The Neuroscience of Empathy, Compassion, and Self-Compassion

The Neuroscience of Empathy, Compassion, and Self-Compassion provides contemporary perspectives on the three related domains of empathy, compassion and self-compassion (ECS). It informs current research, stimulates further research endeavors, and encourages continued and creative philosophical and scientific inquiry into the critical societal constructs of ECS. Examining the growing number of electrocortical (EEG Power Spectral, Coherence, Evoked Potential, etc.) studies and the sizeable body of exciting neuroendocrine research (e.g., oxytocin, dopamine, etc.) that have accumulated over decades, this reference is a unique and comprehensive approach to empathy, compassion and self-compassion.

• Provides perspectives on empathy, compassion and self-compassion (ECS), including discussions of cruelty, torture, killings, homicides, suicides, terrorism and other examples of empathy/compassion erosion
• Addresses autonomic nervous system (vagal) reflections of ECS
• Discusses recent findings and understanding of ECS from mirror neuron research
• Covers neuroendocrine manifestations of ECS and self-compassion and the neuroendocrine enhancement
• Examines the neuroscience research on the enhancement of ECS
• Includes directed-meditations (mindfulness, mantra, Metta, etc.) and their effects on ECS and the brain

• Language: English
• Publisher: Academic Press
• Release date: Jun 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9780128098387

Book preview

The Neuroscience of Empathy, Compassion, and Self-Compassion

Edited by

Larry Stevens

Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States

C. Chad Woodruff

Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States

Table of Contents

Cover

Title page

Copyright

Dedication

Contributors

Preface

Chapter 1: What Is This Feeling That I Have for Myself and for Others? Contemporary Perspectives on Empathy, Compassion, and Self-Compassion, and Their Absence

Abstract

Origins

Definitions

And Their Absence: A World Without Empathy, Compassion, or Self-Compassion

Interrogatives and Polemics

Chapter 2: The Brain That Feels Into Others: Toward a Neuroscience of Empathy

Abstract

Definitional Quandaries of Empathy

Phylogeny and Comparative Ethology of Empathy

Contextual Factors Concerning Empathy

Measuring Empathy in Humans

Brain Mechanisms Involved in Empathy

Empathy in Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Summary and Future Directions

Chapter 3: The Brain that Longs to Care for Others: The Current Neuroscience of Compassion

Abstract

Compassion

The Emotional Experience of Compassion

The Intention to Help

Theory of Mind

Bottom-Up Experiencing versus Top-Down Regulation

An Integrated Theory of the Neuroscience of Compassion

Directions for Future Research

Chapter 4: The Brain That Longs to Care for Itself: The Current Neuroscience of Self-Compassion

Abstract

Self-Compassion

The Evolution of Compassion and of Self-Compassion

The Components of Self-Compassion

The Neuroscience of Self-Compassion

Directions for Future Research

Chapter 5: Sometimes I Get So Mad I Could …: The Neuroscience of Cruelty

Abstract

Defining Cruelty

Everyday Cruelty: Anger, Aggression, and Hatred

The Neuroscience of Populations Characterized by Cruelty

Summary of the Neuroscience of Cruelty

Chapter 6: Reflections of Others and of Self: The Mirror Neuron System’s Relationship to Empathy

Abstract

Discovery of MNs and Attempts to Measure Them

Using Neuroimaging to Infer MN Activation

Putative Measures of MNs and Empathy

Does Mu Suppression Reflect MNs? Yes, and then Some

Beta Rhythms and Mns

Do MNs Constitute or Contribute to Action Understanding?

Self–Other Discrimination in the MN System

Conclusions and Directions for Future Research

Chapter 7: Why Does It Feel So Good to Care for Others and for Myself?

Abstract

Overview and Questions

Caring for Others: Empathy and Compassion

Caring for the Self: Self-Compassion

Conclusions and Directions for Future Research

Chapter 8: Can We Change Our Mind About Caring for Others? The Neuroscience of Systematic Compassion Training

Abstract

Introduction and Scope of the Review

Compassion Training Programs

The Neuroscience of Systematic Compassion Training

Directions for Future Research

Chapter 9: Compassion Training from an Early Buddhist Perspective: The Neurological Concomitants of the Brahmavihāras

Abstract

The Brahmavihāras in Early Buddhist Soteriology

Attentional Foundations of Contemplative Practice

The Neural Concomitants of Brahmavihāra Practices

Conclusions and Directions for Future Research

Chapter 10: The Language and Structure of Social Cognition: An Integrative Process of Becoming the Other

Abstract

Introduction

The Taxonomy of Social Cognition

The Role of Empathy in the Social Cognition Lexicon

Unifying Principles: Becoming/Knowing the Other

Constraints

Conclusions

Chapter 11: Where Caring for Self and Others Lives in the Brain, and How It Can Be Enhanced and Diminished: Observations on the Neuroscience of Empathy, Compassion, and Self-Compassion

Abstract

Empathy, Compassion, and Self-Compassion

Mirror Neurons

Hormones

Training

Brahmaviharas

Social Cognition

An Integrated Portrait of Compassion

The Empathy-to-Compassion (EtoC) Model

Final Thoughts

Index

Copyright

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ISBN: 978-0-12-809837-0

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Dedication

To My Beautiful and Brilliant Children

Samantha

Sean

Summer

Erik

Shannon

The Stitches in My Robes

The Beat in My Heart

The Stars in My Firmament

I Love You Each and All

paPa

- Larry Charles Stevens

I dedicate this book to my wife Stacy, and kids Carson and Sierra, who put up with the worst in me because they see the best in me.

Thank you.

- C. Chad Woodruff

Contributors

Todd Ahern,     Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT, United States

Jasmine Benjamin,     University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States

Melissa Birkett,     Department of Psychological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States

Martin Brüne,     Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

Benjamin Bush,     Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States

Adam Calderon,     Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT, United States

Kristina Chepak,     University of California, San Diego, CA, United States

Vera Flasbeck,     Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

Mark Gauthier-Braham,     Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States

Cristina Gonzalez-Liencres,     Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain

Robert J. Goodman,     Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States

Jaime A. Pineda,     University of California, San Diego, CA, United States

Paul E. Plonski,     Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States

Thomas Pruzinsky,     Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT, United States

Joni Sasaki,     Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii, Manoa, HI, United States

Leah Savery,     Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States

Fiza Singh,     University of California, San Diego, CA, United States

Larry Stevens,     Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States

Taylor N. West,     Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States

C. Chad Woodruff,     Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States

Preface

Since the summer of 2008, the Department of Psychological Sciences at Northern Arizona University (NAU) has conducted its own independent (of other Departments) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) summer intensive research internships. REU Site Programs are sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) across the United States for the purpose of creating a new generation of young scientists from diverse cultural backgrounds and supporting their development into doctoral-level careers in the Professoriate, that is, teaching and conducting their own research primarily in university settings. The lofty and visionary aim is to cross-fertilize science in this country with exciting new perspectives and creative ideas, ultimately toward the advancement of knowledge and of society. Each summer, and for some throughout the academic year, undergraduate students from across the country spend 8–10 weeks apprenticed for 40 h per week to faculty mentors at selected US universities conducting the interns’ own, but faculty supervised, research in a specific topic area. The NSF generously supports the travel, housing, dining, and modest research costs, and even provides a stipend, for these fortunate REU Research Interns.

NAU is uniquely positioned to offer such creative science programs not only because of its strong academic foundation and research productivity in the sciences but also because of its proximity to two culturally exciting, diverse, and developing Native American nations, the Hopi and the Dine (Navajo), the latter the largest Native American nation in the United States. Prior to the summer of 2008 and continuously for approximately 15 years, the Department had joined with the Department of Biological Sciences to offer REU internships in the broad arena of neural and behavioral sciences, but in 2005 the two departments decided to offer independent REUs in their respective specialty areas. Over the next 2 years, the Department of Psychological Sciences began the quest for development of a unique new standalone REU experience in a specialty area that fit with the general research interests of a majority of our faculty and was of contemporary value to society. The general theme of Compassion was identified and grant proposals were offered to the National Science Foundation for the funding of an REU Site Program in the Social Psychophysiology of Compassion. And, given our interests and growing academic involvement with the Dine and Hopi Nations, we titled our REU program, "Hojooba’ bee la’ hooniil, Undergraduate Studies into the Social Psychophysiology of Compassion." Perhaps to best explain the Navajo origin of this title and our excitement with this research theme, we will quote from the original grant proposal:

In ancient Navajo lore, there is a story of a time long ago when children who were damaged or unwanted were placed in a pit beneath the Hogan where they would be cared for but also out of sight so as not to offend people. And the one who cared for these children was called Twilight Boy, one of the four Navajo Deities, representing the evening light in the West. Twilight Boy possessed the attribute of Hojooba’ bee la’ hooniil, translated from Navajo as the expression of loving kindness as healing for the suffering of society, what in English we call Compassion. From their origins in ancient stories and in the self-less behaviors of many of our ancestors, such acts of compassion have long captured the interests of social scientists. And even today, in contemporary psychological research, few ideas have won the attention of both academic researchers and the broad international community like current research into the construct of compassion. Perhaps of most remarkable focus has been the neuroimaging studies of Dr. Richard Davidson and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin who have placed 256-electrode arrays on the heads of Tibetan monk students of the Dali Lama meditating on compassion and have found striking elevations and synchrony of gamma EEG activity in neural circuitries related to empathy (Lutz et al., 2004; Brefczynski-Lewis et al., 2007), earning cover-story attention in the March 2005 National Geographic. And since these studies compared accomplished meditators with novices, there are reported implications for the ability to actually alter brain functioning with meditative compassion training, to actually train skills that promote happiness and compassion. In Developmental Psychology, Meltzoff’s and others’ formulations on the development of social cognition and empathy have illuminated how compassionate behaviors can be acquired in young children (Meltzoff, 2002; Meltzoff & Brooks, 2008). Similarly, Shaver and colleagues (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2005) have studied how attachment styles in children and adults relate to the development of compassion and altruism across the lifespan. Many of these ideas have been crystallized in a contemporary seminal text on this area by Gilbert (2005) entitled, Compassion: Conceptualisations, Research, and Use in Psychotherapy. And, more recently, the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) has been established at the Stanford University School of Medicine for the purposes of fostering multidisciplinary studies of compassion.

From this humble but exciting beginning, our REU program has received two 3-year cycles of funding and is now at the beginning of its third cycle under the able direction of Dr. Woodruff. And, in keeping with progress in compassion research, the program has evolved in exciting new directions, including mediators and moderators of relationships among critical psychological constructs and compassion, the role of mirror neurons in the manifestation of empathy and compassion, the neurological and psychosocial effects of compassion and meditation training, and the neuroscience of self-compassion.

One of the important components of our REU program each year has been the submission of proposals for compassion symposia to the Annual Meetings of the American Psychological Association (APA). These meetings represent the largest gathering of psychological researchers and practitioners in the world and provide a forum for the presentation of our REU interns’ research. We have been most honored to have presented symposia nearly every year of funding to the APA conventions across the United States and Canada, most often to standing-room-only crowds. These presentations have been not only a culminating reward for our Interns and their hard work to generate quality research in this area but also allow communication with other researchers from around the world on this critical societal topic.

In August 2016 at the Toronto, Canada APA convention, we were approached by two book publishers and were invited to prepare an edited textbook on the neuroscience of compassion, directly taken from our REU research presentations and as a review of the current literature in this area. Following negotiations with both publishers and on the basis of goodness-of-fit between parties, we opted for the present relationship with Elsevier/Academic Press. This book represents the outcomes of that formative and highly rewarding relationship. We hope that you find our work together enjoyable, informative, illuminating, and stimulating of your own personal or professional pursuits into the neuroscience of empathy, compassion, and self-compassion.

The purpose of this is book is to inform the upper division undergraduate and the graduate student about the current neuroscience of empathy, compassion, and self-compassion. As an academic neuroscience textbook, it is loaded with neuroanatomy, more specifically the neurological sites involved in processes related to these critical mammalian prosocial constructs. At times, the content may seem tedious and pedantic, but we want the academic reader to understand the justification in the established literature and the important functionality and localizations for such statements as, Given the rather established roles of dlPFC in selective attention and working memory, of vlPFC in response selection and inhibition, of dmPFC in the monitoring and processing of changing emotional states, of posterior temporal cortex (PTC) in perceptual and semantic representations of information, and of AMG as the repository of affective states, a model begins to emerge for the processing and regulation of emotions, including those experienced in compassion. We hope that such detailed descriptions serve to engage the reader in the neurological mechanisms underlying our everyday experiencing of these states of consciousness and to motivate our charges, and perhaps even yourselves, in some day conducting their/your own research to further advance our understanding and to perhaps help the world to become a more compassionate place. Our hope also is that this textbook will serve as a starting point for such academic inquiry through university courses involving The Neuroscience of Empathy, Compassion, and Self-Compassion. We have done so at our university to the popular acclaim of our students; we sincerely hope that you will witness the same rewards.

Toward this objective, we have assembled a collection of chapters overviewing the current neuroscience of the important psychosocial concepts of and related to empathy, compassion, and self-compassion. In Chapter 1, What is this feeling that I have for myself and for others? Contemporary perspectives on empathy, compassion, and self-compassion, and their absence, Stevens and Woodruff introduce the reader to important phylogenetic and ontogenetic discoveries in the origins of these constructs prosocially across a variety of animal species and some spiritual foundations in humans, to current understandings and controversies in defining empathy, compassion, and self-compassion, and to an engagement of the reader in a series of questions and debates regarding the finer details and inter-relationships of these ideas. In Chapter 2, The brain that feels into others: Toward a neuroscience of empathy, Flasbeck, Gonzalez-Liencres, and Brune explore in greater depth the definitional, phylogenetic, and contextual understandings of empathy, review current neurochemical, neuroimaging, and neurophysiological investigations, present manifestations of diminished empathy in neuropsychiatric disorders, and offer a clear and concise model of empathy as well as directions for future research. In Chapter 3, The brain that longs to care for others: The current neuroscience of compassion, Stevens and Benjamin start with defining compassion by presenting some personalized examples of compassion expression and erosion and then advance an argument based on current neuroscience research for the hierarchical and temporal organization of the experience of compassion and how it may, by this mechanism, be diminished. Research directions are then offered around this integrated theory for continued explorations into the neuroscience of compassion. In Chapter 4, The brain that longs to care for itself: The current neuroscience of self-compassion, Stevens, Gauthier-Braham, and Bush tackle the challenging rather pervasive absence of neuroscience research into the popular construct of self-compassion by examining current research findings on related subcomponents of self-compassion, those being self-kindness, mindfulness, and common humanity. On the basis of this review, a preliminary framework for the neuroscience of self-compassion, with suggested directions for future research, is offered that follows a delineated progression along cortical midline structures anteriorly to posteriorly during a prescribed meditation on these subcomponents.

Chapter 5, Sometimes I get so mad I could . . . : The neuroscience of cruelty, by West, Savery, and Goodman, examines neurologically and neuropsychiatrically what happens in the brain and behaviorally when empathy and compassion go away, both acutely and chronically. Such constructs as dehumanization, otherization, in-group/out-group prejudices, threat responses, moral judgments, anger, aggression, hatred, jealousy, envy, schadenfreude, social rejection, Machiavellianism, conduct disorders, personality disorders, psychopathy, and sexual violations are all considered in this chapter from a current neuroscience research perspective. In Chapter 6, Reflections of others and of self: The mirror neuron system’s relationship to empathy, Woodruff takes the reader on an exciting journey into the new field of mirror neuron research, from the discovery of apparent mirroring neurons in the brains of macaque monkeys over two and a half decades ago, through the development and refinement of an extensive body of research inquiry into the manifestations, relationships, and neurological characteristics of mirroring in primate cortices, and up to the current status, controversies, and directions for future research in mirror neurons, mu-suppression, beta EEG rhythms, and their relationships to empathy. Chapter 7, Why does it feel so good to care for others and for myself? Neuroendocrinology and prosocial behavior, examines research investigating the critical, pervasive, but only recently understood role of neurohormones in the expression of empathic, compassionate, and self-compassionate behaviors. Birkett and Sasaki present current translational research from rodent studies to human clinical trials supporting the role of the neuropeptides oxytocin and vasopressin in the manifestation of these important prosocial behaviors, also with specific suggestions for continued research in this developing arena.

The past decade has seen a proliferation of compassion training programs, several directed at establishing neurological markers for the enhancement of compassionate behaviors. Chapter 8, Can we change our mind about caring for others? The neuroscience of systematic compassion training, by Calderon, Ahern, and Pruzinsky, reviews the current neuroscience literature on the neurobiological correlates and effects of some of the more popular of these interventions, including Cognitively Based Compassion Training (CBCT) and Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT), spotlights effects of long-term compassion meditation in highly experienced Tibetan meditators, and presents a newer program developed expressly for the inculcation of compassion in the primary and secondary educational setting, Project for Empathy and Compassion Education (PEACE). Existing neuroscience studies that examine neurological changes that occur across these developed training programs are presented, with colorful, detailed, integrative brain maps provided, and with methodological limitations and directions for future research offered. In Chapter 9, Compassion training from an Early Buddhist perspective: The neurological concomitants of the Brahmaviharas, Goodman, Plonski, and Savery begin by conceptually distinguishing compassion from similar contemplative practices described in Early Buddhist scholarship known as the Brahmaviharas — loving-kindness, altruistic joy, and equanimity — as well as other contemplative practices that are foundational to the deliberate cultivation of compassion, such as focused attention and mindfulness. Weaving together Early Buddhist scholarship and evidence from the field of contemplative neuroscience, changes in neural activity that result from the deliberate cultivation of compassion are identified and differentiated from their contemplative cousins. In Chapter 10, The language and structure of social cognition: An integrative process of becoming the other, Pineda, Singh, and Chepak present empathy as a socially and neurologically profound becoming or knowing the other and offer psychosocial and neuroscience evidence to support this notion. A hierarchical/heterarchical model of social cognition is presented with higher order components more frontally localized and modulated by lower level processes. And Chapter 11, Where caring for self and others lives in the brain, and how it can be enhanced, and diminished: Observations on the neuroscience of empathy, compassion, and self-compassion, by Woodruff and Stevens, attempts to organize and to summarize all of the above chapter content into an integrative theory for the neuroscience of these constructs and a new model for the process of coming to understand and to care for another. We hope that across these chapters, we have satisfactorily represented the current state of the neuroscience of empathy, compassion, and self-compassion, but most importantly, have stimulated the reader’s thinking about these complex concepts toward continued neuroscience research in these exciting areas.

Certainly this book, the REU program on Compassion, our most stimulating relationships with many undergraduate interns from across the United States, and the continued development of faculty collaborations, not only at NAU but also across the country, in the general research themes of empathy, compassion, and self-compassion would have been much more difficult and even formidable without the visionary support and continued encouragement of the staff at the National Science Foundation. We would particularly like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Fahmida Chowdhury, former Program Director, Multi-Disciplinary Activities, Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences and her outstanding Program Review Panels at the NSF. Dr. Chowdhury was always an available, highly professional and knowledgeable, and inspiring mentor who showed outstanding courage in supporting such an innovative REU program as ours, particularly, and perhaps with remarkable vision indeed, for a US federal agency that finds its roots in the military defense of our country.

And speaking of remarkable, the staff at Elsevier have been so indeed, particularly in suffering with us through the protracted and painful delays in the preparation, editing, and final proofing of each chapter in this book. They stood with us patiently toward the ultimate completion of each component, offering understanding, guidance, and encouragement where needed. We are particularly grateful to Ms. Emily Ekles, Senior Acquisitions Editor, Ms. Barbara Makinster, Senior Editorial Project Manager, and Ms. Priya Kumaraguruparan, Production Project Manager at Elsevier.

REU programs hinge on the generosity of Faculty Mentors who give of their time, and in many cases sacrifice their summer holidays, in order to shepherd their wide-eyed charges through the often turbulent sea of psychosocial and neurophysiological research. This guidance includes collaborating with their Intern(s) on the selection of a doable research project, co-participating in review of relevant literature, precision design of a suitable study, laborious recruitment of research participants, painstaking data collection, processing, and analysis, creative preparation of research outcomes for oral and visual (posters and graphics) presentations, and eventual preparation and submission of scholarly manuscripts of the Interns’ research. Needless to say, this is a lengthy and complicated process that is more often than not punctuated by interruptions, delays, disappointments, discoveries, personal and mechanical crises and failures, and a host of other impediments that such research is heir to. And, to add intensity and excitement to the process, all has to be completed for public oral dissemination at our own local REU Conference held at the end of the summer, after only 8–10 weeks! Sound formidable? It indeed is, but somehow our cadre of Faculty Mentors manages to pull it off. They make it all possible.

Over these past 7 years of our NSF-NAU REU, the following Faculty Mentors have somehow made it all happen: (2008) Drs. Melissa Birkett, Meliksah Demir, Andrew Gardner, Ann Huffman, Andy Walters, and Chad Woodruff; (2010) Drs. Meliksah Demir, Steven Funk, Ann Huffman, Larry Stevens, Andy Walters, Heidi Wayment, and Chad Woodruff; (2011) Drs. Steven Funk, Michael Rader, Larry Stevens, and Andy Walters; (2012) Drs. Melissa Birkett, Meliksah Demir, Larry Stevens, Daniel Weidler, and Chad Woodruff; (2014)¹ Drs. Melissa Birkett, Dana Donohue, Larry Stevens, Viktoria Tidikis, Daniel Weidler, and Chad Woodruff; (2015) Drs. Melissa Birkett, Dana Donohue, Robert Goodman, Daniel Weidler, and Chad Woodruff; (2016) Drs. Meliksah Demir, Robert Goodman, Larry Stevens, Daniel Weidler, and Chad Woodruff.

We have been most fortunate over these 7 years of NSF funding to be provided an Assistant Program Coordinator each year. The Assistant Program Coordinator works closely with the Program Coordinator/Principal Investigator on the grant to implement all components of the project, including the logistical issues of travel to and from NAU, setting up housing and dining arrangements, organizing and implementing twice-weekly professional development luncheons and workshops and twice-monthly Northern Arizona cultural experiences (including a 3-day campout and tour of Navajo sacred sites and rituals in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park), organizing weekend social activities, and generally serving as Mother Hen for our flock of precious Interns each year. These indispensable operational activities have been most skillfully carried out each year by the following cadre of Department of Psychological Science Graduate Research Assistants: (2008) Ms. Donna Pisano, (2010) Ms. Amanda Berman, (2011) Ms. Kateryna Boyce, (2012) Ms. Kateryna Sylaska, (2014) Mr. David Avram, (2015) Ms. Andrea Brockman, and (2016) Mr. Anthony Stenson.

And, for the past 3 years of the REU grant, NAU has generously funded four Department of Psychological Sciences Graduate Research Assistants to co-mentor, co-supervise, and collaborate in each Intern’s research activities. This Co-Mentor program has strategically incorporated students enrolled in our graduate program in the everyday activities of all components of conducting quality psychosocial and neuroscience research in our Department, not only providing our Interns with peer-supervision but also further training our graduate students in the critical skill set of teaching and conducting research. Our most able, highly skilled, and committed Co-Mentors for these past 3 years have been, (2014) Mr. Anthoni Goodman, Ms. Jessica Moschetto, Mr. Gavin Parsons, Mr. Max Williamson, (2015) Ms. Kristina Brookshire, Mr. Timothy Broom, Ms. Victoria VanPuyvelde, Mr. Jordan Wilkins, (2016) Ms. Alyssa Billington, Mr. Matt Brunskill, Mr. Michael Esposito, and Ms. Taylor West.

Certainly managing a nearly $1/2 million federal grant requires precise accounting, web design, and diverse administrative responsibilities. Keeping the financial wheels of this complex machine well-greased and seamlessly turning from week to week from year to year has been the responsibilities of Mrs. Janina Burton, Ms. Delfina Rodriguez, and Mrs. Denise Stippick. We shall always be deeply appreciative of and amazed at their diligence, attention to detail, and fiscal artistry in so skillfully managing this wonderful REU program.

And finally, the real heavy lifting, the future of social and neurological science in this country has fallen on the shoulders of a group of courageous and creative young people from across this land who chose to follow a very different path for their summer between academic semesters, for many a choice of leaving for the first time the predictability and familiarity of home for a distant, culturally unique, and environmentally spectacular oasis atop the Kaibab Plateau in Northern Arizona, that path being the quest for knowledge, the acquisition of psychophysiological research skills, the pursuit of careers in science, and the adventure of discovery of new ideas, of different peoples, and of diverse cultures. These Interns and their journeys are the reasons we Faculty Mentors have chosen the same path. We share their excitement of discovery and are honored to have been able to travel this path with them.

Our REU Interns for these past 7 years of funding are: (2008) Ms. Stephanie Antman (University of Arizona), Ms. Siomara Enriquez (NAU), Ms. Shaness Grenald (St. Johns University), Mr. Sean Guillory (Texas State University), Ms. Jophina Joe (NAU), Ms. Janelle Matthews (NAU), and Mr. Anthony Smallcanyon (Dine College);

(2010) Ms. Ashanti Bragg (Norfolk State University), Mr. Michael Brower (NAU), Mrs. Lynnette Cuellar (University of New Mexico), Ms. Janeen Denny (Dine College), Ms. Michelle Harris (University of Arizona), Mr. Akiee Mayon (NAU), Mr. Ivan Valenzuela (NAU), and Ms. Christine Villasenor (Fort Lewis College);

(2011) Ms. Dibely Acosta (University of New Mexico), Mrs. Kristina Bell (Fort Lewis College), Ms. Jasmine Benjamin (NAU), Ms. Taylor Fellbaum (The College of St. Scholastica), Ms. Jazmin Johnson (Howard University), Ms. Mica McGriggs (NAU), Ms. Sara Mouhktar (Carnegie Mellon University), and Ms. Alanna Pugliese (University of Miami);

(2012) Ms. Courtney Allen (University of Wisconsin), Mr. Joseph Bonner (Villanova University), Mr. Jonathan Gordils (University of Connecticut), Ms. Jasmine Johnson (Norfolk State University), Ms. Marissa Martinez (University of New Mexico), Ms. Haley Pruitt (Fort Lewis College), Mr. Brett Velez (Glendale Community College), and Mrs. Dawn Whinnery (Arizona Western College);

(2014) Ms. Imani Belton (North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University), Ms. Hannah Brown (Macalester College), Ms. Amanda Garcia (NAU), Ms. Anastasia Gusakova (Beloit College), Mr. Tyrone McCullough (Charleston Southern University), Ms. Christina Rico (NAU), Ms. Alyssa Sanchez (Occidental College), Ms. Misty Stevens (Old Dominion University), and Ms. Rebecca von Oepen (California State University, Monterey Bay);

(2015) Mr. Toe Aung (Albright College), Ms. Cheyenne Begay (NAU), Ms. Stephanie Esquivel (California State University, Northridge), Ms. Tiana Hans (NAU), Ms. Katherine Ilecki (NAU), Mr. Tyler Jimenez (Fort Lewis College), Ms. Joan Paul (Coconino Community College), and Ms. Ariel Shirley (Northland Pioneer College);

(2016) Ms. Danielle Adams (NAU), Mr. Adam Calderon (Quinnipiac University), Ms. Caeli Diamond (Cleveland State University), Ms. Claire Grant (State University of New York, Geneseo), Ms. Lorena Lechuga Gutierrez (NAU), Ms. Emma Nettles (University of South Carolina, Aiken), Mr. Jeremy Petty (Alabama A&M University), and Ms. Taylor Pondy (NAU).

And, as we close the Preface to this book, we would like to leave the reader with a fitting affirmation for the completion of any laborious work.

The Buddhist Prayer on the Completion of 100,000 Prostrations

By this effort,

May all sentient beings

Be free of suffering.

May their minds be filled

With the Nectar of Virtue.

In this way,

May all causes resulting in suffering

Be extinguished.

And only the light of Compassion

Shine throughout all realms.

—Jetsunma

Larry C. Stevens

C. Chad Woodruff

Northern Arizona University

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¹ Due to federal budgetary uncertainties in the summer of 2013 culminating in the US government shutdown of October 2013, the second 3-year cycle of funding for our REU was delayed, preventing the start of the funding cycle in summer 2013. Consequently, the second 3-year cycle started in the summer of 2014.

Chapter 1

What Is This Feeling That I Have for Myself and for Others? Contemporary Perspectives on Empathy, Compassion, and Self-Compassion, and Their Absence

Larry Stevens

C. Chad Woodruff    Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States

Abstract

We begin our adventures into the neuroscience of empathy, compassion, and self-compassion with origins and definitions of these critical social constructs. We explore the numerous variations and nuances for our understanding of each of these terms including conceptualizations from the most prominent researchers in the field. We then launch into a polemical dialogue between the authors not only to dive to greater depths into the underlying permutations of each of these terms but also to endeavor to engage the reader in the excitement that a refinement of these concepts brings to the research community and to stimulate creative thinking, further dialogue, and, hopefully, more research into the neuroscience of empathy, compassion, and self-compassion.

Keywords

empathy

compassion

self-compassion

emotions

cognition

definitions

origins

classifications

Our comprehension of the concepts of Empathy, Compassion, and Self-Compassion is by no means settled at this stage of scientific and public discourse. This realization is particularly striking within the context of compassion, as this idea has been around for well over 2500 years. Even more remarkable, perhaps, is our understanding of the expression of empathy, which according to de Waal can be traced back well beyond the emergence of humans and our closest ape and chimpanzee primate ancestors to its earliest vestiges in the expressions of self-other differentiation, emotional contagion, and preconcern in dolphins, whales, and elephants (de Waal, 2009). The notion of self-compassion, which also finds its origin in early Buddhist teachings, is perhaps the most clearly understood of the three, largely due to the contemporary formulations of Neff (2003a,b). In this chapter, we will explore the origins and definitions of these three concepts by engaging in a stream of polemical encounters between the authors of this narrative. We shall also consider consequences of the absence of each of these expressions in human behavior. In so departing from the more typical manner of only academically introducing and discussing important concepts in the introductory chapter of this textbook, we hope to engage the reader in not only the depth, complexity, and implications of these terms, but perhaps more importantly in a creative exploration and beginning consensus toward their meanings in and ultimate ramifications for contemporary culture.

Origins

As noted above, we can trace the origin of empathic behavior to the actions of nonprimate mammals, most remarkably to elephants, dolphins, and whales. De Waal estimates that the neurological vestiges of empathy stretch back over a hundred million years and can be witnessed in motor mimicry and emotional contagion in primitive mammalian species (de Waal, 2009). We rather commonly see these manifestations in mockingbirds imitating the whistles and calls of other birds and even of humans (mimicry), in dogs howling to the plaintive cries of coyotes in the distance or, perhaps more compelling, in human infants in a nursery joining in after one starts to cry (emotional contagion). And perhaps in a more advanced but still primitive vestige of empathy, the expression of what de Waal calls preconcern may be seen in the seemingly automatic approach behavior of young rhesus monkeys to an injured peer, when the comfort of mother is also closely available. There are numerous compelling examples of nonhuman primates manifesting behavior which clearly appears to be empathic. Such behavior is hypothesized to have emerged because of its evolutionarily selective, prosocial, protective, and survival value (Decety, Norman, Berntson, & Cacioppo, 2012 de Waal, 2008, 2009; Gonzalez-Liencres, Shamay-Tsoory, & Brüne, 2013; Preston & de Waal, 2002).

A perhaps most telling example of apparently fully developed empathy in animals even lower on the phylogenetic scale, in elephants, is the following account from de Waal:

I saw an incredible act of targeted helping. An older female, perhaps close to 65, fell down in the middle of the night. It was a very rainy, muddy jungle environment, difficult for us to walk around, I can only imagine how difficult it was for a tired old female to get up. For hours, mahouts and volunteers alike tried to lift her. In the meantime, her close companion, Mae Mai, an unrelated female of about 45, refused to leave her side. I say refused because mahouts were trying to get her out of the way (tempting her with food). She may have sensed that they were trying to help, because after repeated tries to lift the fallen female with human hands and with another elephant tethered to her, Mae Mai, in a rather agitated state, got alongside the old female, and with her head, tried to push her up. She repeatedly tried to do so, ending each failed attempt with frustrated trunk smacks to the ground and rumbling. She seemed highly committed to staying with her friend.

When the old female died, a few days later, Mae Mai urinated uncontrollably, and started bellowing loudly. When the mahouts tried to take down a large wooden frame to try and raise the old female, Mae Mai got in the way and wouldn’t let the wood anywhere near her dead friend. Mae Mai then spent the next two days wandering around the park bellowing at the top of her voice every few minutes, causing the rest of the herd to respond with similar sounds (de Waal, 2009, 133–134).

We see in this retelling of an observation of elephant behavior in Thailand the preconcern, emotional contagion, and even what de Waal calls insightful assistance in Mae Mai’s emotional response to her friend’s demise. Such behavior bears a remarkable resemblance to the experience of loss of a dear friend or relative and bereavement in more advanced mammals, including humans, perhaps in the above story with a painful failure to sufficiently differentiate self from other and with subsequent prolonged emotional distress.

Compassion evolutionarily is a much more recent concept and may require the emergence of higher order executive processing not available to nonprimate mammals. Nonetheless, it is important to note evidence of apparent compassionate and altruistic behavior in animals other than primates, as the example above suggests. In studies of fossilized remains of ancient hominins, anthropological evidence indicates that compassionate/altruistic behavior has likely been around in early humans for well over a million years. For example, remains of cranial, brain, dental, and mandible congenital deformities and injuries indicate that these individuals survived sometimes for decades when to do so would be impossible without the care of others (Hublin, 2009).

Wang (2005) has presented a compelling and detailed explanation for the evolution of such acts of compassion in the relatively recent development of a physiologically based, largely parasympathetic/vagal, prosocial species-preservative system, in direct juxtaposition to the more ancient sympathetic-dominated self-preservative system. This more contemporary neurohormonal network evolved from maternal instincts to protect the vulnerable human infant and to promote its welfare through its fragile growth, ultimately leading to the recruitment of support from clan conspecifics toward this objective, and led to the creation of the physiological infrastructure for the emergence of compassion. This species-preservative system comprises (1) an enlarged neocortex including intricately interconnected and bilaterally differentiated prefrontal and thalamocingulate pathways allowing an improved differentiation of self from other and the experience of receptive emotional prosody, or the ability to understand the emotional information conveyed by another (Davidson, 2002; MacLean, 1990); (2) a newly evolved ventral vagal complex (Porges, 1995, 2003) which allows an immediate, moment-to-moment fine-tuning of physiological and affect regulation, further promoting social engagement behaviors including looking, listening, facial expression, vocalizing, filtering of low-frequency sounds for the discrimination of human voices from background sounds, head gestures, & ingestion; and (3) the elaboration of the posterior pituitary hormone oxytocin from its original role in parturition and nursing to the facilitation of kinship and clan emotional bonding. In this manner, mother–infant bonding, caregiving, and familiarity behaviors emerged as an evolutionary template for the development of a constellation of social engagement, species-preservative behaviors leading to the emergence of compassion (Goetz, Keltner, & Simon-Thomas, 2010; Wang, 2005). The underpinnings of this evolutionary model for the development of compassion in (1) the care of vulnerable offspring, (2) sexual selection theory, and (3) the formation of protective, prosocial kinship bonds has been supported in a more recent empirical review by Goetz et al. (2010).

While very early dating of hominin acts of compassion and the evolution of an elaborate species-preservative prosocial system are largely inferential, more recently but still thousands of years ago, we see the written emergence of compassion. Some of these earliest writings encouraging the practice of compassion may be found in ancient Vedic Upanishads dated to the fifth to sixth centuries BCE and in the earliest of Buddhist meditations on the Four Noble Truths circa 500 BCE. Later we see it emerge in the Islamic Qur’an in the recitations of Rahman, in the ideals of Tzedakah in the Jewish Torah, across the Christian Bible in stories, sermons, and prayers, and passed down in the aural history of Native Peoples in the Americas for hundreds of years. Today, compassion is championed across many religious institutions, but its most prolific proponent and enthusiastic advocate is His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama (Lama, 1984, 1995, 1997, 2011).

Self-compassion also finds its roots in early Buddhism but may even be traceable to primate self-grooming behavior (de Waal, 2009). The Buddha is reported to have said, It is possible to travel the whole world in search of one who is more worthy of compassion than oneself. No such person can be found (Tatia & Upasak, 1973). In the early stages of the ancient practice of Metta, or loving-kindness, Meditation, the aspirant is advised to first feel loving-kindness toward the self, then in a progressive sequence toward various others (Analayo, 2015; Gethin, 1998; Kornfield, 1993;  2009). Notwithstanding its objective of relieving suffering in others, Buddhism has long extolled the virtue of compassion toward the self.

More recently, this concept has been popularized in the writings and research of Kristin Neff, who differentiates self-compassion from the long-standing Western focus on self-esteem as an important marker for psychological health. Neff explains that self-esteem is based in social comparisons and judgments of self-worth and is often associated with self-absorption, self-centeredness, narcissism, diminished concern for others, out-group prejudice, and even aggression and violence (Neff, 2003a). Self-compassion, on the other hand, is associated with feelings of loving kindness (Metta) toward one’s self, with mindfulness, balance, or equanimity and nonjudgment and receptivity toward one’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences, and with a sense of common-humanity or belongingness to the family of personkind. Neff and colleagues have established a considerable body of contemporary research attesting to the psychological and physical well-being of such feelings of compassion toward the self (Neff, 2003b).

Definitions

Empathy

There are clearly as many definitions of empathy as there are fish in the sea, that is, philosophers and researchers investigating this complex concept. Origins of the expression may be found in the ancient Greek term empatheia, literally en (in) pathos (passion). However, in 1873 the philosopher, Robert Vischer, was the first to use in print the German expression Einfühlung, meaning feeling into as an expression for analyzing works of art. In 1909, Edward Bradford Titchener, the student of Wilhelm Wundt, one of the founding fathers of the discipline of Psychology and of the school of Structural Psychology, translated this German expression into the English term,