Jenny Mascaro wrote her PH.D dissertation at
Emery University on
"A
Longitudinal Investigation of Empathic Behavior and Neural Activity and
Their Modulation by Compassion Meditation."
She studied the effectiveness of
Cognitively-Based Compassion Training,
which was
developed by Geshe Lobsang Negi
at Emory,
on deepening empathy.
Jenny
says, "My interests center on the study of emotion and social cognition,
particularly those emotions related to prosocial behavior. I'm currently using various neuroimaging
modalities including functional MRI and diffusion tensor imaging to explore the neurobiology
related to empathy and compassion."
Jenny and Edwin held a wide ranging discussion about her
study and the nature of empathy and compassion.
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2012-09-29 -
Study:
Compassion meditation enhances empathic accuracy and related neural activity.
The ability to accurately infer others' mental states from facial expressions is
important for optimal social functioning and is fundamentally impaired in social
cognitive disorders such as autism. While pharmacologic interventions have shown
promise for enhancing empathic accuracy, little is known about the effects of
behavioral interventions on empathic accuracy and related brain activity. This
study employed a randomized, controlled and longitudinal design to investigate
the effect of a secularized analytical compassion meditation program,
cognitive-based compassion training (CBCT), on empathic accuracy.
Twenty-one healthy participants received functional MRI scans
while completing an empathic accuracy task, the
Reading the Mind
in the Eyes Test (RMET), both prior to and after completion of either CBCT
or a health discussion control group. Upon completion of the study
interventions, participants randomized to CBCT and were significantly more
likely than control subjects to have increased scores on the RMET and increased
neural activity in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and dorsomedial prefrontal
cortex (dmPFC).
While meditation is increasingly incorporated into clinical
treatments for a variety of ailments and is offered to the public with claims of
increasing overall health and well-being, there are sizeable gaps in our
understanding of the outcomes related to its practice.
First, very little is known about how meditation
affects social cognition and related neural processes.
Second, much of the current research on meditation is
fraught with flawed experimental designs and incomplete assessments of
practitioners, such that many have called into question any
conclusions regarding the effects of meditation practices.
Third, research on meditation has primarily been
conducted under the assumption that all practitioners meditate for a
common reason and with common goals, and that meditation acts the same
way in all practitioners.
This dissertation was designed to address the
aforementioned gaps. More specifically, we aimed to assess
(1) the social cognitive, neurobiological and
behavioral changes related to compassion meditation,
(2) the mechanisms by which neurobiological
change is translated into outcomes in
practitioners, and
(3) the nuanced ways in which particular individuals
adopt the meditation practice and attain effects.
"There are doubtless many methods one could
employ to enhance compassion beyond the biological level to an impartial
altruism, and in fact many religious traditions contain methods for such
cultivation. In our studies, we use a protocol for the cultivation of
compassion developed by Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi, drawn from the lojong
tradition of Tibetan Buddhism but rendered into secular form for use by
individuals of any, or no, religious inclination. The term lojong means
"mind training" or "thought transformation" and refers to a systematic
practice of gradually training the mind in compassion until altruism
becomes spontaneous."
"The ability to accurately infer others’ mental states from
facial expressions is important for optimal social functioning and is
fundamentally impaired in social cognitive disorders such as autism. While
pharmacologic interventions have shown promise for enhancing empathic accuracy,
little is known about the effects of behavioral interventions on empathic
accuracy and related brain activity. This study employed a randomized,
controlled and longitudinal design to investigate the effect of a secularized
analytical compassion meditation program, cognitive-based compassion training (CBCT),
on empathic accuracy.
Twenty-one healthy participants received functional MRI scans
while completing an empathic accuracy task, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes
Test (RMET), both prior to and after completion of either CBCT or a health
discussion control group. Upon completion of the study interventions,
participants randomized to CBCT and were significantly more likely than control
subjects to have increased scores on the RMET and increased neural activity in
the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC).
Moreover, changes in dmPFC and IFG activity from baseline to the
post-intervention assessment were associated with changes in empathic accuracy.
These findings suggest that CBCT may hold promise as a behavioral intervention
for enhancing empathic accuracy and the neurobiology supporting it."
2012-10-04 -
Compassion meditation may boost neural basis of empathy, Emory study finds
"A compassion-based meditation program can significantly improve a person's
ability to read the facial expressions of others, finds a study published by
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. This boost in empathic accuracy was
detected through both behavioral testing of the study participants and through
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of their brain activity.
"It's an intriguing result, suggesting that a behavioral intervention could
enhance a key aspect of empathy," says lead author Jennifer Mascaro, a
post-doctoral fellow in anthropology at Emory University. "Previous research has
shown that both children and adults who are better at reading the emotional
expressions of others have better relationships." ..
When most people think of meditation, they think of a style known
as "mindfulness," in which practitioners seek to improve their ability to
concentrate and to be non-judgmentally aware of their thoughts and feelings.
While CBCT includes these mindfulness elements, the practice focuses more
specifically on training people to analyze and reinterpret their relationships
with others. "
2012-10-07 -
Meditation Could Improve Empathy, Study Suggests - huffingtonpost.com
"Meditation could help peopleto
be more empathetic, according to a small new study from Emory University.
The research, published in thejournalSocial
Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, showed that a meditation program
called Cognitively-Based Compassion Training was able to improve people's
ability to read emotional expressions on others' faces. Researchers said the
meditation program is based on ancient Buddhist practices, but this particular
program was secular. It included mindfulness techniques, but mainly involved
training people to think about their relationships with other people."