The Neural Valuation System Underpins More Optimal Choices When Learning to Avoid Harm to Others Than to Oneself
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How Do We Empathize with Someone Who Is Not Like Us? a Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study
Lamm, C; Meltzoff, A N; Decety, J (2010). How do we empathize with someone who is not like us? A functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(2):362-376. Postprint available at: http://www.zora.uzh.ch University of Zurich Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich. Zurich Open Repository and Archive http://www.zora.uzh.ch Originally published at: Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 2010, 22(2):362-376. Winterthurerstr. 190 CH-8057 Zurich http://www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2010 How do we empathize with someone who is not like us? A functional magnetic resonance imaging study Lamm, C; Meltzoff, A N; Decety, J Lamm, C; Meltzoff, A N; Decety, J (2010). How do we empathize with someone who is not like us? A functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(2):362-376. Postprint available at: http://www.zora.uzh.ch Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich. http://www.zora.uzh.ch Originally published at: Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 2010, 22(2):362-376. How Do We Empathize with Someone Who Is Not Like Us? A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study Claus Lamm1, Andrew N. Meltzoff2, and Jean Decety1 Abstract & Previous research on the neural underpinnings of empathy control (right inferior frontal cortex). In addition, effective has been limited to affective situations experienced in a simi- connectivity between the latter and areas implicated in af- lar way by an observer and a target individual. In daily life we fective processing was enhanced. -
Michalska, Emotion Understanding in Developmental Disorders
Volume 10, No 1, Spring 2015 ISSN 1932-1066 Emotion Understanding in Developmental Disorders What Can Neuroscience Teach Us? Kalina J. Michalska National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda [email protected] Abstract: Empathy is thought to play a key role in motivating helping behavior and providing the affective basis for moral development. Neuroimaging studies clearly document that watching someone in pain elicits a negative arousal response in the observer to a stronger degree in children than in young adults. Findings indicate that although children and adults have similar patterns of brain response to perceiving other people in pain, there are important changes in the functional organization in the neural structures implicated in empathy and sympathy that occur over an extended period from childhood through adulthood. Keywords: Emotion sharing; moral development; empathy; disorder, developmental; distress; neuroatanomy, fuctional; neuroimaging. Emotion understanding has many facets. Emotional in neuroscience that is not readily available from other empathy—the ability to recognize, share, and make measures. The use of neural indices, in addition to the inferences about another person's emotional state—is more traditional self-report indices, allows to address one form of emotion understanding that is fundamental questions of clinical and developmental interest. to meaningful social interactions. Responses related Based on empirical findings from psychology to emotional empathy, such as feelings of sympathy and cognitive neuroscience, -
The Social Neuroscience of Empathy Tania Singer and Claus Lamm University of Zurich, Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, Zurich, Switzerland
THE YEAR IN COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE 2009 The Social Neuroscience of Empathy Tania Singer and Claus Lamm University of Zurich, Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, Zurich, Switzerland The phenomenon of empathy entails the ability to share the affective experiences of others. In recent years social neuroscience made considerable progress in revealing the mechanisms that enable a person to feel what another is feeling. The present review pro- vides an in-depth and critical discussion of these findings. Consistent evidence shows that sharing the emotions of others is associated with activation in neural structures that are also active during the first-hand experience of that emotion. Part of the neural activation shared between self- and other-related experiences seems to be rather auto- matically activated. However, recent studies also show that empathy is a highly flexible phenomenon, and that vicarious responses are malleable with respect to a number of factors—such as contextual appraisal, the interpersonal relationship between em- pathizer and other, or the perspective adopted during observation of the other. Future investigations are needed to provide more detailed insights into these factors and their neural underpinnings. Questions such as whether individual differences in empathy can be explained by stable personality traits, whether we can train ourselves to be more empathic, and how empathy relates to prosocial behavior are of utmost relevance for both science and society. Key words: empathy; social neuroscience; pain; fMRI; anterior insula (AI); anterior cingulate cortex (ACC); prosocial behavior; empathic concern, altruism; emotion contagion Introduction ultimately results in a better understanding of the present and future mental states and actions Being able to understand our conspecifics’ of the people around us and possibly promotes mental and affective states is a cornerstone of prosocial behavior. -
Placebo Analgesia and Its Opioidergic Regulation Suggest That Empathy for Pain Is Grounded in Self Pain
Placebo analgesia and its opioidergic regulation suggest that empathy for pain is grounded in self pain Markus Rütgena, Eva-Maria Seidela, Giorgia Silanib,c, Igor Riecanskýˇ a,d, Allan Hummere,f, Christian Windischbergere,f, Predrag Petrovicg, and Claus Lamma,1 aSocial, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1010, Austria; bCognitive Neuroscience Sector, International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste 34136, Italy; cDepartment of Applied Psychology: Health, Development, Enhancement and Intervention, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1010, Austria; dLaboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Normal and Pathological Physiology, Centre of Excellence for Examination of Regulatory Role of Nitric Oxide in Civilization diseases, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava 813 71, Slovakia; eMedical Research (MR) Center of Excellence, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria; fCenter for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria; and gCognitive Neurophysiology Research Group, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm 171 76, Sweden Edited by Naomi I. Eisenberger, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, and accepted by the Editorial Board August 25, 2015 (received for review June 16, 2015) Empathy for pain activates brain areas partially overlapping with limitations. First, fMRI has mostly been used as a correlational those underpinning the first-hand experience of pain. It remains method that identifies neural responses co-occurring with certain unclear, however, whether such shared activations imply that pain cognitive-psychological functions, thus precluding mechanistic empathy engages similar neural functions as first-hand pain conclusions. Second, the hemodynamic responses fMRI is based experiences. -
Reduction of Empathy for Pain by Placebo Analgesia Suggests Functional Equivalence of Empathy and First-Hand Emotion Experience
8938 • The Journal of Neuroscience, June 10, 2015 • 35(23):8938–8947 Behavioral/Cognitive Reduction of Empathy for Pain by Placebo Analgesia Suggests Functional Equivalence of Empathy and First-Hand Emotion Experience Markus Ru¨tgen,1 Eva-Maria Seidel,1 Igor Riecˇansky´,1,2 and XClaus Lamm1 1Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria, and 2Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Normal and Pathological Physiology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 81371 Bratislava, Slovakia Previous research in social neuroscience has consistently shown that empathy for pain recruits brain areas that are also activated during the first-hand experience of pain. This has been interpreted as evidence that empathy relies upon neural processes similar to those underpinning the first-hand experience of emotions. However, whether such overlapping neural activations imply that equivalent neural functions are engaged by empathy and direct emotion experiences remains to be demonstrated. We induced placebo analgesia, a phenomenon specifically modulating the first-hand experience of pain, to test whether this also reduces empathy for pain. Subjective and neural measures of pain and empathy for pain were collected using self-report and event-related potentials (ERPs) while participants underwent painful electrical stimulation or witnessed that another person was undergoing such stimulation. Self-report showed de- creased empathy during placebo analgesia, and this was mirrored by reduced amplitudes of the pain-related P2, an ERP component indexing neural computations related to the affective-motivational component of pain. Moreover, these effects were specific for pain, as self-report and ERP measures of control conditions unrelated to pain were not affected by placebo analgesia. -
PHIL 4220A Empathy Winter 2013 Wednesdays 14:35-17:25, Paterson 3A36
PHIL 4220A Empathy Winter 2013 Wednesdays 14:35-17:25, Paterson 3A36 Instructor Heidi Lene Maibom Department of Philosophy Paterson Hall 3A39 613 - 520 3825 [email protected] Office hours Fridays 13:00-14:00 or by appointment Course Description Empathy is now one of the more researched emotions, with hundreds of papers published every year and dozens of books on its amazing powers. Empathy is thought to be central to understanding other minds, knowing what it’s like for someone else, the appreciation of works of art, and morality. In this course we examine the literature on empathy from philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology. We will especially focus on the role of empathy in understanding others, in feeling for them, and in moral thought and motivation. Requirements Students are expected to attend the weekly meetings. Part of the final grade is participation (10%). Each student will complete 2 small writing assignments on readings for the class (10% each), a midterm essay set by me (20%), and a final paper (50%). The students who have prepared papers on the week’s readings, are expected to be able to provide concise summaries of the texts in class. However, the papers themselves should not be summaries of the texts, but should choose a central thesis and discuss it in some detail. Each should be around 2 pages. I should get a copy of the paper at the end of class. Midterm assignment is 6 pages. The final paper can be an elaboration of any one of the short papers. It should be 15 pages long. -
The Administration of the Opioid Buprenorphine Decreases Motivational Error Signals
The administration of the opioid buprenorphine decreases motivational error signals Pfabigan, D. M.1,2*, Rütgen, M.2, Kroll, S. L.3, Riečanský, I.2,4, & Lamm, C.2* 1 Department of Behavioural Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Sognsvannsveien 9, 0372 Oslo, Norway 2 Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010 Vienna, Austria 3 Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience, Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Linköping University, Psychiatry Building, Entrance 27, Floor 9, 581 85 Linköping, Sweden 4 Department of Behavioural Neuroscience, Institute of Normal and Pathological Physiology, Centre of Experimental Medicine, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Sienkiewiczova 1, Bratislava 81371, Slovakia * Corresponding authors: Daniela M. Pfabigan, PhD Department of Behavioural Medicine Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo Sognsvannsveien 9 0372 Oslo, Norway [email protected] Claus Lamm, PhD Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna Liebiggasse 5 1010 Vienna, Austria [email protected] Markus Rütgen: [email protected] Sara L. Kroll: [email protected] Igor Riečanský: [email protected] Running head: Buprenorphine and errors Word count: 4620 This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Psychoneuroendocrinology. The final authenticated version will be available online at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2021.105199 1 Abstract (262 words) While opioid addiction has reached pandemic proportions, we still lack a good understanding of how the administration of opioids interacts with cognitive functions. -
The Neural Valuation System Underpins More Optimal Choices When Learning to Avoid Harm to Others Than to Oneself
7286 • The Journal of Neuroscience, September 16, 2020 • 40(38):7286–7299 Behavioral/Cognitive When Implicit Prosociality Trumps Selfishness: The Neural Valuation System Underpins More Optimal Choices When Learning to Avoid Harm to Others Than to Oneself Lukas L. Lengersdorff,1 Isabella C. Wagner,1 Patricia L. Lockwood,2,3 and Claus Lamm1 1Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, 1010, Austria, 2Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3PH, United Kingdom, and 3Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom Humans learn quickly which actions cause them harm. As social beings, we also need to learn to avoid actions that hurt others. It is currently unknown whether humans are as good at learning to avoid others’ harm (prosocial learning) as they are at learning to avoid self-harm (self-relevant learning). Moreover, it remains unclear how the neural mechanisms of proso- cial learning differ from those of self-relevant learning. In this fMRI study, 96 male human participants learned to avoid painful stimuli either for themselves or for another individual. We found that participants performed more optimally when learning for the other than for themselves. Computational modeling revealed that this could be explained by an increased sensitivity to subjective values of choice alternatives during prosocial learning. Increased value sensitivity was further associ- ated with empathic traits. On the neural level, higher value sensitivity during prosocial learning was associated with stronger engagement of the ventromedial PFC during valuation. Moreover, the ventromedial PFC exhibited higher connectivity with the right temporoparietal junction during prosocial, compared with self-relevant, choices. -
Modulation of EEG in the Mu/Alpha Range
Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience 2010, 10 (4), 493-504 doi:10.3758/CABN.10.4.493 “Feeling” the pain of those who are different from us: Modulation of EEG in the mu/alpha range ANAT PERRY AND SHLOMO BENTIN Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel INBAL BEN-AMI BARTAL University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois CLAUS LAMM University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois and University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland AND JEAN DECETY University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois We explored how apparently painful stimuli and the ability to identify with the person on whom the pain is inflicted modulate EEG suppression in the mu/alpha range (8–12 Hz). In a 2 2 design, we presented pictures of hands either experiencing needle pricks or being touched by a Q-tip. In the dissimilar-other condition, the hand was assigned to a patient suffering from a neurological disease in which Q-tips inflicted pain, whereas needle pricks did not. In the similar-other condition, the hand was assigned to a patient who responded to stimulation in the same way as the healthy participant. Participants were instructed to imagine the feeling of the person whose hand was shown and to evaluate his or her affective state. Pain conditions elicited greater EEG suppression than did nonpain conditions, particularly over frontocentral regions. Moreover, an interaction between pain and similarity revealed that for similar others, the pain effect was significant, whereas in the dissimilar-other group, suppression was equally large in the pain and no-pain conditions. We conclude that mu/alpha suppression is elicited both automatically, by observing a situation that is potentially painful for the observer, and by empathy for pain, even if the other person is different from oneself. -
(2010). How Do We Empathize with Someone Who Is
How Do We Empathize with Someone Who Is Not Like Us? A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study Claus Lamm1, Andrew N. Meltzoff2, and Jean Decety1 Abstract & Previous research on the neural underpinnings of empathy control (right inferior frontal cortex). In addition, effective has been limited to affective situations experienced in a simi- connectivity between the latter and areas implicated in af- lar way by an observer and a target individual. In daily life we fective processing was enhanced. This suggests that inferring also interact with people whose responses to affective stimuli the affective state of someone who is not like us can rely can be very different from our own. How do we understand upon the same neural structures as empathy for someone the affective states of these individuals? We used functional who is similar to us. When strong emotional response ten- magnetic resonance imaging to assess how participants em- dencies exist though, these tendencies have to be overcome by pathize with the feelings of patients who reacted with no pain executive functions. Our results demonstrate that the fronto- to surgical procedures but with pain to a soft touch. Empathy cortical attention network is crucially involved in this pro- for pain of these patients activated the same areas (insula, cess, corroborating that empathy is a flexible phenomenon medial/anterior cingulate cortex) as empathy for persons who which involves both automatic and controlled cognitive mecha- responded to painful stimuli in the same way as the observer. nisms. Our findings have important implications for the un- Empathy in a situation that was aversive only for the observer derstanding and promotion of empathy, demonstrating that but neutral for the patient recruited areas involved in self– regulation of one’s egocentric perspective is crucial for under- other distinction (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex) and cognitive standing others. -
The Neural Bases of Empathy in Humans
See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324934432 The Neural Bases of Empathy in Humans Chapter · March 2018 DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-805397-3.00003-6 CITATIONS READS 0 213 2 authors: Claus Lamm Livia Tomova University of Vienna Massachusetts Institute of Technology 191 PUBLICATIONS 7,265 CITATIONS 14 PUBLICATIONS 122 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Another’s Pain in my Brain: Clarifying the Specificity of the Effects of Placebo Analgesia on First-Hand and Empathy for Pain View project Workshop "From Self-knowledge to knowing others" (16th November 2018, Brussels) View project All content following this page was uploaded by Claus Lamm on 07 May 2018. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Unedited and not proof corrected or type-set preprint of Chapter3 (pp. 25-36) in https://www.elsevier.com/books/neuronal-correlates-of-empathy/meyza/978-0-12-805397- 3 Copyright: The authors The neural bases of empathy in humans Lamm, C., Tomova, L. Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Austria Definitions: empathy and related terms While numerous definitions exist (Batson, 2009), there is wide agreement that empathy is a multi-faceted construct that involves intricate interactions of bottom-up and top-down components (Decety & Jackson, 2004; Singer & Lamm, 2009; Zaki & Ochsner, 2012, for review). Before discussing these components and their neural underpinnings in humans in more detail, we need to elaborate on definition issues that will allow us to distinguish empathy from concepts that are related to, yet distinct from the term. -
Right Supramarginal Gyrus Is Crucial to Overcome Emotional Egocentricity Bias in Social Judgments
15466 • The Journal of Neuroscience, September 25, 2013 • 33(39):15466–15476 Behavioral/Cognitive Right Supramarginal Gyrus Is Crucial to Overcome Emotional Egocentricity Bias in Social Judgments Giorgia Silani,1,3* Claus Lamm,2,3* Christian C. Ruff,3 and Tania Singer3,4 1Cognitive Neuroscience Sector, International School for Advanced Studies, SISSA-ISAS, 34136, Trieste, Italy, 2Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria, 3Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research (SNS-Lab), Department of Economics, University of Zurich, CH-8006 Zurich, Switzerland, and 4Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Social Neuroscience, 04103 Leipzig, Germany Humans tend to use the self as a reference point to perceive the world and gain information about other people’s mental states. However, applying such a self-referential projection mechanism in situations where it is inappropriate can result in egocentrically biased judg- ments. To assess egocentricity bias in the emotional domain (EEB), we developed a novel visuo-tactile paradigm assessing the degree to which empathic judgments are biased by one’s own emotions if they are incongruent to those of the person we empathize with. A first behavioral experiment confirmed the existence of such EEB, and two independent fMRI experiments revealed that overcoming biased empathic judgments is associated with increased activation in the right supramarginal gyrus (rSMG), in a location distinct from activa- tions in right temporoparietal junction reported in previous social cognition studies. Using temporary disruption of rSMG with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation resulted in a substantial increase of EEB, and so did reducing visuo-tactile stimulation time as shown in an additional behavioral experiment.