Problem 7 Flashcards
Empathy
Refers to the process of sharing feelings with others
–> resonating with someone else’s feelings, regardless of valence but with explicit knowledge that the other person is the origin of that emotion
Which brain regions becomes active when feeling empathy ?
Shared neural activation of
- Anterior insula
- aMCC
–> activate whenever we witness suffering of others
Compassion
Refers to feelings of concern + warmth when witnessing the suffering others
–> linked to the motivation to help
THUS: counteracts negative emotions that are excited by others suffering by generating position emotions
Which brain processes are activated when feeling compassion ?
Activates networks that are associated with Reward/affiliation:
- Ventral Striatum
- NAC
- VTA
- mOFC
- sACC
Socio cognition
or else referred to as ToM
Ability to take another persons perspective
–> cognitive empathy
Wich brain regions activate when taking another persons perspective ?
- Temporoparietal junction
- Superior temporal sulcus
- Temporal poles
- mPFC
- PCC
Empa-ToM task
Is used to study how the brain processes are related + work together to achieve adaptive social behavior
–> thus stimulates both functions concurrently
How come that Strong empathizers may not necessarily be proficient mentalizers and vice versa?
Because the the functions of ToM + empathy are independent of each other on a neural level
BUT: both NWs are jointly required to be active in complex social situations
Empa-ToM Task
- Picture based paradigm
- -> visual depictions of someone in painful situation - Cue-based paradigm
- -> hint that someone else is receiving a painful simulation
Results of the Empt-Task showed that the typical empathy related core network is commonly activated.
However, the 2 paradigms resulted in differing core activations.
Elaborate.
- Picture based paradigm
- -> co-activated the action-observation NW to decode the potential affective consequences of a certain action - Cue-based paradigm
- -> co-activated the ToM NW because these cues required additional inference of the others affective state from an abstract cue
What can we conclude from the fact that each paradigm of the Empt-Task lead to different co-activations of brain networks ?
That dependent on the provided info in a given context, different networks will be co-activated together with the core empathy-related NW
The 2 NWs associated with empathy + ToM are jointly activated for …. ?
Complex evaluations of someone else feelings
—> Empathic accuracy
How does the fact that both empathy + ToM NWs also directly influence each other show, on a neural level ?
Anterior insula inhibits activity in TPJ
- AI
- -> negative affect sharing, affective part - TPJ
- -> mentalizing, cognitive part
THUS: shows in people who react very emotionally to other peoples suffering
Why is the self vs other distinction so important ?
Which brain regions are most critical for this distinction ?
- Enables us to differentiate between ones own emotional or mental states vs the states shared with others
- TPJ + rSMG
Egocentricity bias
Refers to the tendency to project ones own emotional state on someone else
–> results of failure of self-other distinction
Altercentric bias
Refers to the influence of others’ states on the judgments about oneself
–> results from failure of self-other distinction
Cognitive egocentricity
Occurs when the own knowledge about a situation influences the reasoning about what someone see thinks about the situation
Emotional egocentricity
Occurs when ones own emotional states influences the judgment of someone else’s affective state
On a neural level, which brain regions seems to be critical to overcome cognitive egocentricity ?
right TPJ
–> also functionally connected to
- mPFC + vlPFC
- PCC
=> parts of the ToM network
On a neural level, which brain regions seem to be critical to overcome emotional egocentricity ?
right Supramarginal gyrus (SMG)
–> also has connections to AI
AND: coupling with dlPFC will also lead to reduced emotional egocentricity
Why can you rather call compassion a ER strategy ?
Because an original adaptive empathic response to the suffering of others can leas to a maladaptive repose which is empathic distress
–> BUT: this can be reversed by learning how to turn it into compassion
Empathic distress
Refers to a strong aversive and self-oriented response to the suffering of others
–> accompanied by the desire to withdraw from a situation in order to protect one’s self from excessive negative feelings
Cognitive empathy
Ability to
- recognize
- understand
- react
appropriately to others emotional states
–> ToM
Affective empathy
Ability to feel + share others emotions
Empathy-altrusim hypothesis
States that empathic concern for others produces the altruistic motivation that underlies subsequent prosocial behavior
–> since it produces either sympathy or personal distress
What may be the potential negative effects of having an empathic capacity in terms of its relationship with affective distress?
There seem to be positive associations + correlations between
- affective empathic stress + depressive symptoms
- symptoms of anxiety + affective empathy
- emotional empathy + gender role stress
–> but there are challenges to these statements
Tully et al. hypothesized that the link between individual differences in the capacity for empathy + symptoms of affective distress may be moderated by common ER mechanisms.
Which predictions were accurate and in line with this hypothesis ?
Affective empathy has a positive linear association with measures of affective distress
–> cognitive empathy has negative
because: The more you get emotionally involved, the more you will get affective distress
Previously it was assumed that the ER strategy suppression is detrimental to mental health state - especially when being high in empathic affectivity.
Does this still always apply to all people ?
No,
Higher levels of suppression have a potentially beneficial effect on levels of depression + stress for people who are higher in AFFECTIVE empathy!
–> BUT: being high in cognitive empathy and using suppression is still a bad ER strategy
Which ER strategy seems to be best to avoid distressing outcomes if you’re high in affective empathy ?
Re-appraisal
Why do people generally prefer to avoid empathy ?
Because of the inherent cognitive costs that result from empathizing
Empathy selection task
Used to examine how cognitive costs can deter empathy
–> assesses situation selection, which is an ER strategy
Procedure of the empathy-selection task
Participants had to choose in repeated trials between 2 card decks
–> after choosing they saw a photo of a person with instructions differing depending on the deck
- Empathy deck
- -> sharing the experiences of the person + indicating the persons internal experiences - Objective deck
- -> remaining detached + indicating external features of person
Why could empathy be costly ?
Cognitive costs may arise from
- uncertainty about others experiences
- risk of making errors
- Inefficacy at empathizing
- Cognitive effort
- -> subjective intensification of mental activity
THUS: decreasing the costs of empathy can increase the willingness to empathize
Negative Effets of empathy
- Unfairness
- Bias
- Ingorup favoritism/bias
- Innumerate
- -> one can empathize with a single individual but not a million at once
THUS: poor guide to moral decision making since it overrules our moral compass
Identifiable victim effect
People only empathize with an identifiable person
e.g.: 6 year old sick girl vs increasing tax to prevent more preventable deaths
–> 6 year old girl is empathized with
Empathy can be used as a tool.
Elaborate.
Empathy works as an important motivating force
–> we can shift our empathic focus + use empathy to encourage all sorts of good action
Lesions to the TPJ will lead to …?
Inability to make self vs other distinctions
–> in perceptual processing, specifically in speech
THUS: elicits hallucinations of voices
