title: How learning shapes the empathic brain.
abstract: Deficits in empathy enhance conflicts and human suffering. Thus, it is crucial to understand how empathy can be learned and how learning experiences shape empathy-related processes in the human brain. As a model of empathy deficits, we used the well-established suppression of empathy-related brain responses for the suffering of out-groups and tested whether and how out-group empathy is boosted by a learning intervention. During this intervention, participants received costly help equally often from an out-group member (experimental group) or an in-group member (control group). We show that receiving help from an out-group member elicits a classical learning signal (prediction error) in the anterior insular cortex. This signal in turn predicts a subsequent increase of empathy for a different out-group member (generalization). The enhancement of empathy-related insula responses by the neural prediction error signal was mediated by an establishment of positive emotions toward the out-group member. Finally, we show that surprisingly few positive learning experiences are sufficient to increase empathy. Our results specify the neural and psychological mechanisms through which learning interacts with empathy, and thus provide a neurobiological account for the plasticity of empathic reactions.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland; grit.hein@econ.uzh.ch.
authors.forename: Grit
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hein
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland; Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, 6525 Nijmegen, The Netherlands;
authors.forename: Jan B
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6493-8792
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Engelmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Brain Sciences, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, Great Britain.
authors.forename: Marius C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Vollberg
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland;
authors.forename: Philippe N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Tobler
mesh_terms: D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology*; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D059906:Neuroimaging; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D011897:Random Allocation; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: empathy; fMRI; in-group; learning; prediction error