Unveiling the Elephant
How Do Average People Experience Empathy?
Posted: April 17, 2021
By: Phoenix Giardino
What is ‘Normal’?
The Random House Webster’s Concise Dictionary defines ‘normal’ as:
1. conforming to a standard or the common type; usual’.
2. average in any psychological trait, as intelligence or personality;
3. free from any mental disorder;
4. the average or mean;
5. the standard or common type1
So, for the purpose of this blog, we’re going to refer to ‘normal’ as ‘average’.
How the Average Person Senses Empathy
Now that we’ve defined ‘normal’, let’s take a look at how the average person senses empathy. Through the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), scientists have learned mirror neurons, a type sensory-motor cells (brain cells that link our five senses to our muscles groups) located in several parts of the brain, activate when we watch someone else doing something, especially something we ourselves have done before. As their name suggests, these specialized cells literally reflect the motions of the people we’re seeing or hearing at that moment, which allows us to understand the actions of other people.2
Now you might be saying to yourself, “That’s it? Well, super! Case closed.” Not so fast, my friends. Remember the blind men and the elephant? This is just the tusk. Knowing mirror neurons help us appreciate actions is only the first step in the process of identifying how they help us relate to other people’s emotions. Using fMRI, scientists determined mirror neurons in the region of our brains that model bodily sensations also become active when we experience discomfort (which is the Anterior Cingulate Cortex, if you’re wondering), and are triggered when we see someone else react to pain.3 We all know pain is more than just physical ache; that our physical pain often creates an emotional reaction. We yell, we scream, we swear out loud. Sometimes, we cry or even become angry. But if we stop and think about this for a moment, don’t we also do the same things when we’re scared? Most of us know from personal experience the answer is: YES. So, the next question becomes: how does our brain know the difference between “pain” and “fear”, especially when we see and hear these reactions in other people but don’t feel it ourselves? And so, the plot thickens. Let’s move on to the elephant’s trunk!
(image courtesy of pexel.com)
Researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN) believe two factors come into play. The first is the brain’s response must be selective.4 In other words, the cells that react to pain have be a completely different set of cells than those that respond to fear. If the same groups of cells react to both, it would show there’s no difference between the two sensations; that pain and fear are really the same emotion. But from first-hand knowledge, we all know that’s not true. Though our reactions to them may similar, pain and fear are two entirely different experiences. Now that we’ve felt up the trunk, on to the ear.
(image courtesy of morguefile.com)
The second factor is the brain must “code” the signal we use for the “pain” or “fear” we witness in other people exactly same way it “codes” the signal for “pain” or “fear” in our own body. In theory, if our brain codes them differently, the feelings of other people won’t make sense to us. It would be like two people trying to hold a conversation, each speaking a foreign language the other doesn’t understand. Or as the prison Captain so eloquently stated in the 1967 movie, Cool Hand Luke, “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”5 Which brings up a good point: the way my brain codes “pain” or “fear” maybe different than yours does. BUT when I see you’re in pain or you’re scared, scientists expect my brain to code your emotion exactly the way I would code my own, just as they expect your brain will code my emotion according to the way you interpret those feelings. If they don’t, well, “Houston, we have a problem”. The inability to communicate and code emotions is precisely the reason sociopaths, psychopaths, and narcissists are unable to empathize at all.
The results of their study proved both factors to be true. The mirror neuron groups sparked by pain weren’t triggered when the test subjects experienced any other negative feelings, such as sadness, (I should mention the test subjects in this study were lab rats, by the way. Turns out, the same region of the human brain that reacts to pain is the same region that responds to pain in rats, making them prime candidates in this study.) More interesting than all of this is the fact the rats were not only able to understand another’s pain, but to measure exactly how much pain another was in just by watching their reaction!6
So, now we see how mirror neurons tell our bodies how to appropriately model our facial expressions, verbal sympathies, and physical contact to show empathy as we react to the emotions of others. This empathy in turn allows so-called “normal people” to foster tolerance and understanding for one another. It helps us to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, if only for a moment, and helps us to build healthy, long-lasting relationships.
NEXT UP:
1. Random House Webster’s Concise Dictionary, 2nd Ed., s.v. “Normal”.
2. Encyclopedia Britannica, s.v. “Mirror Neuron”. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., Published: May 28, 2014. https://www.britannica.com/science/mirror-neuron. Access date: March 08, 2021
3. Paddock, C. Could ‘Mirror Neurons’ Explain Brain Mechanisms of Empathy? Medical News Today, Published: April 15, 2019. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/
4. Paddock, C. Could ‘Mirror Neurons’ Explain Brain Mechanisms of Empathy? Medical News Today, Published: April 15, 2019. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/
5. Cool Hand Luke. Directed by Stuart Rosenberg. Burbank CA: Warner Bros. Burbank Studios, 1967. Retrieved: April 8, 2021.
6. Paddock, C. Could ‘Mirror Neurons’ Explain Brain Mechanisms of Empathy? Medical News Today, Published: April 15, 2019. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/
