How the brain lets us share the actions and emotions of others
02-03-2016 - 12:15
Seminar and meetings
We often effortlessly feel and share the actions and emotions of others. How does our brain allow us to do so? Here I will review data from single neurons in monkeys and brain regions in humans that shows that we activate neurons and brain regions involved in our own actions while we witness the actions of others. I will propose a model of how such vicarious motor activations can be learned and how they allow us to predict the actions of others. I will then introduce the concept of brain-to-brain data analysis to allow us to measure such motor resonance in more naturalistic ways. Finally, I will show that a similar sharing seems to be at work in emotions, and suggest that vicarious activations for actions and emotions allow us to experience shared actions and emotions. To conclude, I will suggest that these mechanisms might be dysfunctioning in psychopathic criminals that see to have the ability but not the propensity to empathise with others.
Christian Keysers
Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
CP191, Av F Roosevelt 50, Campus Solbosch,
Room Bertelson (DB10.233), Buiding D, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences
Floor number :10th
Bruxelles