The causal role of the somatosensory cortex in prosocial behaviour
| العنوان: | The causal role of the somatosensory cortex in prosocial behaviour |
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| المؤلفون: | Mario Carlo Severo, Judith Suttrup, Tatjana Maskaljunas, Riccardo Paracampo, Selene Gallo, Valeria Gazzola, Anna Henschel, Laura Müller-Pinzler, Carolina Fernandes-Henriques, Christian Keysers, Alessio Avenanti, Laila A. Blömer, Balint Kalista Lammes |
| المساهمون: | Gallo, Selene, Paracampo, Riccardo, Müller-Pinzler, Laura, Severo, Mario Carlo, Blömer, Laila, Fernandes-Henriques, Carolina, Henschel, Anna, Lammes, Balint Kalista, Maskaljunas, Tatjana, Suttrup, Judith, Avenanti, Alessio, Keysers, Christian, Gazzola, Valeria, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN), FMG, Brein en Cognitie (Psychologie, FMG) |
| المصدر: | eLife, Vol 7 (2018) eLife, 7:e32740. eLife Sciences Publications eLife |
| بيانات النشر: | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd, 2018. |
| سنة النشر: | 2018 |
| مصطلحات موضوعية: | Male, helping, Brain activity and meditation, Immunology and Microbiology (all), Developmental psychology, neuroscience, 0302 clinical medicine, empathy for pain, EEG, Biology (General), media_common, General Neuroscience, Self, 05 social sciences, Electroencephalography, General Medicine, 16. Peace & justice, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, Prosocial behavior, Feeling, Medicine, Female, Psychology, Research Article, Adult, Adolescent, QH301-705.5, media_common.quotation_subject, Science, Pain, Helping behavior, Empathy, 050105 experimental psychology, General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Young Adult, 03 medical and health sciences, Sensation, medicine, Journal Article, Humans, 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences, human, SI, Social Behavior, Callous and unemotional traits, Neuroscience (all), Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (all), General Immunology and Microbiology, Somatosensory Cortex, medicine.disease, TMS, 030217 neurology & neurosurgery |
| الوصف: | Witnessing another person’s suffering elicits vicarious brain activity in areas that are active when we ourselves are in pain. Whether this activity influences prosocial behavior remains the subject of debate. Here participants witnessed a confederate express pain through a reaction of the swatted hand or through a facial expression, and could decide to reduce that pain by donating money. Participants donate more money on trials in which the confederate expressed more pain. Electroencephalography shows that activity of the somatosensory cortex I (SI) hand region explains variance in donation. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) shows that altering this activity interferes with the pain–donation coupling only when pain is expressed by the hand. High-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) shows that altering SI activity also interferes with pain perception. These experiments show that vicarious somatosensory activations contribute to prosocial decision-making and suggest that they do so by helping to transform observed reactions of affected body-parts into accurate perceptions of pain that are necessary for decision-making. eLife digest When we experience physical pain, certain areas in our brain that process bodily sensation and emotions switch on. If we see someone else in pain, many of the same regions also get activated. In contrast, convicted criminals with psychopathic traits have less activation in these areas of the brain when witnessing someone’s pain; they also show less empathy and disregard the needs of others. This suggests that a lack of this ‘shared activations’ may lead to problems in empathy. In fact, many scientists believe that shared activations are why we feel empathy for people in pain, and why we are driven to help them. Yet, there is little direct evidence about how the activity in the pain processing parts of the brain actually influences helpful behavior. As a result, some scientists now argue that empathy-related processes may actually contribute very little to helping behavior. Gallo et al. designed an experiment where participants watched videos of someone having their hand swatted with a belt, and showing different levels of pain as a result. The volunteers could decide to reduce the amount of pain the person received by donating money they could have taken home. The more pain the participants thought the victim was in, the more money they gave up to lessen it. During the study, the activity in the brain region that processes pain in the hand was also measured in the participants. The more active this region was, the more money people donated to help. Then, Gallo et al. used techniques that interfered with the activity of the brain area involved in perceiving sensations from the hand. This interference changed how accurately participants assessed the victim's pain. It also disrupted the link between donations and the victim's perceived pain: the amount of money people gave no longer matched the level of pain they had witnessed. This suggests that the brain areas that perceive sensations of pain in the self, which evolved primarily to experience our own sensations, also have a social function. They transform the sight of bodily harm into an accurate feeling for how much pain the victim experiences. The findings also show that we need this feeling so we can adapt our help to the needs of others. In the current debate about the role of empathy in helping behaviors, this study demonstrates that empathy-related brain activity indeed promotes helping by allowing us to detect those that need our assistance. Understanding the relationship between helping behavior and the activity of the brain may further lead to treatments for individuals with antisocial behavior and for children with callous and unemotional traits, a disorder that is associated with a lack of empathy and a general disregard for others. |
| وصف الملف: | ELETTRONICO; application/pdf |
| اللغة: | English |
| تدمد: | 2050-084X |
| URL الوصول: | https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_dedup___::f2827cdfdf82daf67d4991dbc0f64161 https://elifesciences.org/articles/32740 |
| Rights: | OPEN |
| رقم الانضمام: | edsair.doi.dedup.....f2827cdfdf82daf67d4991dbc0f64161 |
| قاعدة البيانات: | OpenAIRE |
| تدمد: | 2050084X |
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