social Sciences

Background:

  • Social emotions like compassion are vital for well-being and social functioning.
  • Neural mechanisms of compassion training are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Investigate affective plasticity and neural mechanisms of compassion training in healthy adults.
  • Examine how compassion training impacts subjective and neural responses to witnessing distress.

Main Methods:

  • Developed a novel Socio-affective Video Task to assess responses to others' distress.
  • Measured functional neural activity and subjective emotional experiences before and after compassion training.
  • Compared a compassion training group with a memory control group.

Main Results:

  • Initial empathic responses involved negative affect and activation in the anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex.
  • Compassion training shifted responses from negative to positive affect, even when witnessing distress.
  • Neural analysis revealed increased activity in brain regions associated with positive affect (medial orbitofrontal cortex, putamen, pallidum, ventral tegmental area) in the training group.

Conclusions:

  • Deliberate cultivation of compassion can foster positive affect, serving as an effective coping strategy.
  • Compassion training alters neural pathways, promoting positive emotional experiences during challenging social situations.