Cry for her or cry with her: context-dependent dissociation of two modes of cinematic empathy reflected in network cohesion dynamics.

ABSTRACT: Two empathy-related processes were recently distinguished neuroscientifically: automatic embodied-simulation (ES) based on visceromotor representation of another's affective state via cingulo-insulary circuit, and emotional sharing relying on cognitive 'theory of mind' (ToM) via prefrontal-temporo-parietal circuit. Evidence that these regions are not only activated but also function as networks during empathic experience has yet to been shown. Employing a novel approach by analyzing fMRI fluctuations of network cohesion while viewing films portraying personal loss, this study demonstrates increased connectivity during empathic engagement (probed by behavioral and parasympathetic indices) both within these circuits, and between them and a set of limbic regions. Notably, this effect was cont

SUBMITTER: Raz G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3871736 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature