Neural correlates of admiration and compassion (2009)
May Helen Immordino-Yang, Andrea McColl, Hanna Damasio & Antonio Damasio
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 109, 19, 8021-8026
Compassion for physical pain CPP
Compassion for social/psychological pain CSP
Admiration for virtue AV
Admiration for skill AS
Social emotions play a critical role in interpersonal relationships and moral behavior .
Take admiration & compassion as examples.
Social
Admiration ….. reward
Compassion…. Remedy
Personal
Heightened self-awareness and evaluation
P8021 ‘ the extent to which we use neural systems related to sensing and regulating our own body and consciousness to react emotionally to the physical and psychological situation of others has not been investigated comprehensively’
Need to make a critical distinction between recognising a circumstance and responding to it.
Responding to physical v responding to psycho-social
‘if the neural mechanisms involved in empathy for another’s physical situation e.g. anterior insula for pain, are also involved in psych-social an important question relates to the timing of the neural activity involved. For example, compassion for physical pain is evolutionarily well established ( ref 29) and develops early in children ( ref 30) whereas CSP would require more substantial cognitive processing elated to cultural factors.
Making inferences : The neurobiology of social cognition
Areas involved
1. Temporoparietal junction (TPJ)
2. Mesial prefrontal cortex
3. 3 contiguous areas, of posteriomedial cortices (PMC)
i. posterior cingulate
ii. retrosplenial area The retrosplenial region is a brain area and part of the cingulate cortex. It is defined by Brodmann area 26, Brodmann area 29 and the Brodmann area 30. Retrosplenial cortex has dense reciprocal projections with both the anterior thalamic nuclei and the hippocampus. In humans fMRI studies implicate the posterior cingulate region in the recall of episodic information. The retrosplenial cortex is one of several brain areas that when damaged produce anterograde amnesia.
iii. Precuneous The precuneus is located on the inside between the two cerebral hemispheres in the rear region between the somatosensory cortex and forward of the cuneus (which contains the visual cortex). It is above the posterior cingulate. Following Korbinian Brodmann it has traditionally been considered a homogeneous structure and with limited distinction between it and the neighboring posterior cingulate area. Brodmann mapped it as the medial continuation of lateral parietal area 7. Axon tracing research on macaque monkeys has established that it consists of three subdivisions which now have been confirmed by fMRI upon resting-state functional connectivity to also exist in humans (parallel fMRI research has also been done upon monkeys). The precuneus seems to be a recently expanded part of the brain, as in less developed primates such as New world monkeys "the superior parietal and precuneate regions are poorly developed".[1] It has been noted that "the precuneus is more highly developed (i.e. comprises a larger portion of the brain volume) in human beings than in non-human primates or other animals, has the most complex columnar cortical organization and is among the last regions to myelinate".The mental imagery concerning the self has been located in the forward part of the precuneus with posterior areas being involved with episodic memory. Another area has been linked to visuospatial imagery. (It is not though clear how these—and the functions noted below—link with the above three subdivisions.) Self Functional imaging has linked the precuneus to the processes involved in self-consciousness, such as reflective self-awareness, that involve rating ones own personality traits compared to those judged of other people.[ Memory The precuneus is involved in memory tasks, such as when people look at images and try to respond based on what they have remembered in regard to verbal questions about their spatial details.[8] It is involved with the left prefrontal cortex in the recall of episodic memories[9] including past episodes related to the self.[7] The precuneus is also involved in source memory (in which the "source" circumstances of a memory are recalled) with the left prefrontal cortex: here its role is suggested to be providing rich episodic contextual associations used by the prefrontal cortex to select the correct past memory.[10] In the recollection of memories, it has been suggested that the precuneus 'decides' whether context information exists that can be useful for involving the aid of the hippocampus.)
Literature review
1. TPJ attributing mental beliefs (33,34)
2. Mesial prefrontal – generating inferences about another person’s mental state and psychological characteristics (31,32)
3. PMC in social tasks(35) and episodic memory(36) has not been clarified. Neuropsych. Research suggests involvement in consciousness, specifically in the construction of self (37). ‘ in light of the evidence that simulation on one’s own self is an important means to understand others ( ref 38 review and 39-41) leads to the possibility that the experience of a & c would differentially engage the PMC.
Aims and hypotheses
To test whether and how areas of the brain involved in homeostatic regulation and consciousness would be involved during the feeling of different varieties of A & C , presumably with different patterns.
1. h1 A&C would engage nuclei in the brainstem and hypothalamus and somotosensory cortices in introceptive ( anterior insula) and extraceptive sectors ( somotosensory association areas including the superior parietal lobe and supramarginal gyrus)
2. h2 A&C would engage PMC
3. h3 activity in anterior insula would peak and dissipate more quickly for CPP than for CSP ( or varieties of admiration)
Method
Design
4 conditions AV,AS,CPP,CSP were experiementally induced by narratives based on episodes from the lives of real people. Supplemeted by audio/sill & live images. The control acondition was an enagaging, social and active narrative.
Protocol see I-Y including the use of psychophysiological (HR, RR) to identify which parts of the BOLD signal to analyse.
ERA (event related averages) and a bootstrap procedure were used to compare time-to-peak and duration of BOLD in insula, among conditions
Analysis
ANCOVA – to contrast BOLD from each condition
Results ( between condition analysis)
Average reported emotional strength during scanning
AS lower than other conditions
Psychophysiological
Respiration rate similar between all conditions
HR greater than control for AV & CSP and a trend for CPP but similar to AS. Led to the conclusion that it is unlikely that any differences in BOLD is due to arousal.
BOLD
| | | |
| Hypothalamus Mesencephalon Postmedullary junction | All conditions | Expected as these are regions which include nuclei involved in autonomic regulation |
| Medulla | AV & CSP | |
| | | |
| Anterior middle cingulate Cortical areas that sense body, including anterior insula & supramraginal gyrus | All conditions | |
| | | |
| PMC area | | |
| Posterior cingulate | AS & CPP | |
| Anterior cingulate, anterior insula,hypothalamus | AV &CSP | Homeostatic regulation |
| Inferior/posterior section of the PMC | AV and CSP | Interoceptive processing |
| Superior/anterior of PMC | AS & CPP | Musculoskeletal processing |
ERA: Comparison of time courses based on % change in BOLD. CPP peaked more quickly and had a shorter duration.
Conclusions
i. The same homeostatic regulatory mechanisms are engaged in the experience of A & C i.e. social emotions use some of the same basic devices involved in primary emotions.
ii. In PMC AV & CSP were associated with strong activation in the inferior/posterior portion of PMC and area ( in the macaque monkey) that is strongly associated with the anterior middle cingulate cortex which is itself strongly connected with the insular cortex. In contrast AS and CPP showed activation in superior/anterior (AV &CSP also showed to a lesser degree). P8024 ‘ consistent with anatomical findings, our data suggest a functional subdivision in the PMC regarding emotional processing. Emotions related to someone else’s ‘psychological’ state ….may preferentially recruit a network ……. which are infiltrated with interoceptive information, by contrast emotions related to someone’s physical state …… may recruit a sector of PMC most connected with lateral parietal cortices suggesting a connection to exteroception and musculoskeletal information’
iii. ‘Overall these results suggest that the processing of social emotions is organised less around the kind of emotional response, be it compassionate or admiring, than around the contents and context of the situation’ ‘Although it is known that the anterior insula is involved in compassion for physical pain, our findings that activity in this region peaked more quickly and for a shorter duration during CPP than during CSP (and AV and AS) suggests that emotions about others’ physically painful predicaments co-opt neural mechanisms for personally experienced pain more efficiently and directly……………in order for emotions about the psychological situations of others to be induced and experienced, additional time may be needed for the introspective processing of culturally shaped knowledge. The rapidity and parallel processing of attention requiring information which hallmark the digital age, (WHOOPS see IY PNAS interview) might reduce the frequency of full experience of such emotions with potentially negative consequences’
