Attracting Abundance

The Law

Two Doors to Success

Happiness - X

Ten Ways to Well-being
(from Bible)

Listen without interrupting.
Speak without accusing.
Give without sparing.
Pray without ceasing.
Answer without arguing.
Share without pretending.
Enjoy without complaint.
Trust without wavering.
Forgive without punishing.
Promise without forgetting.

A vital precursor to the development of pro-social behavior is the activation of empathy or the ability of an individual to recognize and share the emotions of others. I am attaching a you tube video which differentiates between empathy and sympathy - a point of common confusion.

Many of the brain regions that fire in empathy are the same as those involved in our own emotions. For example, when individuals watch other people being exposed to a painful stimulus, they show activation in the anterior insula (a region just behind temples) and anterior medial cingulate cortex )an area of cortex just above the corpus callosum in the medial part of the brain). These areas are also active when indiduals are exposed to pain themselves. (Lamm et al, 2011, NeuroImage, 54(3), 2492 - 502). The anterior insula is not only active when witnessing the pain of another, it activates in response to a person's own positive and negative experiences. It also activates when witnessing the positive and negative emotions of others. Activity in empathy related regions is also affected by the degree of social connectedness between the observer and the individual experiencing the positive and negative experiences. Hein et al studied the fans of two different sports teams and found that anterior insula activation was much lower in individuals observing the pain of a rival team versus fans of the same team. (Hein et al, 2010, Neuron, 68(1), 149 - 60). The anterior insula is a region that is involved in feeling of bodily sensations, so this suggests that individuals observing others in pain "feel" some of that pain themselves, and the feeling is stronger if the individual receiving the pain is someone that the observer feels more socially connected to. 

In a study of African Americans and Caucasian Americans (Mathur et al, 2010, NeuroImage, 51(4), 1468 - 75) it was found that both groups showed activity in anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex in response to witnessing both African American and Caucasian Americans in pain. However, the African Americans additionally recruited the medial pre-frontal cortex ( a region generally in self related processing) when witnessing the suffering of other African Americans as opposed to Caucasian Americans. Further the magnitude of median pre-frontal activity positively predicted the amount of money participants indicated that they would be willing to donate to help members of their in-group.

One step beyond the experience of empathy (and more directly related to well being) is the ability of an individual to engage in pro-social behavior. In a study of individuals deciding whether to donate to charity, it was found that people showed activity in the same brain regions (ventral tegmental area and dorsal and ventral striatum) both when they donated money and received it. ( Moll et al, 2006, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, 103(42), 15623 - 8). In fact in that study, the ventral striatum was even more active when pariticipants donated money than when they received it. Given the role of ventral striatum in the experience of positive effect, these data corroborate the adage that "it is better to give than to receive". 

Additionally, participants with greater magnitude of striatal activity also made a greater number of charitable donations than individuals with less striatal activity. That suggests that participants are more likely to engage in charitable donations if they find the activity more intrinsically rewarding.

Another interesting research is on the brain cricuitry of extra ordinary altruists for example organ donors where the donation costs the donor significantly. It was found that the extra ordinary altruists showed increased amygdala response to faces of people in fear. Greater amygdala response, in this study, predicted better recognition of fearful faces one to two hours later. (Marsh et al, 2014, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences). Given the role of amygdala in emotional arousal, these results suggest heightened sensitivity to the suffering of others in this group of extra-ordinary altruists, specifically others that are experiencing fear.

Namaste

Prabir