TheEmpathicBrain

The continuous stream if refugees coming to Europe, and facing so much adversity to come here move all of us. Images of children traveling alone and families being separated during the journey are particularly moving. Many of us help them in various ways. A colleague of mine from Portugal set up a crowdfunding initiative to help contribute funds to an United Nation Fund to help reunite families. I wanted to share that initiative with you, for those that still look for ways to help.

http://www.igg.me/at/reconnectingfamilies

Some of you have asked me about my opinion of Hickok's book on mirror neurons. Today, my book-review of Hickok's Myth of Mirror Neurons appeared on Science Magazine. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6219/240.full

Valeria and I just published an opinion paper inspired by our psychopathy work, that two people that have a similar ability to empathize if they want to, do not necessarily have the same propensity to use this ability all the time. We should thus think of people not simply as highly empathic or less empathic, but as having a high/low ability combined with a high or a low propensity.

Sara Woods from the BBC has made a wonderful radio play about empathy, for which I acted as a consultant and commentator. I thinks its a wonderful instance of how art and science can combine into something meaningful. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/…/radiopl…/ptw_20130816-0800a.mp3

As adults, we have learned to control our emotions. Thanks to that control, we seldom feel despair, but we also seldom feel the uncontrolled joy we felt as children. But each time I pick up my daughter (age 3) from day-care, and she runs towards me with this shining smile, I somehow felt overwhelmed each time. I just realized consciously how through empathy, as parents we get to rediscover the uncontrolled emotions we had sacrificed for the comfort of emotional regulation.

I gave a short BBC interview on our study. You can skip to minute 48 to get to the part relevant to psychopathy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01c96wc

And here is an article that was written on our psychopathy paper: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/…/130724200412.htm

Today, our study on psychopathy was published. http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/awt190…. In a nutshell, we show that if individuals with psychopathy simply watch someone get hurt, they show reduced empathic brain activity. But if they try to empathize, their empathic brain activity becomes rather normal. Psychopathy is then a reduced propensity to empathize - not an incapacity. This would help explain why they can be so cunning sometimes, and so callous other times, and help therapy.

Germany's top news magazine made Empathy its cover story! Empathic times.

This November the EU will determine the research budget for the next seven years. To prevent the looming cuts of the research funds by the heads of states, various Nobel laureates have written an open letters to Nature and international newspapers (http://blogs.nature.com/…/nobel-fields-medal-winners-launch…).

To strengthen this initiative we can all sign the petition (http://www.no-cuts-on-research.eu) that aims at strengthening our future by investing into research. I would urge you to sign the petition and forward the link to other colleagues and friends.

French and German, born in Belgium, married to a wonderful Italian wife, i have always felt that the best thing that ever happened to Europe is the Union. Never have we had 60 years of peace and mutual empathy. What a great move of the Nobel! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19921072

Science Magazine just wrote a little article about the human side of Valeria and I building up the research lab that lead to the Empathic Brain. http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/…/201…/caredit.a1200113

I would also like to thank Edwin Rutsch for compiling this wonderful video about how Obama sees empathy as playing a key role in the development of a better democracy. Its intriguing http://cultureofempathy.com/Obama/VideoClips.htm

Our work on empathy was recently featured in the show 'Through the Wormhole' with Morgan Freeman - have a look! http://youtu.be/rc6kk3cT8kM

I'm also in Dublin at the moment, watching the documentary on empathy, by Alex Gabbay. A great 360' on many issues of empathy! http://vimeo.com/42112070

I just saw a surprising video: Obama suggesting that what is wrong with society at the moment is a lack of empathy. http://youtu.be/KcvNqTThhzw. Its great to see how the topic of empathy become a main stream issue.

My wife is currently at a conference in China, so I'm spending the week alone with my daughter. Is there anything more soothing than having a nap next to your daughter, and waking up to this sight?

Today, the Dutch version of the empathic brain appeared, entitled “Het Empatische Brein”. Its exciting to see the book in bookstores in my home town of Amsterdam! I would like to thank again Valeria, my wife, for helping me do all the research that went into the book, to my friend Bas Kast, science-writer, for inspiring me to write a book about the research. Special thanks also to my Dutch editor, and Marjolein van Velzen for translating the book so well!

Tania Ta made an interesting analogy between the myth of Narcissus and the Mirror Neuron System: It tells the story of a boy who never noticed the feelings of others (lacked empathy), because of the love he felt for himself, upon seeing his own reflection in a mirror. Tania wondered whether the mirror the myth is talking about might have been a mirror neuron.