The brain's reward system plays a key role in helping behaviors and empathy.
Approximately one-third of people suffer from misokinesia, an anxious or frustrated reaction to watching another person fidgeting.
People may actively decide to withhold feeling compassion for others when they believe it is more challenging or requires mental effort.
People will empathize with others when they recognize them as opportunities to show empathy, but often notice the feelings with others without flagging them as an opportunity to empathize.
Reducing sensitivity to physical pain resulted in a reduction of pain empathy toward others, a study found. The results suggest a possible neurobiological link between pain and empathy.
Researchers investigate mentalizing, or how we are able to understand what another person is thinking, and how this process differs from empathy.
When a rat helps another within its social group, brain areas associated with reward and motivation become more active. This does not occur when a rat is faced with the prospect of helping another rat outside its social group. Researchers say the findings may provide a better understanding of similar social biases in humans.
A new study reveals what goes on in the brain when a person embarks on a musical collaboration project.
Prefrontal cortex activity reveals those who have a more detached personality have similar activity when processing information relating to both social and non-social stimuli. By contrast, those who are more agreeable have significant differences in PFC activity when processing the different forms of information.
A new study sheds light on how highly sensitive people process information. After experiencing something emotionally evocative, brain activity displayed a depth of processing while at rest. Depth of processing is a key feature of high emotional sensitivity.
While conventional thought considers those with psychopathic traits to be outgoing, charming, and bold, researchers say that many with psychopathy are more introverted.
Emotional recognition technology is rapidly growing into a multi-billion dollar industry. Researchers investigate the limitations of new AI technology, and some of the biases within the algorithms, when it comes to identifying human emotions efficiently.