Chad Woodruff is a Cognitive Neuroscientist who uses neuroimaging
techniques to investigate social and cognitive processes. Chad has
had extensive experience as a graduate student, post-doctoral fellow, and
an assistant professor with neuroimaging and has mentored undergraduate
students in the use of these techniques for 10 years.
It informs current research, stimulates further research
endeavors, and encourages continued and creative philosophical and
scientific inquiry into the critical societal constructs of empathy and
compassion.
The Neuroscience of Empathy, Compassion, and Self-Compassion provides
contemporary perspectives on the three related domains of empathy,
compassion and self-compassion (ECS). It informs current research,
stimulates further research endeavors, and encourages continued and
creative philosophical and scientific inquiry into the critical societal
constructs of ECS.
Examining the growing number of electrocortical (EEG
Power Spectral, Coherence, Evoked Potential, etc.) studies and the
sizeable body of exciting neuroendocrine research (e.g., oxytocin,
dopamine, etc.) that have accumulated over decades, this reference is a
unique and comprehensive approach to empathy, compassion and
self-compassion.
Key Features
Provides perspectives on empathy, compassion and
self-compassion (ECS), including discussions of cruelty, torture,
killings, homicides, suicides, terrorism and other examples of
empathy/compassion erosion
Addresses autonomic nervous system (vagal) reflections
of ECS
Discusses recent findings and understanding of ECS from
mirror neuron research
Covers neuroendocrine manifestations of ECS and
self-compassion and the neuroendocrine enhancement
Examines the neuroscience research on the enhancement
of EC
Includes directed-meditations (mindfulness, mantra,
Metta, etc.) and their effects on ECS and the brain
Table of Contents
Chapter 1.
What Is This Feeling That I Have for Myself and for Others? Contemporary
Perspectives on Empathy, Compassion, and Self-Compassion, and Their
Absence
LARRY STEVENS,
C. CHAD WOODRUFF
Chapter 2.
The Brain That Makes Us Concerned for Others: Toward a Neuroscience of
Empathy
VERA FLASBECK,
CRISTINA GONZALEZ-LIENCRES,
MARTIN BRÜNE
Chapter 3.
The Brain that Longs to Help Others: The Current Neuroscience of
Compassion
LARRY STEVENS,
JASMINE BENJAMIN
Chapter 4.
The Brain That Longs to Help Itself: The Current Neuroscience of
Self-Compassion
LARRY STEVENS,
MARK GAUTHIER-BRAHAM,
BENJAMIN BUSH
Chapter 5.
Sometimes I Get So Mad I Could …:
The Neuroscience of Cruelty
TAYLOR N. WEST,
LEAH SAVERY,
ROBERT J. GOODMAN
Chapter 6.
Reflections of Others and of Self: The Mirror Neuron System’s
Relationship to Empathy
C. CHAD WOODRUFF
Chapter 7.
Why does it feel so good to care for others, but only sometimes for
myself?
MELISSA BIRKETT,
JONI SASAKI
Chapter 8.
Can We Change Our Mind About Caring for Others? The Neuroscience of
Systematic Compassion Training
ADAM CALDERON,
TODD AHERN,
THOMAS PRUZINSKY
Chapter 9.
Compassion Training from an Early Buddhist Perspective: The Neurological
Concomitants of the Brahmavihāras
ROBERT J. GOODMAN,
PAUL E. PLONSKI,
LEAH SAVERY
Chapter 10.
The Language and Structure of Social Cognition: An Integrative Process
of Becoming the Other
J.A. PINEDA,
FIZA SINGH,
KRISTINA CHEPAK
Chapter 11.
Where Caring for Self and Others’ Lives in the Brain, and How it can be
Enhanced, and Diminished: Observations on the Neuroscience on Empathy,
Compassion, and Self-Compassion
