Brain center lights up more when people with higher levels of empathy learn to do good for others.
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- Prosocial behavior is essential for social bonding, cohesion and also benefits other people.
- Emapthy is said to be the critical motivator of prosocial behavior.
- People readily learn to make choices that benefit themselves and others and the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex was activated when learning to help other people.
- People with higher levels of empathy learnt to benefit others faster than those who had lower levels of empathy.
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A well-understood model was used to understand how people learn to maximize good outcomes for themselves. This was then applied to understand how people learn to help others. Volunteers had to identify which symbols were more likely to give them, or someone else, a reward and this was monitored using MRI scanning.
Scientists found that though people readily learn to make choices that benefit others, they do not learn it as fast as they learn to benefit themselves. But a particular brain area involved in learning to get the best result for other people was identified.
Dr. Lockwood said: “A specific part of the brain called the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex was the only part of the brain that was activated when learning to help other people. Put another way, the subgenual anterior cingulate seems to be especially tuned to benefiting other people.”
This region of the brain varied in the activity level in every person. People who reported having higher levels of empathy learnt to benefit others faster than those who had lower levels of empathy. Increased signaling in their subgenual anterior cingulate cortex when benefiting others were also seen in such individuals.
References:
- Scientists find the brain's generosity center - (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-08/uoo-sft081216.php)