Empathic control through coordinated interaction of amygdala, theory of mind and extended pain matrix brain regions
Brain regions in the “pain matrix”, can be activated by observing or reading about others in physical pain. In previous research, we found that reading stories about others' emotional suffering, by contrast, recruits a different group of brain regions mostly associated with thinking about other...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Elsevier
2016
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103545 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2377-1791 |
| _version_ | 1811071210548625408 |
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| author | Bruneau, Emile Gabriel Jacoby, Nir Saxe, Rebecca R. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Bruneau, Emile Gabriel Jacoby, Nir Saxe, Rebecca R. |
| author_sort | Bruneau, Emile Gabriel |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Brain regions in the “pain matrix”, can be activated by observing or reading about others in physical pain. In previous research, we found that reading stories about others' emotional suffering, by contrast, recruits a different group of brain regions mostly associated with thinking about others' minds. In the current study, we examined the neural circuits responsible for deliberately regulating empathic responses to others' pain and suffering. In Study 1, a sample of college-aged participants (n = 18) read stories about physically painful and emotionally distressing events during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), while either actively empathizing with the main character or trying to remain objective. In Study 2, the same experiment was performed with professional social workers, who are chronically exposed to human suffering (n = 21). Across both studies activity in the amygdala was associated with empathic regulation towards others' emotional pain, but not their physical pain. In addition, psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis and Granger causal modeling (GCM) showed that amygdala activity while reading about others' emotional pain was preceded by and positively coupled with activity in the theory of mind brain regions, and followed by and negatively coupled with activity in regions associated with physical pain and bodily sensations. Previous work has shown that the amygdala is critically involved in the deliberate control of self-focused distress — the current results extend the central importance of amygdala activity to the control of other-focused empathy, but only when considering others' emotional pain. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:47:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/103545 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:47:40Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1035452022-09-23T14:36:28Z Empathic control through coordinated interaction of amygdala, theory of mind and extended pain matrix brain regions Bruneau, Emile Gabriel Jacoby, Nir Saxe, Rebecca R. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Bruneau, Emile Gabriel Jacoby, Nir Saxe, Rebecca R. Brain regions in the “pain matrix”, can be activated by observing or reading about others in physical pain. In previous research, we found that reading stories about others' emotional suffering, by contrast, recruits a different group of brain regions mostly associated with thinking about others' minds. In the current study, we examined the neural circuits responsible for deliberately regulating empathic responses to others' pain and suffering. In Study 1, a sample of college-aged participants (n = 18) read stories about physically painful and emotionally distressing events during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), while either actively empathizing with the main character or trying to remain objective. In Study 2, the same experiment was performed with professional social workers, who are chronically exposed to human suffering (n = 21). Across both studies activity in the amygdala was associated with empathic regulation towards others' emotional pain, but not their physical pain. In addition, psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis and Granger causal modeling (GCM) showed that amygdala activity while reading about others' emotional pain was preceded by and positively coupled with activity in the theory of mind brain regions, and followed by and negatively coupled with activity in regions associated with physical pain and bodily sensations. Previous work has shown that the amygdala is critically involved in the deliberate control of self-focused distress — the current results extend the central importance of amygdala activity to the control of other-focused empathy, but only when considering others' emotional pain. United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ((DARPA) #D12AP00077) 2016-07-07T20:46:16Z 2016-07-07T20:46:16Z 2015-04 2014-08 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 10538119 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103545 Bruneau, Emile G., Nir Jacoby, and Rebecca Saxe. “Empathic Control through Coordinated Interaction of Amygdala, Theory of Mind and Extended Pain Matrix Brain Regions.” NeuroImage 114 (July 2015): 105–119. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2377-1791 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.04.034 NeuroImage Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ application/pdf Elsevier Prof. Saxe via Courtney Crummett |
| spellingShingle | Bruneau, Emile Gabriel Jacoby, Nir Saxe, Rebecca R. Empathic control through coordinated interaction of amygdala, theory of mind and extended pain matrix brain regions |
| title | Empathic control through coordinated interaction of amygdala, theory of mind and extended pain matrix brain regions |
| title_full | Empathic control through coordinated interaction of amygdala, theory of mind and extended pain matrix brain regions |
| title_fullStr | Empathic control through coordinated interaction of amygdala, theory of mind and extended pain matrix brain regions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Empathic control through coordinated interaction of amygdala, theory of mind and extended pain matrix brain regions |
| title_short | Empathic control through coordinated interaction of amygdala, theory of mind and extended pain matrix brain regions |
| title_sort | empathic control through coordinated interaction of amygdala theory of mind and extended pain matrix brain regions |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103545 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2377-1791 |
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