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empathy

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Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·September 1, 2019·4 min read

Adolescents’ fun seeking predicts both risk taking and prosocial behavior

A positive correlation has been identified between prosocial and rebellious behaviors in teens. The more risk taking behaviors a teen exhibited, the more likely they were to act prosocially. The findings suggest the same developmental processes are at work for both types of behaviors. Also noted was faster brain development in the medial prefrontal cortex predicted a decrease in rebellious behavior.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·July 29, 2019·2 min read

Babies display empathy for victims as early as 6 months

Children as young as 6 months can show empathy for victims. The findings debunk the theory that the ability to empathize only develops after one year of age.

Autism Featured Neuroscience

·July 16, 2019·3 min read

Non-binary link to autism

Non-binary and transgender people have a higher risk of autism, a new study reports. The risk is significantly higher for those who were assigned the female gender at birth.

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Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·June 18, 2019·3 min read

Antidepressants can reduce ’empathic empathy’

Antidepressants for major depressive disorder reduce the aversive response triggered by exposure to the suffering of others. Findings suggest antidepressants may lead to impaired empathy of pain perception.

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Autism Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·June 7, 2019·3 min read

Autism linked to less empathy in general population, but that may not be a bad thing

Findings provide new evidence that autism is linked to lower empathy in the general population, and atypical empathy in ASD is not simply due to alexithymia, or emotional blindness. Researchers stress that the lack of empathy may not always be a negative quality.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 3, 2019·3 min read

Mona Lisa’s smile not genuine

Neuroscientists draw the conclusion Mona Lisa's famous enigmatic smile isn's a genuine smile at all.

This shows brain scans with the lack of anterior cingulate cortex activity

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·May 29, 2019·4 min read

Seeing disfigured faces prompts negative brain and behavior responses

Neuroimaging reveals people experience a diminished neural response in the anterior cingulate cortex when shown images of others with facial disfigurements. A similar response is also seen when people view other stigmatized people, such as those who are homeless. The diminished activity may explain why people are less empathetic toward those who have facial disfigurements and may help explain the underlying neural mechanism for dehumanization.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience Psychology

·May 24, 2019·5 min read

People with traumatic brain injury, who often lose empathy, can regain it with treatment

Many people who experience traumatic brain injury report a loss of empathy following their injury. Researchers consider how to reconnect those who have a TBI with their feelings of empathy and emotional recognition.

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Featured Psychology

·April 24, 2019·3 min read

Schadenfreude: Your pain is my gain

Schadenfreude, or taking pleasure from the misfortune of others, can be contagious and leads to a vicious cycle of mistreatment of a victim, especially in a competitive workplace.

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Featured Psychology

·April 22, 2019·4 min read

Empathy often avoided because of mental effort

The cognitive cost of empathy may cause people to be less empathetic to others.

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Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·April 11, 2019·4 min read

I feel you: Emotional mirror neurons found in the rat

Study reports the anterior cingulate cortex of rats contain mirror neurons that respond to pain experienced by and observations of others.

This is a drawing of two heads with the word empathy under them

Featured Psychology

·April 9, 2019·5 min read

Empathy and cooperation go hand in hand

A capacity for empathy is key in sustaining cooperation between a social group. Findings reveal empathy can evolve through a process of social contagion.