Human Empathy Through the Lens of Social Neuroscience
Empathy is the ability to experience and understand what others feel without confusion between oneself and others. Knowing what someone else is feeling plays a fundamental role in interpersonal interactions. In this paper, we articulate evidence from social psychology and cognitive neuroscience, and...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2006-01-01
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| Series: | The Scientific World Journal |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/tsw.2006.221 |
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| _version_ | 1849401609011855360 |
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| author | Jean Decety Claus Lamm |
| author_facet | Jean Decety Claus Lamm |
| author_sort | Jean Decety |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Empathy is the ability to experience and understand what others feel without confusion between oneself and others. Knowing what someone else is feeling plays a fundamental role in interpersonal interactions. In this paper, we articulate evidence from social psychology and cognitive neuroscience, and argue that empathy involves both emotion sharing (bottom-up information processing) and executive control to regulate and modulate this experience (top-down information processing), underpinned by specific and interacting neural systems. Furthermore, awareness of a distinction between the experiences of the self and others constitutes a crucial aspect of empathy. We discuss data from recent behavioral and functional neuroimaging studies with an emphasis on the perception of pain in others, and highlight the role of different neural mechanisms that underpin the experience of empathy, including emotion sharing, perspective taking, and emotion regulation. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-883a165822e54e5ea677dc587d418d0f |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1537-744X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2006-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Scientific World Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-883a165822e54e5ea677dc587d418d0f2025-08-20T03:37:44ZengWileyThe Scientific World Journal1537-744X2006-01-0161146116310.1100/tsw.2006.221Human Empathy Through the Lens of Social NeuroscienceJean Decety0Claus Lamm1Department of Psychology Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USADepartment of Psychology Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USAEmpathy is the ability to experience and understand what others feel without confusion between oneself and others. Knowing what someone else is feeling plays a fundamental role in interpersonal interactions. In this paper, we articulate evidence from social psychology and cognitive neuroscience, and argue that empathy involves both emotion sharing (bottom-up information processing) and executive control to regulate and modulate this experience (top-down information processing), underpinned by specific and interacting neural systems. Furthermore, awareness of a distinction between the experiences of the self and others constitutes a crucial aspect of empathy. We discuss data from recent behavioral and functional neuroimaging studies with an emphasis on the perception of pain in others, and highlight the role of different neural mechanisms that underpin the experience of empathy, including emotion sharing, perspective taking, and emotion regulation.http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/tsw.2006.221 |
| spellingShingle | Jean Decety Claus Lamm Human Empathy Through the Lens of Social Neuroscience The Scientific World Journal |
| title | Human Empathy Through the Lens of Social Neuroscience |
| title_full | Human Empathy Through the Lens of Social Neuroscience |
| title_fullStr | Human Empathy Through the Lens of Social Neuroscience |
| title_full_unstemmed | Human Empathy Through the Lens of Social Neuroscience |
| title_short | Human Empathy Through the Lens of Social Neuroscience |
| title_sort | human empathy through the lens of social neuroscience |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/tsw.2006.221 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jeandecety humanempathythroughthelensofsocialneuroscience AT clauslamm humanempathythroughthelensofsocialneuroscience |