#146 Peggy Mason: The Neuroscience of Empathy and Helping Behavior

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Dr. Peggy Mason is a Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Chicago. She received both her BA in Biology and her Phd in Neuroscience from Harvard. Professor Mason has been on the faculty of University of Chicago since 1992. She has taught undergraduate, graduate and medical students and has received numerous teaching awards. Using her nearly 15 years of experience teaching medical students, Professor Mason wrote a single-author textbook designed for medical students (Medical Neurobiology, Oxford University Press, 2017). Professor Mason's research focuses on the neurobiological basis of empathy and helping.

In this episode, we talk about empathy and helping behavior in humans and other animal models, namely rats. We discuss first how empathy might have evolved, and the neurobiological bases of it, including the roles played by the amygdala, the hypothalamus, the prefrontal cortex and the temporo-parietal junction. We also talk about the flaws with the research surrounding mirror neurons. Then, we talk about the situations that invoke empathy. We also refer to Paul Bloom’s book, Against Empathy, and the difference between emotional empathy and cognitive empathy, and between empathy and compassion. We also briefly refer to how empathy might work in psychopaths. Finally, we talk about oxytocin and other hormones and neurotransmitters that participate in mediating empathic behavior, and the differences between pro-social behavior in humans and other animals.

Time Links:
00:52 How empathy evolved
04:55 How the brain processes empathy (amygdala, hypothalamus, prefrontal cortex)
08:57 The trouble with mirror neurons
11:44 The temporo-parietal junction
14:59 The types of behavior that invoke empathy
17:58 It also depends on the context and on the individual in question
25:25 Paul Bloom, Against Empathy, and emotional and cognitive empathy
29:55 Emotions as cognitive tools
33:32 Psychopathic behavior
38:24 What happens when individuals get distressed
41:48 Oxytocin, hormones, and neurotransmitters associated with empathy
47:04 Pro-social behavior in humans and other nonprimate mammals
50:50 People’s reports of their behavior and what they feel are very unreliable
54:18 Follow Dr. Mason’s work!
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Twitter handle: @neuroMOOC
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A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BRIAN RIVERA, ADRIANO ANDRADE, BERNARDO DO VALE CARIA, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU AND ADAM BJERRE!
A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY FIRST PRODUCER, Yzar Wehbe!

I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018:

And check out my playlists on:

#TheDissenter #PeggyMason #Neuroscience #Empathy

[lau-guerreiro]

If humans exhibit the same behaviour as the rats, whereby 20% of the stressed rats went into a corner and refrained from helping others, then if we could reduce the level of stress in the human population:
- people would feel less stressed and
- they would also be a lot nicer to each other and help to create a better, more caring world.
Bonus!