Understanding and Modulating the Cerebral Basis of Human Empathy

人类行为的标志之一，有助于我们倾向于生活在群体和社会化是我们的同情和关心他人的能力。移情是一个复杂的概念，可以分为不同的组成部分（情感/情感，认知）。我们之前的研究表明，每个组成部分都由不同的大脑系统支持，尽管这些大脑系统相互重叠，但这些不同的大脑系统的细节以及身体对共情的反应在很大程度上仍然未知。此外，共情的研究集中在个体对简单静态场景的反应上，使用疼痛观察作为共情反应的触发器（例如，有些人受伤了）。然而，在真实的生活中，共情产生于个体之间的互动，并不局限于观察身体疼痛的人。通过一系列研究，包括收集健康成年人的功能性大脑图像，生理（心率，皮肤电导），非侵入性神经刺激（改变特定大脑区域的大脑活动并影响行为）和行为测量（例如问卷），我们将继续研究同理心的大脑基础。此外，利用我们实验室的最新技术进步，我们将开发新的方法来研究人类的同理心，在受控的实验室环境中，但更接近真实的生活情况。该提案的目标有三个方面：1）调查移情的生理和神经生理学基础，这些移情源于更大范围的情绪，包括消极（悲伤，悲伤）和积极（快乐）情绪; 2）调查亲社会反应的生理和神经生理学基础（例如，意图使他人受益）;以及3）使用神经刺激来确定特定脑区对共情的不同组成部分的贡献。这一建议将为社会认知神经科学领域的未来研究提供一个强有力的框架，并将为未来人类亲社会倾向（包括道德和利他行为）的神经基础工作奠定基础。

One of the hallmarks of human behaviour that contributes to our propensity to live in groups and socialize is our ability to empathize and care about others. Empathy is a complex notion that can be divided into different components (affective/emotional, cognitive). Our previous work shows that each component is supported by distinct, though overlapping, brain systems, but the detail of these different brain systems, as well as the body responses to empathy, remain largely unknown. Moreover, studies of empathy have focused on responses of individuals to simple static scenarios using pain observation as a trigger for empathic responses (e.g., observing some getting hurt). In real life, however, empathy emerges from interaction between individuals and is not limited to observing someone in physical pain. Through a series of studies involving gathering of functional brain images, physiological (heart rate, skin conductance), non-invasive neurostimulation (which modifies brain activity in specific brain regions and affects behaviour), and behavioural measures (e.g. questionnaires) in healthy adults, we will continue to examine the cerebral basis of empathy. Moreover, taking advantage of the latest technological advances in our laboratory, we will develop new means to study human empathy in controlled laboratory contexts but closer to real life situations. The objectives of this proposal are threefold: 1) to investigate the physiological and neurophysiological basis for empathy stemming from a larger range of emotions, including negative (sadness, grief) and positive (happiness) emotions; 2) to investigate the physiological and neurophysiological basis of the prosocial response (e.g., intended to benefit others) during an interactive empathy-eliciting situation; and 3) to use neurostimulation to determine the contribution of specific brain areas to the different components of empathy. This proposal will provide a strong framework for future research in the domain of social cognitive neurosciences and will lay the foundation for future work on the neural basis of human's prosocial tendencies including moral and altruistic behaviour.