A neuroscientific perspective on the shades of empathy

Speaker of the seminar Gal Raz, PhD, Tel Aviv University, TAU School of Film and Television

Neuroscientific research in the past two decades has consistently pointed to the involvement of two separate factors in empathy (Shamay-Tsoory, 2011; Zaki & Ochsner, 2012). On the one hand, affect sharing (AS), is a vicarious resonance with others’ somatovisceral affective states. It is prompted by neural systems supporting affect perception, such as the sensory cortices and amygdala; salience detection, which involves anterior portions of the cingulate cortex (ACC) and the insula. On the other hand, theory-of-mind (ToM) denotes the attribution of mental states to others based on cognitive representation. It implicates a network including the medial prefrontal cortex, superior temporal sulcus, temporo-parietal junction, precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex, and the temporal poles. In my talk, I will review the evidence on the dissociation of these networks. I will also present neuroimaging findings about oppositional and complementary relations between them during the processing of naturalistic audiovisual content.

Shamay-Tsoory, S. G. (2011). The neural bases for empathy. Neuroscientist, 17(1), 18–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073858410379268
Zaki, J., & Ochsner, K. (2012). The neuroscience of empathy: progress, pitfalls and promise. Nature Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3085
Record of the seminar: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/j6nZGqYXLWVAQvjWOYCKv1Z5gAtRbAsEqzw4V6CTvmHCJPcNvfDMKIf8YMBQMNXB.xxQsVyLYRauWAVqO
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