University College London
The study, published in the Journal
of Neuroscience and funded by the Medical Research Council, shows that
a part of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) seems
particularly attuned to other people's good news, but how it responds varies
substantially depending on our levels of empathy.
For people who rated themselves as
highly empathetic, the ACC responded only when another person had good news
coming, but for people who gave themselves lower empathy scores, the ACC also
responded when bad news was predicted for themselves.
Researchers scanned the brains of 30
male volunteers aged 19-32 using functional magnetic resonance imaging while
they saw symbols that predicted how likely either they or another person was to
win money.
Participants also completed a
questionnaire that assessed their empathy level in the week before they had the
scan.
"We looked at how this brain
response varied in people with different levels of empathy. We wanted to see
whether the brains of people who have high levels of empathy are particularly
responsive to other people's good fortune" said lead author Patricia
Lockwood, UCL Psychology & Language Sciences.
The study found that the ACC region of
the brain activated in all the volunteers when someone else was very likely to
win money. However, there were substantial differences in how 'specialised'
this ACC response was, which were linked to how empathetic participants said
they were.
Participants whose ACC activation was
the most specialised for other people showed an ACC response only when the
other person was very likely to win money. These volunteers had rated
themselves as high in empathy.
However, participants whose ACC
activation was less specialised for other people also showed an ACC response
when they themselves were very unlikely to win money. These participants had
given themselves much lower empathy scores.
"We were excited to find that
differences in how empathetic people were changed how 'specialised' the ACC was
when responding to other people's rewards," said Professor Essi Viding,
the senior author of the study.
"Future research is needed to
determine whether this degree of specialization also relates to other traits
besides empathy, such as how competitive people are."
Further research is also needed to
examine how real life social interactions can be influenced by how specialised
this area of the brain is, and whether these results can help to explain why
some people only feel happy for others' success when they feel successful
themselves.
