[extropy-chat] [>Htech] Empathy is a Hardwired Feeling (fwd from oxyryxo at yahoo.com)

[Eugen Leitl]

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From: "oxyryxo" <oxyryxo at yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 20:09:19 -0000
To: transhumantech at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [>Htech] Empathy is a Hardwired Feeling
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February 22, 2004
Empathy is a Hardwired Feeling
As I mentioned in emotions in art and the brain "emotions and
feelings are mediated by distinct neural systems. Whereas emotions
are automatic responses to sensory stimuli, feelings are 'private,
sbjective experiences' that emerge from the cognitive processing of
an emotion eliciting state."

Providing hard evidence of this view is an excellent piece of
research reported in this week's Science by University College London
neuroscientists, Tania Singer and Ray Dolan (who showed videos of
this research at the neuroesthetics conference).

"Human survival depends on the ability to function effectively within
a social context. Central to successful social interaction is the
ability to understand others intentions and beliefs. This capacity to
represent mental states is referred to as "theory of mind" or the
ability to "mentalize". Empathy, by contrast, broadly refers to being
able to understand what others feel, be it an emotion or a sensory
state. Accordingly, empathic experience enables us to understand what
it feels like when someone else experiences sadness or happiness, and
also pain, touch, or tickling."

An Overview of the Empathy Experiment: (A real stinger)

...But when their partners were zapped, regions physically mapping the
pain were quiet while the AI and ACC and a few other regions lit up
in the women's brains. And the signals from those two areas were
stronger in women who reported a greater degree of empathy,
suggesting these regions mediate empathy.

Singer suspects that our brain's ability to intuit the emotional
response of others could have been strongly selected during
evolution. "If I do something, it tells me will it make you smash me,
will you kill me or will you like it? Being able to predict how
others feel might have been necessary for human survival," she says.

I couldn't agree more, empathy is critical to human survival. This
research is a great addition to the growing scientific literature on
empathy and provides further evidence that animal models of human
behavior are insufficient to undertand human behavior and to develop
effective neuroceuticals.

http://www.corante.com/brainwaves/
 




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