From the ArcaMax Publishing, Parents Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/parents/s-380238-262337
CHICAGO (UPI) -- U.S. researchers using functional Magnetic Resonance
Imaging brain scans found children are naturally inclined to feel
empathy for others in pain.
"This study is the first to examine in young children both the neural
response to pain in others and the impact of someone causing pain to
someone else," Jean Decety said in a statement.
The programming for empathy is something that is "hard-wired" into the
brains of normal children, and not entirely the product of parental
guidance or other nurturing, Jean Decety said.
Decety and students Kalina Michalska and Yuko Aktsuki showed 17
typically developed children -- nine girls and eight boys -- animated
photos of people experiencing pain, either received accidentally or
inflicted intentionally.
"Consistent with previous functional MRI studies of pain empathy with
adults, the perception of other people in pain in children was
associated with increased hemodymamic activity in the neural circuits
involved in the processing of first-hand experience of pain," Decety
said.
However, the study, published in Neuropsychologia, also said that when
the children saw animations of someone intentionally hurt, the regions
of the brain engaged in social interaction and moral reasoning were
also activated.