Morelli Sylvia A, Rameson Lian T, Lieberman Matthew D
Franz Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563, USA.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2014 Jan;9(1):39-47. doi: 10.1093/scan/nss088. Epub 2012 Aug 9.
Previous neuroimaging studies on empathy have not clearly identified neural systems that support the three components of empathy: affective congruence, perspective-taking, and prosocial motivation. These limitations stem from a focus on a single emotion per study, minimal variation in amount of social context provided, and lack of prosocial motivation assessment. In the current investigation, 32 participants completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging session assessing empathic responses to individuals experiencing painful, anxious, and happy events that varied in valence and amount of social context provided. They also completed a 14-day experience sampling survey that assessed real-world helping behaviors. The results demonstrate that empathy for positive and negative emotions selectively activates regions associated with positive and negative affect, respectively. In addition, the mirror system was more active during empathy for context-independent events (pain), whereas the mentalizing system was more active during empathy for context-dependent events (anxiety, happiness). Finally, the septal area, previously linked to prosocial motivation, was the only region that was commonly activated across empathy for pain, anxiety, and happiness. Septal activity during each of these empathic experiences was predictive of daily helping. These findings suggest that empathy has multiple input pathways, produces affect-congruent activations, and results in septally mediated prosocial motivation.
情感一致性、观点采择和亲社会动机。这些局限性源于每项研究只关注单一情绪、所提供的社会背景数量变化极小以及缺乏亲社会动机评估。在当前的调查中，32名参与者完成了一次功能磁共振成像实验，评估对经历痛苦、焦虑和快乐事件（这些事件在效价和所提供的社会背景数量上有所不同）的个体的共情反应。他们还完成了一项为期14天的经验抽样调查，评估现实世界中的帮助行为。结果表明，对积极和消极情绪的共情分别选择性地激活了与积极和消极情感相关的区域。此外，在对与情境无关的事件（疼痛）的共情过程中，镜像系统更为活跃，而在对与情境相关的事件（焦虑、快乐）的共情过程中，心理化系统更为活跃。最后，先前与亲社会动机相关的隔区是在对疼痛、焦虑和快乐的共情中都普遍被激活的唯一区域。在这些共情体验中的每一种体验期间，隔区的活动都能预测日常帮助行为。这些发现表明，共情具有多种输入途径，产生情感一致的激活，并导致隔区介导的亲社会动机。
