Cry Me a River (Or Not)

I’ve been researching the neural mechanisms involved in empathy lately. There are numerous theories on the pathways involved in producing an empathetic response. I came across an article I found especially intriguing. To study deficits in empathy, we typically look at individuals on the autism spectrum. Evidence from these types of studies can only tell us so much, considering the vast range in the levels of social and emotional disabilities involved. An autistic person lacking the mechanistic ability to empathize would also have trouble learning to “fake” an empathetic response, as this would require them to cue into social norms. So, can empathy be learned?

A 2009 study by Danzinger, Faillenot and Peyron sought the answer. They used fMRI technology on a group of subjects suffering from congenital insensitivity to pain. If these individuals couldn’t feel pain themselves, could they still empathize with those that do? Or is the production of an emotional mirroring founded on personal experience and memory? Subjects were shown images of both faces showing painful expressions (to test emotional response) and body parts in painful situations (to test somatosensory response). fMRI scans reported activity in response to these images in comparison with control, non-painful images. Participants were also given a self-reporting empathy survey.

The subjects with congenital insensitivity to pain rated themselves at typical levels of empathy compared with a normal, healthy population. fMRI results revealed that activity in response to facial expressions was generally normal, but represented a distinctly different network of involved structures. Responses to images of body parts in pain were significantly lower than average. Danzinger, Faillenot and Peyron determined that the pathways used by CIP individuals to produce empathy reflected a learning process. Some areas, namely the insula and mid-cingulate cortex, were stimulated in both CIP and non-CIP brains when shown stimuli. Activity seen in the ventromedial prefrontal  and ventral posterior cingulate cortices of CIP subjects only points to the role of association mechanisms. These mechanisms are likely based on what is socially expected when faced with the emotional or physical pain of others.

This study is intriguing, and leaves much to be explored. To what extent are we hard-wired for empathy, and how much of it is learned? How do the pathways for emotional and somatosensory empathetic pathways diverge and converge? I can only hope that by March (when I have to present on this very topic), I have the answer to these and other fascinating questions.

PDF for the original article can be located here: http://www.empathogens.com/empathy/cip-empathy.pdf