In the brain, multiple regions are associated with the process of empathy, forming a complex neural network. This study provides a new perspective on how the interplay between personal experience and brain activity shapes social behavior, highlighting the complexity of the connections between empathy, biology, and behavior.
Our personal experience with emotional events profoundly impacts how we perceive and respond to other people’s emotions. Empathy is the ability to understand and share another person’s feelings, whether joy, sadness, or pain.
It is a fundamental mechanism for social connection, allowing individuals to respond appropriately to the emotions and needs of others.
Empathy involves two main components: the cognitive, which is the ability to understand another person’s perspective or situation, and the emotional, which is feeling or reflecting the emotions of others. In the brain, multiple regions are associated with this process, forming a complex neural network.
The central area of empathy is the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which plays a crucial role in processing thoughts about others and regulating emotions. In addition, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and anterior insula are critical for perceiving and responding to pain and negative emotions in others.
The amygdala, a structure deeply embedded in the limbic system, is associated with recognizing emotions and processing intense emotional reactions, such as fear or distress.
The inferior parietal cortex, in turn, contributes to the ability to “put yourself in someone else’s shoes,” which is essential for cognitive empathy. These areas work together to integrate emotional and contextual information, enabling empathic behavioral responses.
Disturbances in any of these regions can negatively impact empathy, as seen in conditions such as autism, psychopathy, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
This study, conducted by researchers at the Institute of Neuroscience, National Research Council, Vedano al Lambro in Italy, investigated how mice respond to stress in other mice after experiencing a negative experience, and revealed intriguing insights into the biological and behavioral basis of this interaction.
The researchers observed that mice react differently to the stress of others, showing preferences or avoiding their fellow mice in distress, but only when they themselves have already experienced the same traumatic or aversive event.
In other words, the direct experience of a stressful event is a crucial factor in shaping their response to the emotional state of others. These divergent behaviors were influenced by specific biological factors: in females, reactions varied depending on the estrous cycle, while in males, social dominance played a major role.
The scientists investigated the activity of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), a molecule involved in the stress response, within a specific region of the brain, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC).
When CRF expression in the mPFC was silenced, the mice demonstrated a significant reduction in the influence of personal stress experience on their reactions to the stress of others. This suggests that CRF plays a crucial role in mediating empathic behaviors such as liking or avoiding.
Calcium imaging performed using microendoscopy in living mice allowed the researchers to monitor neuronal activity in the mPFC in real time.
The image above shows an example of a neuronal movie created using calcium imaging. Source: Professor Dorit Hochbaum. UC Berkeley
They found that CRF-expressing neurons were more activated in response to others’ stress only when the mice had previously experienced similar aversive experiences.
This finding demonstrates that personal emotional experience amplifies neuronal sensitivity to others’ distress.
Using optogenetic manipulations, a technique that allows specific neurons to be turned on or off with light, the researchers confirmed that increased activation of CRF neurons in the mPFC was responsible for the change in the mice’s behavior.
Example of Optogenetics Technique
After experiencing a negative experience, these animals changed their approach from initially seeking comfort in the proximity of others in distress (preference) to avoiding them, possibly as a form of self-preservation.
These results highlight the existence of a neurobiological substrate that explains how an individual’s emotional experiences can influence their ability to connect with others in negative emotional states.
This not only expands our understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying empathy and social behavior, but may also have implications for the study of psychiatric disorders in which these interactions are impaired, such as autism, PTSD, and depression.
This study provides a new perspective on how the interplay between personal experience and brain activity shapes social behavior, highlighting the complexity of the connections between empathy, biology, and behavior.
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Self-experience of a negative event alters responses to others in similar states through prefrontal cortex CRF mechanisms
Federica Maltese, Giada Pacinelli, Anna Monai, Fabrizio Bernardi, Ana Marta Capaz, Marco Niello, Roman Walle, Noelia de Leon, Francesca Managò, Felix Leroy & Francesco Papaleo
Nature Neuroscience (2024). 03 December 2024
Abstract:
Our own experience of emotional events influences how we approach and react to others’ emotions. Here we observe that mice exhibit divergent interindividual responses to others in stress (that is, preference or avoidance) only if they have previously experienced the same aversive event. These responses are estrus dependent in females and dominance dependent in males. Notably, silencing the expression of the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) within the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) attenuates the impact of stress self-experience on the reaction to others’ stress. In vivo microendoscopic calcium imaging revealed that mPFC CRF neurons are activated more toward others’ stress only following the same negative self-experience. Optogenetic manipulations confirmed that higher activation of mPFC CRF neurons is responsible for the switch from preference to avoidance of others in stress, but only following stress self-experience. These results provide a neurobiological substrate underlying how an individual’s emotional experience influences their approach toward others in a negative emotional state.
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