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1:30 3:30pm Session Three

Compassion Research in Neuroscience

Moderator:BRIAN KNUTSON, Ph.D., Psychology, Stanford University

RICHARD DAVIDSON, Ph.D., Psychology, University of Wisconsin

TANIA SINGER, Ph.D., Neuroscience, Zurich University

Discussants: BILL MOBLEY, M.D., Ph.D., Neurology, Stanford University

Neuroscientiifc Studies of Compassion and Related Positive Qualities

Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D.

University of Wisconsin, Madison.

This talk will provide an overview of our research program on the behavioral and neural

correlates of compassion. It will include studies with EEG, fMRI and autonomic measuresand will focus on studies with both long-term practitioners as well as studies with novices.This research program is at the very early stages of development and raises many morequestions than it answers.

Questions:

1. What is the relation between the cultivation of compassion and self-relatedprocesses? In particular, how is self-identification modulated by compassiontraining and are some of the effects produced by compassion trainingmeditated by the impact on self-relevant processes?

2. What is the relation between self-compassion and pain? How does self-compassion alter ones relationship to pain and is pain a useful probe in thestudy of compassion?

3. How does the cultivation of compassion increase the likelihood of acting inthe face of suffering and how best should this question be studied in thelaboratory?

4. What is the impact of a highly compassionate person on others? Is thisinterpersonal context a viable one to bring into the laboratory?

5. What are the relations among the four immeasurables? Does cultivating onestrengthen each of the others? Is there a normative developmentalprogression? What do the contemplative traditions say about this?

Empathy Related Concepts and Definitions of in Social Neuroscience and EmpathicMotivation.

Tania Singer, Ph.D.

University of Zurich, Switzerland.

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With the emergence of social neuroscience, researchers have started to investigate theunderpinnings of our ability to share and understand feelings of others. In this talk I willfirst propose a definition of the concepts cognitive perspective taking, emotion contagion,empathy and sympathy empathic concern and compassion. Very broadly, all theseconcepts denote an affective response to the directly perceived, imagined or inferred feeling

state of another being. More specifically, emotion contagion arises a person is affected byanother persons affective state but is not even necessarily aware of it (e.g. contagiousyawning). Unlike emotional contagion, empathy involves a distinction between oneself andothers and an awareness that one is vicariously feeling with someone but that this is not onesown emotion: I share your pain but I know that it is not my own pain. Sympathy differsfrom empathy in that you feel forand not withsomeone, that is, that the emotion you feel isdifferent from what the other feels. Empathic concern or compassion usually refers to afeeling (of warmth, love, concern) anda motivation to help the other. I will then summarizehow these concepts have been studied in social and affective neuroscience using imagingtechniques. Finally, I will discuss the difference between fairness- and compassion-basedmotivation for cooperation, defection and punishment.