No single part of the brain controls empathy. A team of regions works together,1PubMed Central. Shared and distinct functional networks for empathy and pain processing: a systematic review and meta-analysis of fMRI studies and feeling someone’s distress and figuring out what they’re thinking rely on partly separate systems. That’s why a person can be very good at one kind of empathy and weak at the other.
The Regions That Let You Feel Others’ Pain
When people in one study got a signal that a loved one was in pain, two areas became active: the front of the insula and the cingulate cortex. These are the same areas that fire when the person is hurt themselves.2PubMed. Empathy for pain involves the affective but not sensory components of pain
The areas that register where a pain is and how it physically feels stayed quiet unless the person was hurt directly.3PubMed. Empathy for pain involves the affective but not sensory components of pain So you share the unpleasantness of someone’s pain, not the sensation itself. That is why you can tell which body part is involved and still feel nothing in your own matching one.
In daily life, this is the wince when a friend stubs a toe. It’s an echo of emotional discomfort, often called emotional or affective empathy. People with higher empathy scores showed stronger activity in these two areas.4PubMed. Empathy for pain involves the affective but not sensory components of pain
Pooled brain-scan studies confirm the insula and cingulate pair as the core of empathy for pain.5PubMed. Meta-analytic evidence for common and distinct neural networks associated with directly experienced pain and empathy for pain These areas seem to represent overall feeling states and steer how you respond, for yourself and for others.6PubMed. Meta-analytic evidence for common and distinct neural networks associated with directly experienced pain and empathy for pain The brain even uses a nearly identical activity pattern in them for your own pain and for someone else’s.7Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences. The neuroscience of empathy
A placebo painkiller lowered both people’s own pain and their sense of others’ pain, with matching drops in insula and cingulate activity.8Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences. The neuroscience of empathy This suggests self-feeling and other-feeling run on shared machinery.
The Regions That Help You Understand What Others Think
Working out what others think and feeling with them use overlapping but distinct networks.9PubMed. Neuronal correlates of theory of mind and empathy: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in a nonverbal task The shared areas include the inner front of the brain, the temporoparietal junction (where the temporal and parietal lobes meet, behind the ear), and the temporal poles at the tips of the temporal lobes.10PubMed. Neuronal correlates of theory of mind and empathy: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in a nonverbal task The right temporoparietal junction is closely tied to grasping others’ beliefs and perspectives.11PubMed Central. Using tDCS to Explore the Role of the Right Temporo-Parietal Junction in Theory of Mind and Cognitive Empathy The inner prefrontal cortex, at the front of the brain, seems to handle judgments about lasting traits of yourself or others.12PubMed Central. Cognitive Empathy and Longitudinal Changes in Temporo-Parietal Junction Thickness in Schizophrenia
Say a friend describes a breakup and you tear up. That’s feeling. If you guess why they stayed so long and what they need now, that’s understanding, which psychologists call cognitive empathy. Good support usually needs both working together.
You use the understanding side when you wonder why a coworker went quiet in a meeting, or what your child meant by a remark. You use it when you follow a story and realize a character holds a mistaken belief that you know is wrong. Tracking what someone else believes, even when it differs from what you believe, is the core job, and nothing about it requires you to feel anything. Because it’s about working out another person’s mind, it can serve kind or unkind ends. A person who reads others well can comfort them or manipulate them, so understanding alone isn’t the same as caring.
Stimulation tests suggest these areas really do some of the work. Stimulating the junction region behind the ear has small to moderate effects on telling your own thoughts apart from someone else’s.13PubMed. Causal role of temporo-parietal junction for social behavior: A meta-analysis In women, it changed how quickly people responded on empathy tasks but not how accurately.14Scientific Reports. Behavioral and neural effects of right temporoparietal junction itbs during empathy processing in women So these areas are involved, but magnetic brain stimulation is not an empathy booster. Magnetic stimulation reaches only a limited patch of brain near the surface, so scientists can’t easily test deeper regions such as the insula this way.
What Brain Damage and Dementia Reveal
Damage to an area in the lower left-side frontal lobe impaired emotional empathy, while damage just behind the eyes impaired cognitive empathy.15PubMed. Two systems for empathy: a double dissociation between emotional and cognitive empathy in inferior frontal gyrus versus ventromedial prefrontal lesions Each injury left the other kind of empathy intact, which matches the feeling-versus-understanding split seen in brain scans.
It’s too simple to say an injured person has lost their empathy. The more useful question is which part has changed, because that tells family and clinicians what support will help.
Loss of empathy is a core early sign of the behavioral form of frontotemporal dementia.16PubMed. Uncovering the Neural Bases of Cognitive and Affective Empathy Deficits in Alzheimer’s Disease and the Behavioral-Variant of Frontotemporal Dementia The disease damages a spread-out network of frontal, insula and temporal areas used to process social information.17PubMed. Uncovering the Neural Bases of Cognitive and Affective Empathy Deficits in Alzheimer’s Disease and the Behavioral-Variant of Frontotemporal Dementia Across dementias, smaller volume in right-side temporal and lower frontal areas went with lower empathy.18PubMed Central. Structural anatomy of empathy in neurodegenerative disease
Families often notice indifference to a partner’s tears or illness, or blunt, embarrassing remarks in public. Changes often begin in the 50s or 60s, before memory loss, and doctors may order a brain scan to look for frontal and temporal shrinkage. Alzheimer’s typically starts with memory problems instead, and empathy tends to hold up longer. Those different early signs help doctors tell the two apart.
A relative who suddenly seems cold or tactless may be showing a brain change, not a choice. Sudden personality change in mid-life is worth raising with a doctor, along with a dated list of specific changes. The doctor will also look at other causes, including depression, medication effects and thyroid problems.
Why Empathy Works Differently in Psychopathy and Autism
Youths with psychopathic traits showed weaker activity in the amygdala, a fear and emotion center, and in parts of the cingulate when viewing others’ pain.19PubMed Central. Empathic responsiveness in amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex in youths with psychopathic traits The amygdala helps the brain flag emotionally important things, such as fear in another person’s face. Their responses to their own pain were normal.20PubMed Central. Empathic responsiveness in amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex in youths with psychopathic traits In healthy men, stronger cold and manipulative traits went with weaker insula and cingulate responses to others’ pain.21PubMed Central. Neural responses to others’ pain vary with psychopathic traits in healthy adult males So the alarm system works for the self but responds less to others.
Psychopathy is a pattern of traits, including low empathy, manipulation and shallow emotion, not a single switch, and people show them to different degrees. Having these traits isn’t the same as being violent. Many studies measure them in ordinary healthy volunteers, like the men above, and most of those people are not criminals.
Autism involves a different path, not an absence. Autistic adults often answer questions about others’ beliefs correctly, but their brains use more deliberate strategies to get there.22Journal of Pediatric Urology. Neurodiversity and Empathy: A Comparative Examination — Investigating Cognitive and Affective Empathy in Autistic and Non-Autistic Adults Autistic adults also matched others in judging how someone else would feel.23PubMed Central. Dysfunctions in brain networks supporting empathy: An fMRI study in adults with autism spectrum disorders Boys with autism, though, showed weaker responses in the lower front of the brain when recognizing emotions.24PubMed. Different brain responses during empathy in autism spectrum disorders versus conduct disorder and callous-unemotional traits Autistic people are often wrongly described as not caring. Many feel strongly but find reading cues effortful.
The Brain Chemicals Behind Empathy
A nasal spray of oxytocin, a bonding hormone, greatly increased emotional but not cognitive empathy in men.25PubMed Central. Oxytocin enhances amygdala-dependent, socially reinforced learning and emotional empathy in humans Oxytocin and vasopressin, two closely related chemicals, both raised empathy ratings for social pain.26PubMed Central. Oxytocin and vasopressin enhance social pain empathy via common and distinct of neural expressions, genetic pathways, and networks They acted through somewhat different circuits, oxytocin more on perception and vasopressin more on action.27PubMed Central. Oxytocin and vasopressin enhance social pain empathy via common and distinct of neural expressions, genetic pathways, and networks That’s one reason no single hormone can be called the empathy chemical. Oxytocin boosts some feelings, not general kindness, and the effects of lab sprays are short-lived. It doesn’t improve understanding of others’ thoughts. Oxytocin sprays sold online aren’t proven empathy treatments.
The body’s own painkillers add another layer. Blocking the opioid system cancelled the placebo effect’s dampening of empathy,28ScienceDaily. Reducing our own pain is also reducing empathy for pain in others so these natural painkillers help set how much of others’ pain you feel. The opioid system is also thought to shape social bonding and protective feelings.29PubMed. A mu-opioid feedback model of human social behavior
How Culture and Group Loyalty Shape the Empathic Brain
Korean participants reported more empathy for their own group’s pain than Americans did, and showed stronger activity in the left junction region behind the ear.30PubMed. Cultural influences on neural basis of intergroup empathy The preference tracked a stronger preference for social hierarchy,31PubMed. Cultural influences on neural basis of intergroup empathy which suggests values play a role, not a difference in basic brain ability.
Culture also changes the route. When empathizing with anger, Chinese participants leaned more on emotion-control areas, while Germans used more perspective-taking areas.32PubMed. Culture modulates brain activity during empathy with anger Both groups empathized, by different mental routes. Cultures differ in what they teach people to do with anger, such as staying calm or working out the other person’s viewpoint, and that may shape which route the brain favors. If ingroup bias is partly learned, deliberately imagining an outsider’s view, which engages the understanding regions, is one way to work against it.
Can You Train Your Brain to Be More Empathic
Months of training focused on feelings thickened parts of the insula and cingulate.33PubMed Central. Structural plasticity of the social brain: Differential change after socio-affective and cognitive mental training That counters the idea that empathy is fixed from birth. People whose compassion rose most showed thickening of the right insula toward the temporal pole,34PubMed Central. Structural plasticity of the social brain: Differential change after socio-affective and cognitive mental training which suggests the change relates to the training and isn’t just a side effect of spending time on it. Thicker doesn’t simply mean better, though. It’s a sign the region is being used differently.
Compassion meditation also increased responses to suffering in reward-related areas behind the eyes and deep in the brain.35bioRxiv. Effects of compassion training on brain responses to suffering others Taking a compassionate attitude engages reward and approach circuits,36PubMed. Compassionate attitude towards others’ suffering activates the mesolimbic neural system so compassion can feel rewarding rather than draining. Sharing pain alone may contribute to burnout in caregivers, and shifting from sharing to caring may help protect nurses, parents and carers.
To start, sit quietly and picture someone you love, wishing them well. Extend the wish to a neutral person, then a difficult one. A few minutes daily over weeks is the typical training pattern. You can combine it with perspective-taking by asking what the other person needs.