The sociopath amongst us: the neural basis of empathy disorders

同理心是人际关系的基础。尽管如此，人们对其潜在机制知之甚少。这个项目测试共情是否依赖于我们在自己身上模拟他人的情绪，如果是这样，在哪个阶段发生。它之所以意义重大，是因为它检验了几种相互竞争的理论，从而提出了一个连贯的共情模型，可用于理解人类的社会行为。它是创新的，因为它专注于患有脑损伤的成年人。这是一种强有力的手段，可以用来研究支持共情的大脑机制，从而获得对健康成年人的观察所无法获得的见解。它有望为理解社会行为的神经科学提供一个飞跃。

Empathy is fundamental to human relations. Despite this, little is known about its underlying mechanisms. This project tests whether empathy relies upon us simulating the emotion of others in ourselves, and if so, at which stage this occurs. It is significant because it tests several competing theories to advance a coherent model of empathy that can be used to understand human social behaviour. It is innovative because it focuses on adults with brain lesions. This is a powerful means to examine brain mechanisms underpinning empathy, yielding insights not available from observation of healthy adults. It is expected to provide a leap forward in understanding the neuroscience of social behaviour.