The Science of Empathy by Sahar Dorani, M.A.

         

Who would have thought that the saying “I feel your pain” actually has scientific validation? As a mental health clinician, I was fascinated to learn that a therapist’s ability to empathize with his or her clients was backed by sound research. In the early 1990’s, an Italian neurophysiologist, Dr. Giacomo Rizzolatti, was investigating the planning of movement in the brains of mammals by studying the activities of individual nerve cells in the brain of macaque monkeys. This was done by placing electrodes on the premotor cortex of monkeys’ brains to see how activities (such as reaching for fruit or toys) were planned and initiated. Every time a monkey reached for food, the monkey’s neurons in a specific brain region would fire. Before resuming his experiment one day, one of the researchers reached for a raisin while the monkey being studied sat still. The researcher noticed that the measuring device hooked up to the monkey’s brain was firing even though the monkey was merely sitting still watching him grab the raisin. One of the premotor neurons was firing, just the way it had when the monkey itself had been reaching for food! This was the moment that marked the accidental discovery of what we now call “mirror neurons.” 

            Researchers found that the same activity was present in human brains, which means the brain activity of someone doing something was replicated in the brain of someone who was observing the action. Since this discovery, social scientists have been interested in how this finding extrapolates to a therapist’s ability to feel empathy when their clients share emotionally-charged information in session. As it turns out, when electrodes have been placed on both therapist and client, the brain activity in the client is mimicked by the therapist’s brain, illustrating that a therapist has the same neuronal activity as his/her client when empathizing in therapy sessions.

            Dr. Terry Lesh conducted one of the earliest studies on empathy between therapists and clients in 1970. Specifically, the link between Zen meditation and the development of empathy in therapists was examined. It was found that therapists who took part in Zen-Buddhist meditative practices regularly were able to develop a higher degree of empathy (illustrated by accurately detecting and describing the affective state of others) than therapists who did not meditate. This was thought to be because meditation and mindfulness facilitate empathy through reducing stress, and thus, increasing self-compassion.

            Taking this research a step further, a 2013 study at the University of Chicago found neurobiological roots of psychopathic behavior. In the field of psychology, someone with antisocial personality disorder lacks remorse and empathy and often manipulates others for personal gain. We’re talking about con artists and serial killers, and the range of sociopaths and psychopaths in between. In the aforementioned study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activity in 121 prison inmates believed to have had antisocial personality traits. These individuals were shown visual scenarios illustrating pain (e.g., a finger slammed in a door, toes caught under heavy objects, etc.) and told to imagine that the accidents happened to themselves, or somebody else. Researchers found that, when imagining they were experiencing the pain themselves, the inmates showed a typical neural response within the brain regions involved in empathy for pain. However, when participants imagined pain to others, these brain regions failed to become activated. Actually, when imagining others’ experience of pain, the participants showed increased levels of arousal in their ventral striatum, which is a brain region involved in experiencing pleasure. The results of this study convey that, not only do psychopathic individuals lack the capacity for empathy, but also some of them actually derive pleasure from watching others in pain. While this may seem obvious to some of us familiar with this clinical population, the neuroscience of a sadistic psychopath proves to be fascinating. From Zen meditation fostering empathy in counselors to discovering the neuronal basis of psychopathy, the human brain never ceases to amaze.    

References:

Decety, J., Chen, C., Harenski, C., & Kiehl, K.A. (2013). An fMRI study of affective perspective taking in individuals with psychopathy: Imagining another in pain does not evoke empathy. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 489. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00489

Lesh, T.V. (1970). Zen meditation and the development of empathy in counselors. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 10 (1), 39-74. doi: 10.1177/002216787001000105 

Staemmler, F. M. (2011). Empathy in psychotherapy: How therapists and clients understand each other. J New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.