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empathy
You use your own body to simulate others' pain.
Observing someone in pain activates the affective components of the pain matrix, but not the sensory-discriminative components.
It is the emotional/affective aspect of distress that is shared, whereas the sensory regions associated with the physical sensation of pain remain inactive.
Your brain borrows your body to understand them.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Singer et al., 2004, Science
- What the check found
- The claim inaccurately conflates affective empathy (shared emotional distress) with the shared physical sensory processing of pain.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.