Empathy learning in social contexts

• Applicant: Dr. Anne Saulin
• Subject Area: Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 534697423

Empathizing with others, for example, sharing feelings when seeing others in pain, is a key human capacity that acts as societal glue. Since empathy is one of the principal drivers of helping behavior and cooperation, it is of vital interest to identify factors that can promote the formation of empathy. Recent works in computational neuroscience have discovered that empathy can be formed based on feedback-driven learning, a process that can be mathematically described by reinforcement learning models. Such reinforcement learning processes as well as related brain activation can be decisively influenced by different social factors, such as how peers behave in a given situation. That is, people learn behavior more easily when a peer shows that behavior compared to when learning alone. However, whether empathy learning is affected by similar mechanisms is unclear. This project will address the open question of how peers’ empathic reactions shape the process of empathy formation towards another person. To investigate this question, the project will employ state-of-the-art methodology, combining sophisticated modelling methods of behavior with functional magnetic-resonance imaging (i.e., model-based fMRI). Adapting a successfully implemented social reward-learning paradigm, healthy human participants will experience empathy- reinforcing events and rate their empathic reaction on a trial-by-trial basis either alone (baseline learning phase) or in a peer group context (social learning phase). In the peer group context, participants first indicate their empathic reaction and then see their peers’ rating, after which participants can decide to change their initial rating. To investigate how peer behavior shapes empathy learning, different reinforcement learning models will be developed and tested, and model parameters will be linked to neural activation as well as connectivities between brain regions. Based on existing literature including my own previous works, it is hypothesized that highly empathic peer’s behavior facilitates empathy learning and that the extent of peer influences is linked to neural activation in anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, and temporo-parietal junction as well as the strength of their functional connectivity. The results of this project will provide novel insight into how we form empathy towards others in the social context of a peer group, a situation we commonly experience in our daily lives. Furthermore, the project incorporates important open science practices including preregistration of design and analyses, and providing materials, code, and data to facilitate replicable and reliable studies.

• DFG Programme: WBP Fellowship
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Host: Professor Dr. Lei Zhang