Understanding and Modulating the Cerebral Basis of Human Empathy

促使我们倾向于群居和社交的人类行为的特征之一是我们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)。我们之前的工作表明，每个组成部分都得到了不同的、尽管重叠的大脑系统的支持，但这些不同大脑系统的细节，以及身体对同理心的反应，在很大程度上仍然未知。此外，对同理心的研究主要集中在个体对简单静态情景的反应，使用疼痛观察作为同理心反应的触发点(例如，观察到一些人受到伤害)。然而，在现实生活中，移情来自个人之间的互动，并不局限于观察处于身体痛苦中的人。通过收集健康成年人的脑功能图像、生理(心率、皮肤电导)、非侵入性神经刺激(它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)的一系列研究，我们将继续探讨同理心的大脑基础。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，在受控的实验室环境中研究人类的同理心，但更接近现实生活。这项建议的目的有三个：1)调查来自更大范围的情绪，包括负面(悲伤、悲伤)和积极(快乐)情绪的共情的生理和神经生理学基础；2)调查在互动的共情引发情景中亲社会反应(例如，旨在造福他人)的生理和神经生理学基础；以及3)使用神经刺激来确定特定大脑区域对共情的不同组成部分的贡献。这一提议将为未来在社会认知神经科学领域的研究提供一个强有力的框架，并将为未来关于人类亲社会倾向，包括道德和利他行为的神经基础的工作奠定基础。

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.