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Concern for Others Hardwired In Kids’ Brains

When children age 7 to 12 see another person getting hurt, the same areas of their brains that become active when they are personally hurt also become active just by witnessing the event involving others.  Furthermore, when children of this age range witness someone getting hurt deliberately, the areas of their brains that govern moral reasoning and social interactions also become active.

Researchers at the University of Chicago used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and animated images of people experiencing pain in ways that were both accidental and deliberate.  In each image, only the hands or feet of the subjects were visible to the nine girls and eight boys participating in the study.  The same areas of the brain were activated in children witnessing another person’s pain as are activated in adults witnessing the same thing.

The study reveals that empathy is a part of brain function and not exclusively a result of parental nurturing or upbringing.  The research, thought to be the first of its kind to explore neural response to pain in another person and the impact of deliberately inflicted pain, led by Jean Decety, a University of Chicago professor of psychology and psychiatry, may lead to improved understanding of how illness or injury to the brain can result in antisocial behaviors such as bullying.

Follow-up interviews with the study participants revealed the children knew it was wrong when someone was being intentionally hurt and 13 of the 17 children even asked how such behavior could be explained.

The study’s report, entitled “Who Caused the Pain? An fMRI Investigation of Empathy and Intentionality in Children,” has been published in the current issue of Neuropsychologia.  The National Science Foundation provided support for the study.

Source: University of Chicago

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