Empathy neuroscience perspective

1. Empathy - Neuroscience Perspective
Dr. Suresh Kumar Murugesan PhD
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2. About the Presenter
● Dr.Suresh Kumar Murugesan is a passionate Professor, researcher
and Mental Health Practitioner from Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
● At present he is Heading the department of Psychology, The
American College, Madurai and Adjunct Professor of School of
Behavioural Sciences and Education at TAU
● He is very keen in new research studies in behavioural Sciences and
open to learn.
● His area of specializations are Psychometry, Counselling &
Psychotherapy, Positive Psychology, Education Psychology.
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3. Disclaimer
● This presentation is prepared
for learning purpose only and
all the images and pictures
used in this presentation are
taken from google image
search.
● Due recognition was given to
all the material collected from
the various sources.
● Any name or reference is
missed kindly bring it to the
notice of the presenter for
inclusion.
● Email -
sureshkumar800@yahoo.com
Thank you
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4. 21st Century Skills
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5. Empathy
Whenever we watching a friend get a paper cut or staring at a photo of a child
refugee, observing someone else’s suffering can evoke a deep sense of
distress and sadness. It is nothing but empathy.
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6. What is
Empathy?
the ability to understand and
share the feelings of another
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7. Empathy
the ability to imagine what someone else might be
thinking or feeling
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8. Empathy - Origin
Empathy derived from
greek word empatheia,
meaning "physical
affection or passion”
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9. History of Studying
Empathy
The term empathy was first introduced in
1909 by psychologist Edward B.
Titchener as a translation of the German
term einfühlung (meaning "feeling into").
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10. Empathy
"Empathy is awareness of others’ feelings, needs and
concerns."
- Daniel Goleman
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11. Empathy
"I call him religious who
understands the suffering of
others."
- Mahatma Gandhi
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12. Empathy
Empathy is a key element of Emotional
Intelligence, the link between self and
others
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13. Neuroscientific
Explanations
Studies have shown that specific areas of the
brain play a role in how empathy is
experienced.
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14. Neuroscientific
Explanations
Neuroscientists have
been able to pinpoint
some of the specific
regions of the brain
responsible for this
sense of
interconnectedness.
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15. Neuroscientific
Explanations
● More recent approaches focus on the cognitive and
neurological processes that lie behind empathy.
● Researchers have found that different regions of the
brain play an important role in empathy, including the
anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior insula.
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16. Mirror Neuron
Research suggests that there are important
neurobiological components to the
experience of empathy.

The activation of mirror neurons in the brain
plays a part in the ability to mirror and mimic
the emotional responses that people would
feel if they were in similar situations.
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17. Empathy and
fMRI
● Functional MRI research also indicates that an area of
the brain known as the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) plays
a critical role in the experience of empathy
● Studies have found that people who have damage to
this area of the brain often have difficulty recognizing
emotions conveyed through facial expressions
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18. Brain and
Empathy
“When we witness what happens
to others, we don’t just activate
the visual cortex like we thought
some decades ago,” said
Christian Keysers of the
Netherlands Institute for
Neuroscience in Amsterdam
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19. Empathy
“We also activate our own
actions as if we’d be acting in
similar ways. We activate our
own emotions and
sensations as if we felt the
same.”
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20. Empathy Gap
Cultural emphasis on ingroups and outgroups may
create an “empathy gap” between people of different
races and nationalities, says Ying-yi Hong.
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21. Empathy and Neural
Networks
Keysers, together with Valeria Gazzola, has
found that observing another person’s action,
pain, or affect can trigger parts of the same
neural networks responsible for executing
those actions and experiencing those feelings
firsthand.
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22. Motor Mirror System
To explore whether the motor mirror system helps us
understand the inner states behind the actions of
others, Keysers in one study asked participants to
watch a video of a person grasping toy balls hidden
within a large bin. In one condition, participants
determined whether or not the person in the video
hesitated before selecting a ball (a theory-of-mind
task).
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23. TMS and fMRI Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in
combination with fMRI, Keysers showed that interfering
with the mirror system impaired people’s ability to
detect the level of confidence of others, providing
evidence that this system indeed contributes to
perceiving the inner states of others.
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24. Temporoparietal
Junction
Performing fMRI and TMS on other brain
regions such as the temporoparietal
junction (TPJ) further suggests that this
motor simulation in the mirror system is
then sent onward to more cognitive regions
in the TPJ.
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25. ProSocial
Studies have suggested that the ability to
mentalize the experiences of others so vividly
can lead us to take prosocial steps to reduce
their pain
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26. Experiment
● Keysers wanted to investigate the depth of the
emotional contagion — how and to what extent we
experience other people’s suffering.
● To do this, Keysers’ lab studied two very different
populations: human psychopaths and rats.
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27. Experiment
While witnessing the pain of others is correlated with activity in the insula,
which is thought to contribute to self-awareness by integrating sensory
information, and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which is associated with
decision making and impulse control.
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28. Experiment with
Psychopath
The researchers found that psychopaths
who passively observed an aggressor
twisting someone’s hand exhibited
significantly less brain activity than their
neurotypical peers. When the psychopathic
individuals were asked to attempt to
empathize with the person in the video,
however, their brain activity increased to
baseline levels.
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29. Empathy and
Psychopath
“Psychopaths are probably
equally high on ability, it’s just
that they don’t recruit this
spontaneously, so their
propensity is modified,”
Keysers explained.
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30. Shared Pain
Studies of emotional
contagion in animal
models have allowed
researchers to further
examine the role of deep
brain activity, which can
be difficult to
neurostimulate in
humans
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31. Shared Pain
Keysers’ work with rats has found that these
animals are more likely to freeze after
watching another rat receive an electric
shock if they themselves had been shocked
in the past.
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32. Socially Triggered
Fear
Inhibiting a region analogous to the ACC in the
rats’ brains reduced their response to another
rat’s distress, but not their fear of being
shocked themselves, suggesting that the area
deals specifically with socially triggered fear,
Keysers said.
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33. Empathy in Animal
Nonhuman animals--even mice and
geese--show evidence of empathy (Decety
et al 2016).
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34. Pain and Empathy
The same brain regions that process our first-
hand experiences of pain are also activated when
we observe other people in pain.
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35. Classification of Empathy

36. Types of Empathy
“Affective empathy” refers to the sensations and
feelings we get in response to others’ emotions; this can
include mirroring what that person is feeling, or just feeling
stressed when we detect another’s fear or anxiety.
“Cognitive empathy,” sometimes called “perspective
taking,” refers to our ability to identify and understand
other people’s emotions.
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37. Three Types of Empathy
Psychologists have identified three types of empathy: cognitive empathy,
emotional empathy and compassionate empathy.
● Cognitive empathy is understanding someone’s thoughts and emotions, in a
very rational, rather than emotional sense.
● Emotional empathy is also known as emotional contagion, and is ‘catching’
someone else’s feelings, so that you literally feel them too.
● Compassionate empathy is understanding someone’s feelings, and taking
appropriate action to help.
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38. Two Other Types of Empathy
● Somatic empathy is defined as feeling someone else’s pain physically.
For example, if you see someone hurt, you too might feel physical pain. Anecdotally,
identical twins sometimes report that they know when the other has been hurt, which might
be an example of somatic empathy. You can see an echo of somatic empathy, for example,
if someone is hit in the stomach with a ball during a sports game, and one or two of the
spectators may double over as if they too had been hit.
● Spiritual empathy is defined as a direct connection with a ‘higher being’ or consciousness.
It is the same as ‘enlightenment’ in the eastern philosophical tradition, and considered to be
achievable through meditation.
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39. Brain and
Empathy
Empathy seems to have deep
roots in our brains and bodies,
and in our evolutionary history.
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40. Primate Empathy
Elementary forms of empathy have been observed in our
primate relatives, in dogs, and even in rats.
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41. Empathy and
mirror neurons
Empathy has been associated with two different pathways in the
brain, and scientists have speculated that some aspects of
empathy can be traced to mirror neurons, cells in the brain that
fire when we observe someone else perform an action in much
the same way that they would fire if we performed that action
ourselves.
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42. Genetic and
Empathy
Research has also uncovered evidence of a
genetic basis to empathy, though studies
suggest that people can enhance (or
restrict) their natural empathic abilities.
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43. Why Empathy?
Having empathy doesn’t
necessarily mean we’ll want to
help someone in need, though
it’s often a vital first step toward
compassionate action.
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45. Elements of Empathy
Daniel Goleman identified five key elements of
empathy.
1. Understanding Others
2. Developing Others
3. Having a Service Orientation
4. Leveraging Diversity
5. Political Awareness
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47. Signs of Empathy
1. They are good at really listening to what others have to say.
2. People often tell them about their problems.
3. They are good at picking up on how other people are feeling.
4. They often think about how other people feel.
5. Other people come to them for advice.
6. They often feel overwhelmed by tragic events.
7. They try to help others who are suffering.
8. They are good at telling when people aren't being honest.
9. They sometimes feel drained or overwhelmed in social situations.
10.They care deeply about other people.
11.They find it difficult to set boundaries in their relationships with other people.
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48. Barriers to Empathy
A few reasons why people sometimes lack
empathy include
1. cognitive biases,
2. dehumanization, and
3. victim-blaming.
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52. Empathy Strategies
1. Emotional Literacy: Be able to read someone’s feelings, to connect with others, talk about feelings.
2. Moral Identity: Feel inside that caring matters and your values inform good choices.
3. Perspective Taking: Feel another person’s point of view.
4. Moral Imagination: Share uplifting literature, film, news, and images as a source of inspiration.
5. Self-Regulation: One simple tip is to teach “Belly Breathing.”
6. Practicing Kindness:Look for simple ways for your child to see you extend kindness.
7. Collaboration & Teamwork: Encourage your child to have contact with individuals of different races,
cultures, ages, genders, abilities, and beliefs.
8. Moral Courage: Promote moral courage and teaching children situational awareness to embolden
them to speak out, step in, and help others.
9. Altruistic Leadership: Don’t think about yourself, think about what you can do for others.

53. Reference
1. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/empathy/definition
2. https://gethppy.com/hr-infographics/20-ways-to-improve-empathy-at-work
3. https://infographicnow.com/psychology-infographics/psychology-introducing-empathy-a-powerful-word-infographic/
4. https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/infographic-template-soft-skills-data-vector-32129123
5. https://www.klick.com/health/news/blog/regulatory/authenticity-empathy-and-healthcare-social/
6. https://www.verywellmind.com/cognitive-and-emotional-empathy-4582389
7. https://sunshine-parenting.com/ep-138-unselfie-with-dr-michele-borba/
8. https://talkingtreebooks.com/empathy-worksheets.html#worksheets
9. https://biglifejournal.com/blogs/blog/key-strategies-teach-children-empathy
10. https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/home-page-logged-out/resources-for-responding-to-violence-and-tragedy/social-emotional-
worksheets.html
11. https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/empathy.html
12. https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/empathy-types.html
13. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-empathy-2795562
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54. References
1. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/i-feel-your-pain-the-
neuroscience-of-empathy
2. https://www.parentingscience.com/empathy-and-the-brain.html
3. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00695/full
4. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200218152307.htm
5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2206036/
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