Lecture 10:

Neural Pathways of Empathy, Compassion, and Connection

“You will not enter Paradise until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another. Shall I inform you of something which, if you do, you will love one another? Give greetings (peace) amongst yourselves.”

-Sahim Muslim

Have you ever wondered why hugging decreases our levels of sadness? Or why loneliness decreases our lifespan? Or how humans became so successful over the millennia? While our culture promotes “rugged individualism” and do-it-on-your-own independence, we evolved to work together - to collaborate, communicate, and facilitate. Human beings, more than anything, are a social species. Our survival depends on the communities we live in, as well as the quality and quantity of our interactions and contributions. Our neural pathways evolved to support the understanding of the emotional state and needs of each other - so that we may work together towards the betterment of not only ourselves - but of us all. Our survival literally depended upon it. The Beatles’ famous lyrics “All you need is love” may be a platitude, but science shows we depend on our communal emotional states and behavior not only to survive, but to thrive both individually and collectively. 

Humans are among only about 2% of mammalian species that form pair bonds. Pair bonding is a powerful mechanism to facilitate the formation of a stable environment for young to develop and survive. The neural mechanisms of pair bonding involve the neurotransmitter/neurohormone oxytocin and oxytocin receptors (OXTR) and the activation of the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Oxytocin is the main hormone/neurotransmitter involved in feelings and behavior of empathy, compassion, and connection. Several studies conducted on prairie voles (a pair bonding mammal) show that once injected with OXT, they bond with other prairie voles even in the absence of mating. Other experiments involving prairie voles revealed the connection between OXTR and NAc in relation to normal parental care and parental neglect. These studies revealed that when OXT and NAc activity is paired with normal parental care, our chances for survival are optimal. These results indicate that life quality (and success!) depends greatly on feelings and acts of “care” and bonding between parents and mating partners. These neural mechanisms can similarly explain our common human ability to subconsciously mimic others’ feelings and actions. When we witness a loved one in pain, it is within our neurobiological need towards survival to emulate that pain - to understand on an emotional level the experience of our partner - thus helping us to better help them.

Nearly everyone has the capacity to love and be loved, and everyone deserves to love and be loved. If you feel a lack of love in your life, try strengthening the two neural mechanisms meant to help you – in other words, if you lack love, you need to skillfully give it, starting with yourself and then expanding it to others. Your loved ones, community, and your own mind will thank you.

Learning Objectives:

  • Mammals give a lot of care to their young, because their litter size is smaller. In humans this is especially true, we typically have one child at a time, owing to our large brain size

  • To enable survival, we developed strong bonding (love, commitment) and communal relationship (friendship, cooperation) mechanisms

  • There are neural pathways that underlie these strong bonding mechanisms and oxytocin appears to be important in some

  • To interact effectively in society, we evolved mechanisms to understand other people’s emotions and actions through “mirror systems” – these are action based (what will they do?) and emotion based (what will they feel?)

  • When we observe another person’s actions, our brain mimics that action

  • When we observe another person’s emotions, our brain mimics those emotions

  • The brains of sociopaths may lack the ability to emulate another person’s emotions, even though they can emulate their actions

  • In some disorders of the brain, there’s a lack of ability, or balance in the emulation of other people’s emotions, like Autism and narcissism

Putting Happiness into Practice:

Weekly Activity:

  • Gratitude letter/Visit!

    • Think of one person, still living, who made a big difference in your life but whom you never properly thanked. Find a quiet spot when you have a half‐hour and write a 300 word, heartfelt testimony to that person, explaining how he or she touched your life and why he or she is meaningful to you. If you’d like to take it to the next level, schedule a time to visit this person and share your letter. Call the person and say you want to visit without explaining why. At the visit, read the letter aloud. Gratitude is a powerful tool for increasing happiness because it intensifies positive memories and forges social bonds. For this reason, this is likely to be one of the most intense exercises of the entire term.

Read

  • You can purchase The Altruistic Brain here and read “Chapter 2: Altruistic Brain Theory Introduced” and “Chapter 3: Primary Neuroscience Research Underlying Each Step of Altruistic Brain Theory”

Watch

You can rent the full movie of Buck here

Listen