1. Cultivating Compassion, Thanks to You
Your support for the Center is creating a better understanding of what
motivates people to be altruistic – and that may play a role in creating more
just societies.
A new set of Center studies suggests that compassion – and intentionally
cultivating it through training – may lead us to do more to help the wronged
than to punish the wrongdoer. Researchers found compassion may also impact
the extent to which people punish the wrongdoer.
Center investigators tested whether compassion was related to helping
or punishment in two studies where participants played the “Helping Game”
or “Punishment Game” using real money they could keep at the end of the
game.
In both games, participants watched through online interactions as one player
with more funds chose to split an unfair amount of money with another player
with no funds. In the “Helping Game,” the third-party observers could choose
to do nothing or give some of their own funds to “help” the victim. In the
“Punishment Game,” the third-party observers could choose to do nothing or
“punish” the transgressor by spending their own funds to take money away
from the wrongdoer.
The Center’s
Compassion
Meditation
Training
Compassion
meditation is an
ancient meditation
practice designed
to increase feelings
of compassion and
wanting to help
others. This training
was scientifically
validated by the
Center to show that
practicing compassion
meditation for 30
minutes a day for
two weeks increased
altruistic behavior and
changed the brain’s
responses to suffering.
For the full audio
training or print
download please visit
go.wisc.edu/
compassiontraining
People with higher empathic concern were more likely
to help the victim than punish the transgressor. But,
interestingly, within the group of people who decided
to punish the transgressor, those with more empathic
concern decided to punish less.
- Helen Weng, Lead Researcher
”
LIVING WELL-BEINGBi-annualupdatesoncreatingakinder,wiser,more compassionate world throughascientificunderstandingofthemind
Spring 2016

2. As a valued Center member, you’re the first to know about
exciting changes at the Center. For the past several months, we’ve reflected on
how to create the most impact while conducting groundbreaking research on
well-being and positive qualities of mind.
These reflections have led us to shorten our name to Center for Healthy Minds.
Fear not - our core is still investigating the mind to understand well-being and
suffering, but we want our name to be easily memorable and reflect the idea
that we all can cultivate healthier minds in ourselves, our communities and the
world.
We’ve restructured and designed a new website with you in mind. You’ll find
easier access to the rigorous research currently being done at the Center with
people of all ages, from infants to aging adults. Some of the highlights at
centerhealthyminds.org include:
• The Center’s History and Founder Richard Davidson’s early work studying
well-being and emotions – all featured in a new slideshow. We had a blast
digging into our archives to bring you a more complete story to how our Center
was founded.
• Join the Movement section
where you can explore the
Center’s contributions to
understanding well-being, learn
about key takeaways from the
research and try informal, simple
practices shared by some of our
experts.
• An easy-to-navigate Science
section to take you through
listings of all Center studies and
scientific publications, studies we
are actively recruiting for and an
easy-reading tutorial explaining
the concept of neuroplasticity.
“It’s important to
consider not just how much
emotion you experience, but
also how long these emotions persist,”
says Aaron Heller, former graduate
student at the Center and current assistant
professor of psychology at the University
of Miami.
Heller and colleagues’ findings, published
in the Journal of Neuroscience, suggest
that the duration of activity in specific
circuits of the brain, even over relatively
short periods of time such as seconds,
can predict the persistence of a person’s
positive emotion minutes and hours later.
Keeping Up That Positive Feeling
New Directions
Savoring a beautiful sunset and the
positive emotions associated with it
can contribute to improved
well-being, according to research.
But why and how are some people
better than others in keeping the
feeling alive?
The results and the study’s unique design contribute to a growing understanding of how mental
disorders such as depression might be manifested in the brain. Depression affects more than 350
million people globally, according to the World Health Organization.
Until now, researchers have examined savoring and the impact of emotions on individuals either in
the laboratory or in a real-world setting, but not in both with the same people and prompts. Heller
says the study is one of the first of its kind to take the same experiment from the lab into the field
while linking emotion responses in both settings to neural activity in the brain.
We’re looking at how one person can savor a great deal that beautiful
sunset or a memorable meal, but how another person who might be
susceptible to depression can’t savor that sunset and those positive
emotions subside quickly.
Over the course of the study, roughly 100 adult participants played a short guessing game and
answered questions about their emotions when prompted by a smartphone over a 10-day period.
The guessing game provided participants with the following instructions: “The computer chose the
number 5. Please guess whether the next number will be higher or lower than 5.”
Participants would win money or win nothing based on their response. Winning was intended to give
people bursts of positive emotion, while not winning was intended to create negative feelings. In
addition, Heller and colleagues wanted to learn how long these emotions lingered after the game,
so they asked a series of questions on average every 15 minutes afterward to get a sense of whether
people were savoring positive or negative emotion – or neither.
The same participants played the guessing game while scientists collected functional MRI scans
of their brains during the game. Richard Davidson, senior author of the paper and founder of the
Center, says the neural pattern observed in the new study, particularly in the ventral striatum, has
also predicted higher levels of well-being in previous studies. He adds that practices such as “loving-
kindness” and compassion toward others, which aim to cultivate certain forms of positive emotion,
might help to increase savoring.
– Marianne Spoon, Communications & Marketing Director
“
Here’s to healthier minds for all!
- Aaron Heller

3. For further information or to schedule your tour, please email Membership@CenterHealthyMinds.org
or call 608-263-3672.
Center for Healthy Minds
University of Wisconsin - Madison
1500 Highland Avenue Suite S119
Madison, WI 53703
For our GIVING TUESDAY Campaign, Center donors Arlene and Keith Bronstein offered a matching
gift challenge of $10,000. You answered the call and made it the single largest online gift response the
Center has ever received in one day! Thanks to your donations, we met (and surpassed!) the challenge,
raising a total of $20,460 for the Center’s work. Thank you for your tremendous kindness and generosity.
Info@CenterHealthyMinds.org
CenterHealthyMinds.org
608-263-6321
twitter.com/healthyminds
facebook.com/centerforhealthyminds
instagram.com/healthy.minds
Upcoming Center Events
June 27 ~ Center for Healthy Minds Ambassadors
You know the importance of the Center’s work – now we’re asking you to spread well-being to others by
bringing a friend (or two!) to the Center Ambassadors event with a keynote address on the latest well-being
science by Center Founder Richard J. Davidson. Hosted by the Promega Corporation.
Registration & Reception begins at 6 pm – Presentation begins at 7 pm
Event Location – 5445 E. Cheryl Parkway Fitchburg, WI
July 2 & 3 ~ Basic Goodness: Meditation and the Science of Human Flourishing
Join panelist Richard J. Davison and others for a two-day workshop with Tibetan Master Yongey Mingyur
Rinpoche, author of The New York Times best seller “The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of
Happiness.” Hosted by Tergar Madison. For more information visit tergar.org.
Richard Davidson has brought the ideas of ‘mindfulness’
and well-being far beyond Madison. His goal is to bring
compassion and peace to all people. We gladly support
this mission and applaud his efforts to work in gratitude
and joy.
- Arlene and Keith Bronstein
Your Center
”
Member Tours
You are cordially invited to take a tour of your Center. Center
Member tours are held the third Thursday of each month
– beginning at 10:00 am with a scientific presentation and
discussion, research equipment viewing (pending schedule)
and ending with a 30-minute Center group meditation from
11:30 am to noon.
Acts of Generosity