Empathy

Current Directions in Psychological

Science

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A Social-Neuroscience Perspective on Empathy

Jean Decety and Philip L. Jackson

Current Directions in Psychological Science 2006 15: 54

DOI: 10.1111/j.0963-7214.2006.00406.x

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CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE

A Social-Neuroscience

Perspective on Empathy

Jean Decety1 and Philip L. Jackson2

1

´

´

University of Chicago and 2Universite Laval, Quebec, Canada

ABSTRACT—In

recent years, abundant evidence from behavioral and cognitive studies and functional-imaging

experiments has indicated that individuals come to understand the emotional and affective states expressed by

others with the help of the neural architecture that produces such states in themselves. Such a mechanism gives

rise to shared representations, which constitutes one important aspect of empathy, although not the sole one. We

suggest that other components, including people’s ability to

monitor and regulate cognitive and emotional processes to

prevent confusion between self and other, are equally

necessary parts of a functional model of empathy. We discuss data from recent functional-imaging studies in support of such a model and highlight the role of specific brain

regions, notably the insula, the anterior cingulate cortex,

and the right...