The sociopath amongst us: the neural basis of empathy disorders

移情是人际关系的基础。尽管如此，人们对其潜在机制知之甚少。这个项目测试了同理心是否依赖于我们模拟他人的情绪，如果是，发生在哪个阶段。它之所以意义重大，是因为它检验了几种相互竞争的理论，以提出一个可以用来理解人类社会行为的连贯的同理心模型。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，可以检验支持移情的大脑机制，得出健康成年人观察中无法获得的见解。预计它将在理解社会行为的神经科学方面取得飞跃。

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.