Neuroscience of Empathy, Part 1

In an unexpected but well-deserved two-part series, Laine introduces us to the first deep-dive discussion topic of the season: empathy. Humans today are born with empathetic tendencies, but just like any other trait, it had to start somewhere. While empathy may only seem like a caveat to "being kind," this trait just might be the key to our survival.

Stay tuned for Part 2, launching March 2022.

General Outline of Episode

What is empathy? - Def? 

Different than sympathy- Empathy: German work - feeling into. Sympathy: Greek Feeling with.  Feel the person's pain instead of feeling sorry for them. Empathy creates vulnerability, sympathy does not. Brene Brown - words don’t make us feel better, connection does.   

On a neuroscience level? (Aping,  - brain’s wiring to need each other, Oxytocin, mirroring neurons, - ability to do perspective taking - theory of mind 

Evolution of a species and evolution of a person 

Development of Person

Baby - mom is sad so I am sad, baby cries so I cry (emotional)

Toddler - will both sooth fake crying and try to give a sad adult a pacifier (because everyone must be soothed as I am)

Child- Progresses from feeling someone else's pain because you are them to feeling for the other person to feeling as them.  (cognitive) starting to learn  that there is another person that has different thoughts, feelings or knowledge that I do - Theory of Mind - children start to lie. Perspective taking. But activation is still great (Jean Decety) in more concrete regions of the brain (periaqueductal gray- integrated behavioral response, and sensory/motor areas) 

Adolescence - (this increases to include activated limbic structures) 

Also increasing to expand to increased development in the upfront cortex (ventromedial prefrontal cortex front part - near your corpus callosum - because that’s where brain lobes attach, near your amygdala and your hippocampus ) AND , theory of mind regions, 

Empathy is sifting from the concrete world of “her finger must hurt, I'm suddenly conscious of my own finger” to focusing on the person who was being poked. 

Young kids' empathy doesn't distinguish between intentional unintentional harm or between harm to a person and an object- comes with age and with development and time this will activate the amygdala and the insula - anger and disgust at those who cause pain. 

Also around age 10-12 can generalize empathy to groups of people. 

6 - can recognize injustice. 8 will feel upset with others experience injustice. 

Evolution of species: How did we get here? 

What had to develop in order for that to happen? 

Aping - copy one another the capacity to reflect back the expressions of others is actually a highly sophisticated neural capability though some animals are copycats even nonhuman primates can't mimic actions with precision and flexibility of humans nevertheless this basic mirroring is the skill in which our abilities to see the world through one another's eyes in other words to empathize rests

A study (Rizolatie and Sinigaglia) confirms the social power of imitation people prefer new acquisitions who subtly imitate their body language even capuchin monkeys prefer being with humans who mirror their actions rather than those who don't.

Large brains - (no brainer - yuval noah harini) drain on the body - hard to carry, hard to fuel - “2-3 percent of total body weight consumes 25 percent of body energy when body is at rest)  Apes - 8 percent of energy. - spend more time on food - not as strong as other animals - 2mill years ago? Not good. Walk upright and fine mother control. More our hands could do the better off we were since we were not strong. Pressure in finely tuned muscles to that that mattered.  Access to sophisticated tools - this was hard evolution because upright is harder on the body and we have a huge head - this is worse for birth - upright made a stricter birth canal- sucks more when babies heads get bigger to support desired bigger brains! Death in childbirth in early evolution was worse - so babies were born earlier and smaller to feed the evolution need of survival. “Natural selection favored early birth”- compared to other mammals we are born VERY prematurely - human babies are helpless for years. 

Lone mothers could not survive  to fight off predators, and find food for self and baby. “Raising children requires constant help from other family members and neighbors. It takes a tribe to raise a human”. 

Babies are hard!  We had to evolve in a way to like taking care of them. Organism needs some mechanism to ensure that its fundamental needs for things like food water and oxygen are met so all organisms have a way to monitor levels of their essence factors and act to restore any imbalance. A serious imbalance causes distress and correction brings a sense of relief often pleasure. The brains networks for reward and distress have their origins in these primitive and essential regulatory systems. But if the animal doesn't feel hunger for example it won't eat and it will starve to death. The brain senses and coordinates our response to meet these needs. However the brain isn't just one organ it's made of multiple systems over different times. Babys’ reward originally comes from relief and mothers also comes from reliving babies. - evolution of critical connection of reward and stress connection.  Empathy matters because without it we would be extinct. 

So what did evolution give us: 

Oxytocin - connection and pleasure 

Opieds and dopaimnie. 

Without oxytocin mammals can’t tell eachother apart. 

“ It's chemistry seems to be essential to empathy and to all relationships that depend on it. By itself oxytocin apparently isn't psychoactive and doesn't produce any kind of high or joy. However it's released in both males and females at orgasm. “

High levels of oxytocin - high levels of vasopressin - high connection to one another. 

oxytocin has been found to increase the time people spent looking into each other's eyes

Evolution also gave us a biological need for interdependeince - “ Throughout life we need social connection to regulate our response to distress period of course exercise meditation and many other stress relief techniques can be done alone and periods of solitude can reduce the stress of relationships will cause. But in the absence of any close human connection non social stress relief tactics can rarely sustain health period to take this to an extreme example being in solitary confinement is one of the most distressing experiences someone can have period normal people can rapidly become depressed and even psychotic if completely isolated for a period short is a few days long term isolation can raise blood pressure lower immunity and worsen virtually all mental and physical illnesses.” Craig Hanly - isolation/solitary confinement 

Holding a loved one's hands even just seeing his or her face nearby can lower blood pressure and levels of stress hormones. As adults we can do this for one another usually with our own stress system getting out of hand. Getting to the point is an adult requires a complex early duet between parent and child, where little stressors are experienced then relieves. We HAD to work in groups!

Groups! - Day CARE! Sarah Hardy and her colleagues to devise a new theory as to why we cooperate. Heidi says in essence the early human version of daycare not warfare drove the rise of human empathy and altruism.

Stress - Why is uncontrolable chronic stress so bad for the brain the body in the long run? Understanding this makes it even clearer why empathy relationships are critical to human survival. We see now the stress response system is activated in a power fight or flight sending stress hormones everywhere and raising heart rate and blood pressure we now know how affectation can reverse these effects. In modern life however situations in which fighting or fleeing is appropriate are few and far between and simultaneously we have fewer opportunities for calming human contact. Nonetheless activation of the stress response system is not rare. Loud noises strange faces looming deadlines bills arguments these things produce some degree of tension are everywhere. The bottom line is that our stress response system default and way to handle very different set of stressors than the ones we face now. And while activating this stress response system in short bursts for what it's designed for can save your life if it stays active for too long it's harmful. Take blood pressure. High blood pressure is useful for better flight this gets blood to the muscles and other areas where it's need to maximize strength and speed. However long term high blood pressure is dangerous straining blood vessels throughout the cour This makes it even worse by the fact that chemistry of chronic elevated stress hardens and clogs arteries meaning that you are essentially putting more pressure in smaller stiffer pipes -  The mind body convert connection and physical effects of chronic uncontrollable stress on health could not be more clear. Raising blood pressure and gumming up the arteries are not the only ways elevated stress hormones can damage physical health however note that our lower status movements and Brits also suffered from immune function 

Groups in stress - Why do we follow the leader? Of course we already know how important families and friends are to human health and this importance is rooted in the way that social connection modulates the brain stress response system. We know to that the brain works in this way because humans evolved in a small groups.Our brains always measuring the tone of our emotional environment period two key factors in this appraisal are our knowledge of a particular place in our hierarchy and our sense that people are safe and familiar. Figure out who has power and who does not is a critical part of staying safe. Our stress response and relational systems are cute to those pirate dynamics consequently our social status and hierarchies plays a big role in our health. The higher level of arousal created by threat pushes the brain to rely on lower last thoughtful regions. That's being in high alarm state makes people more vulnerable to manipulation it also makes them more likely to be compliant. During an emergency it's not useful for people to fight over who's in charge. This waste essential seconds that can be used to coordinated and effective response. true catastrophes those who've survived plane crashes or natural disasters often find themselves surprised by how cooperative and almost eerily calm the people around them seen. This is a result of strong stress response to severe stress. Though we tend to see groups as vulnerable to panic in such situations crowded panics are an exception not the rule. Compliance - good if you have an emphatic and caring leader - really bad if you have a selfish and self-motivated leader.  Cults!  The internal response can change our behavior over time so severely we don’t recognize ourselves. Stress - no future, needs immediate outcomes. the power differentiation has large impact on health and whole countries. If you wind up at the bottom in your daily power interactions you are by differentiation under chronic stress. If each encounter with other people tents with you in alarm state you will literally wear out your body.  

Learned helplessness 

Stress on health -It turns out that the impact of stress on health and the way it is affected by hierarchies is most related to the amount of control you have over your circumstances and work. What's most stressful is not being able to take charge and take responsibility for big decisions but instead being held accountable for outcomes in which you have little or no control. Meaning choice and at least some degree of control greatly mitigate the stress of top positions. The instability of rank can be seen as a great source of stress as low rank itself. It's terrifying to not know where you stand. Or is the great family therapist Virginia Satir put in regarding human life most people prefer the certainty of misery to the misery of uncertainty.

Stress for leaders - Saplosky - a high-ranking male whom researchers observed achieving the status of playing nice grooming friends making allies in diffusing conflicts. This baboon got a chance to be at the alpha but he decided not to fight it with the big guy after he had risen to number two period he was happy where he was. As many and insecure in executive resignation letters read in this case he actually did decide to spend more time with his family rather than being in charge. When he darted and studied him he found that his response stress response wasn't much affected by the status fights he got by with a little help from his friends. Even in a status-obsessed world, this baboon had a haven in others. Another baboon on the other hand fought his way into the number two spot and a troop at one point. Fighting in powerplays not cooperation was his specialty. He was always in the garden back down when threatened. Consequently, this baboon was always on edge even when high-end rank. 

Recognise leaders - SIZE, voice, uniforms, etc

Evolution of species -” Though Americans especially like to proclaim interdependence, our health, creativity, productivity, and humanity emerge from our interdependence, our history of relationships.  This interdependence is an inevitable product of our biology. For the naked, clawless, and not-exactly-fiercley-toothed human species to survive, we had to be able to form cooperative groups - small clans to hunt,  gather, and collectively protect one another from starvation, predators, and unfortunately other human tribes. To reproduce and keep our vulnerable infants alive, we needed another.  The resulting ability to read other people’s intentions  page 4 

Harder parts of this evolution include failure to thrive and what is hypothesized to be why PPD exists.

The human brain has a remarkable capacity to learn discover create and invent and then most remarkably to efficiently pass all of these discoveries and inventions onto the next generation. Our brains allow us to absorb and challenge the accommodated wisdom of thousands of previous generations enabling our species to repeatedly reinvent how we live together work raise our children and govern ourselves.

Evolution of altruism- Game theory - “the prisoner dilemma can help us better understand altruism because of a mathematical outcome that became clear when the game is played repeatedly with multiple players who are allowed to react to the previous actions of their friends. This could be used to create a computer simulation of the world where creatures have reputations and can reward or punish other cooperatives or purple trail in the next round. In this world, they reproduce or die based on which techniques work best. It turns out that defectors those who betray their friends can be detected and punished altruism can be a part of a good strategy for long-term survival. In populations with varying proportions of always selfish always cooperative and tit-for-tat players tit-for-tat players can compete well. In many circumstances, these reciprocal altruists don't die or don't get swamped out by selfish players.”

We notice cheaters fast and we notice when things are not fair. Altruism can survive in a population only if those who don't do their part aren't able to get away with it for too long period since the world is not static. no societies that are completely altruistic and none that is completely selfish either