Empathy And The Brain
August 14th, 2006, 7:36 pm by Priya Florence Shah
Filed under Empathy, Self-Awareness, Wellness, Relationships, Thoughts
Via Cassandra Walker I found this report in Psychology Today that shows how empathy can be measured in the brain.
When something hurts you, I feel it too. So suggests research by Sean Mackey, Ph.D., and his colleagues at Stanford University, who discovered that when people see others in pain, they show patterns of brain activation similar to patterns observed when they themselves are suffering.
Researchers scanned the brains of 14 subjects while they watched videos of people being injured in situations such as car crashes and sport events. The same subjects’ brains were studied as researchers placed a painfully hot instrument on their arms. A comparison of the scans revealed that areas of the brain responsible for processing sensory and emotional aspects of pain were activated.
Mackey suggests this overlap represents a neurological expression of empathy, which may serve to bind people socially.
The researchers didn’t ask whether the neurological patterns are an outcome of empathy or a cause of it. What do you think? Do changes in our energy precede neuronal changes or the other way around?
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Stephanie said,
August 14th, 2006, 10:40 pm
That’s fascinating. I wonder. It’s curious that in this age of technology people are growing more detached and removed from each other and at the same time it seems clairempaths are popping up in larger numbers. Or making their presence known could it be that people are becoming more detached because of an ability they possess, or is the ability making itself known to counteract the distancing.
I think I’ve confused myself.
Priya Florence Shah said,
August 14th, 2006, 11:03 pm
I think (and have read) that humans are reaching a higher level of consciousness, which is why there are more intuitives popping up.
Of course, there will always be humans at different levels of consciousness on earth - some so much into their feelings that they become neurotic, and some so disconnected from their emotions that they lose the ability to intuit. Both extremes are dysfunctional.
Detachment is also a virtue (according to Buddhist philosophy), but one that I haven’t managed to master yet. I like having the ability to feel. Seems more real and alive to me. I ever decide to renounce the world and become a sanyasin, I’ll learn detachment.