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Cited by 278Action Observation and SynchronizationEmpathy and Medical EducationNeural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 86 of the 88 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

How do we empathize with someone who is not like us? A functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

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Lamm, Claus, Meltzoff, Andrew N., Decety, Jean·2010·Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
DOI 10.1162/jocn.2009.21186
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Abstract

Previous research on the neural underpinnings of empathy has been limited to affective situations experienced in a similar way by an observer and a target individual. In daily life we also interact with people whose responses to affective stimuli can be very different from our own. How do we understand the affective states of these individuals? We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess how participants empathize with the feelings of patients who reacted with no pain to surgical procedures but with pain to a soft touch. Empathy for pain of these patients activated the same areas (insula, medial/anterior cingulate cortex) as empathy for persons who responded to painful stimuli in the same way as the observer. Empathy in a situation that was aversive only for the observer but neutral for the patient recruited areas involved in self-other distinction (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex) and cognitive control (right inferior frontal cortex). In addition, effective connectivity between the latter and areas implicated in affective processing was enhanced. This suggests that inferring the affective state of someone who is not like us can rely upon the same neural structures as empathy for someone who is similar to us. When strong emotional response tendencies exist though, these tendencies have to be overcome by executive functions. Our results demonstrate that the fronto-cortical attention network is crucially involved in this process, corroborating that empathy is a flexible phenomenon which involves both automatic and controlled cognitive mechanisms. Our findings have important implications for the understanding and promotion of empathy, demonstrating that regulation of one's egocentric perspective is crucial for understanding others.

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Decety, 2005, Perspective taking as the royal avenue to empathy., 135
  2. Hodges, 1997, The mental control of empathic accuracy., 311

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Metadata

Authors
Lamm, C., Meltzoff, A. N., & Decety, J.
Affiliations
  • University of Chicago (US)
  • University of Washington (US)
  • 1The University of Chicago
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Publisher
MIT Press - Journals
Published
2010-02-01
Volume
22
Issue
2
Pages
362-376
ISSN
  • 0898-929X (ISSN-L)
  • 1530-8898
DOI
10.1162/jocn.2009.21186
OpenAlex
W2120445824
Cited by
278
References
88
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 35 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 19 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 18
FWCI
29.17
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
other-oa
Locations
  • Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Empathy and Medical Education
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
Keywords
empathy, empathy for pain, emotional understanding, self-other distinction, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal cortex, cognitive control, executive function, insula, anterior cingulate cortex, effective connectivity, interoception, egocentric perspective, neural basis of empathy
MeSH terms
Adult, Affect, Afferent Pathways, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Color Perception, Empathy, Eye Movements, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Functional Laterality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Oxygen, Pain, Pain Measurement, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Photic Stimulation, Reaction Time, Young Adult

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