“Characterization of Empathy Deficits following Prefrontal Brain Damage: The Role of the Right Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex” was written by S.G. Shamay-Tsoory, R. Tomer, B.D. Berger, and J. Aharon-Peretz and published by The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
This article examines how brain lesion in the prefrontal cortex affects the ability to empathize with others. Research thus far has found that various parts of the brain work together in empathy, but that the right ventromedial (VM) prefrontal cortex plays the biggest role. The researchers tested brain lesion patients and emotional processing through two tasks: participants were asked to identify seven different emotions depicted by people in thirty-five pictures and to listen to sentences and identify the person’s emotion by analyzing their intonation of speech.
Although VM lesion patients may understand a social situation, they may not necessarily understand the emotional outcome. This inability causes them to respond inappropriately, not empathetically. Other effects included decreased self-awareness, social judgment, ability to make decisions, and loss of insight.
Identifying others’ emotions is crucial in social interaction. It makes sense that being unable to judge what another person is feeling based on his or her facial expression or tone of voice would cause someone to act out the social norm. Knowing what an individual is looking to get out of the interaction and his or her behavioral intent is crucial to identifying and empathizing with the other person, or in some cases, consciously deciding not to. I have always been interested in why some people are more socially adept than others, so I wonder if this research can go further to make conclusions about empathy in people without brain lesions. Perhaps the size of the VM could affect social ability?
region highlighted: ventromedial prefrontal cortex
shows damage to right ventromedial prefrontal cortex
