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Empathy can be detected in people whose brains are at rest:
UCLA researchers have found that it is possible to assess a person's ability to feel empathy by studying their brain activity while they are resting rather than while they are engaged in specific tasks.
Traditionally, empathy is assessed through the use of questionnaires and psychological assessments. The findings of this study offer an alternative to people who may have difficulty filling out questionnaires, such as people with severe mental illness or autism, said senior author Dr. Marco Iacoboni, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
"Assessing empathy is often the hardest in the populations that need it most," Iacoboni said. "Empathy is a cornerstone of mental health and well-being. It promotes social and cooperative behavior through our concern for others. It also helps us to infer and predict the internal feelings, behavior and intentions of others."
Iacoboni has long studied empathy in humans. His previous studies have involved testing empathy in people presented with moral dilemmas or watching someone in pain.
For the current study, published in Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, researchers recruited 58 male and female participants ages 18 to 35.
Resting brain activity data were collected using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, a noninvasive technique for measuring and mapping brain activity through small changes in blood flow. Participants were told to let their minds wander while keeping their eyes still, by looking at a fixation cross on a black screen.
Afterward, the participants completed questionnaires designed to measure empathy. They rated how statements such as "I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me" and "I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective" described them on a five-point scale from "not well" to "very well."
Researchers wanted to measure how accurately they could predict the participants' empathic disposition, characterized as the willingness and ability to understand another's situation, by analyzing the brain scans.
The predictions were made by looking into resting activity in specific brain networks that earlier studies demonstrated are important for empathy. Researchers used a form of artificial intelligence called machine learning, which can pick up subtle patterns in data that more traditional data analyses might not.
"We found that even when not engaged directly in a task that involves empathy, brain activity within these networks can reveal people's empathic disposition," Iacoboni said. "The beauty of the study is that the MRIs helped us predict the results of each participant's questionnaire."
The findings could help health care professionals better assess empathy in people with autism or schizophrenia, who may have difficulties filling out questionnaires or expressing emotion.
Leonardo Christov-Moore, Nicco Reggente, Pamela K. Douglas, Jamie D. Feusner, Marco Iacoboni. Predicting Empathy From Resting State Brain Connectivity: A Multivariate Approach. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 2020; 14 DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2020.00003
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:56PM (6 children)
My mental acuity certainly dropped after your rejoinder, as did everyone else's.
If you're going to be a dick, cut deeper with your reasoning and insight, not with spastic jabs.
Empathy has a place. There is even a vital role to be played in society by individuals who are very empathetic. But there is also a role to be played by those who have low empathy. If you've never been a boss who had to fire somebody who wasn't doing his job in order to save the team and the company, then you won't understand that.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:02PM (5 children)
Let's stick to remotely possible statements, please.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:16PM (4 children)
At this point, we could make my previous comment recursive, because you persist.
But this latest comment of yours does reveal you to be a fantasist, because you appear to believe that glib, half-cocked quips negates succinct, parsimonious points made by others you disagree with.
Here it is again: sociopathy is bad. Pure empathy is also bad. A society needs a spectrum of empathy to thrive.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday February 26 2020, @03:20PM (2 children)
Both sides! I is smart because I not dislike only bad thing! Me dislike good thing too! AM SMART
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday February 27 2020, @12:14AM (1 child)
At last you are composing at a level commensurate with your username, I Kan Reed.
Sigh. This is the level too many have sunk to in their delusions.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2020, @12:18AM
OK BOOMER!
All caps cause I know you people suffer from decreased visual acuity, and if you're using any accessibility features hopefully it turned up the volume a bit for those Woodstock damaged ears.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 27 2020, @12:15AM
Your original point was pretty lame as the start of a conversation and promotes the horrors of humanity as some kind of necessary evil.
Such gems as "If you spend all your time laboring to avoid hurting other people's feelings, you leave little time to dare and innovate" as if empathy has ever stopped someone from innovating? The only example I can think of would be weapons or products intended to hurt innocent people. Basically you start with a false premise and shoe-horn in something akin to "greedy capitalism is good or we'd never innovate."
Plow? Horses were domesticated, as long as the farmer isn't mistreating the horse then no reason for that to conflict with having empathy.
Hoovr Dam? I think slowing down the construction a tad in favor of safer working conditions would have been totally fine.
iPhones? Choose the worst possible example why don't you!
Basically none of the suffering was necessary, just expedient for greedy assholes. That being said, yes you could concoct some crazy scenarios where too much empathy is a problem, but in all of human history it usually goes the other way. I believe that is why you are mocked with simplistic insults, your entire premise is lame to the point of stupid.