Arbuckle Nathan L, Shane Matthew S
a Department of Forensic Psychology , University of Ontario Institute of Technology , Oshawa , ON , Canada.
b Rotman School of Management , The University of Toronto , Toronto , ON , Canada.
Soc Neurosci. 2017 Aug;12(4):386-390. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2016.1179669. Epub 2016 Jun 30.
Empathic concern has traditionally been conceived of as a spontaneous reaction to others experiencing pain or distress. As such, the potential role of more deliberate control over empathic responses has frequently been overlooked. The present fMRI study evaluated the role of such deliberate control in empathic concern by examining the extent to which a sample of offenders recruited through probation/parole could voluntarily modulate their neural activity to another person in pain. Offenders were asked to either passively view pictures of other people in painful or non-painful situations, or to actively modulate their level of concern for the person in pain. During passive viewing of painful versus non-painful pictures, offenders showed minimal neural activity in regions previously linked to empathy for pain (e.g., dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral insula). However, when instructed to try to increase their concern for the person in pain, offenders demonstrated significant increases within these regions. These findings are consistent with recent theories of empathy as motivational in nature, and suggest that limitations in empathic concern may include a motivational component.
传统上，移情关怀被认为是对他人经历痛苦或困扰的一种自发反应。因此，对移情反应进行更刻意控制的潜在作用常常被忽视。目前的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究通过考察从缓刑/假释人员中招募的一组罪犯在多大程度上能够自愿调节其对处于痛苦中的他人的神经活动，评估了这种刻意控制在移情关怀中的作用。要求罪犯要么被动观看他人处于痛苦或非痛苦情境中的图片，要么积极调节他们对处于痛苦中的人的关心程度。在被动观看痛苦与非痛苦图片时，罪犯在先前与疼痛移情相关的区域（如背侧前扣带回皮层和双侧脑岛）表现出最小的神经活动。然而，当被指示试图增加对处于痛苦中的人的关心时，罪犯在这些区域表现出显著增加。这些发现与近期关于移情本质上具有动机性的理论一致，并表明移情关怀的局限性可能包括一个动机成分。
