A brain-imaging study headed by neuroscientist Jordan Grafman from the National Institutes of Health showed that the “pleasure centers” in the brain, i.e., the parts of the brain that are active when we experience pleasure (like dessert, money, and sex), are equally active when we observe someone giving money to charity as when we receive money ourselves!
A Case Study, Maria Engstro (2010) Case Study Brain Activation During Compassion Meditation : 16 (5), p. 597-599.

Your Brain on Compassion June 12, 2017 February 22, 2019 The compassion focused therapy ( CFT ) model is based on research showing that some of the ways in which we instinctively regulate our response to threats have evolved from the attachment system that operates between infant and mother and from other basic relationships between mutually supportive people. The comparison of the effects of both training regimes on observed functional brain plasticity thus indicates that empathy and compassion training indeed elicited changes in differential brain networks associated with opposed patterns in experienced affect.

Cultivating compassion and kindness through meditation affects brain regions that can make a person more empathetic to other peoples’ mental states, say researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. And indeed, this is what they found: Participants whose part 2 was highly active, on average gave away only $3. Compassion is not getting rid of the difficult contents of the mind but mindfully engaging with them (e.g., rage, fear, prejudice) – going into, not away from the difficult • Mindful Compassion helps us engage, understand and contain our dark sides (natures mind) without blaming and shaming.

Two separate experiment groups were trained to practice either empathy or compassion. The effect of this is that we find it easier to be compassionate and kind. Their research revealed fascinating differences in the brain’s reaction to the two types of training.

The study results also showed that the amygdala decreased, which meant the fight-or-flight response, the reaction to threats, also decreased. Compassion makes us feel good: Compassionate action (e.g., giving to charity) activates pleasure circuits in the brain, and compassion training programs, even very brief ones, strengthen brain circuits for pleasure and reward and lead to lasting increases in self-reported happiness. This area of the brain is responsible for empathy and compassion.

The researchers then proceeded to examine whether there is a connection between the activity of the analysed brain parts and the degree of altruism (indicated by the willingness to give away money to strangers during the game).

For the compassion group, fMRIs showed greater activation in the inferior prefrontal cortex, part of the brain involved in the mirror-neuron network – which helps us understand the actions of others – and greater connectivity between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the nucleus accumbens.

Mindfulness, the ability to focus and be present in the moment, often by using all 5 of our senses, allows us to SEE that we are being activated by the old brain and allows us to CONSCIOUSLY CHOOSE to direct our energy towards SELF COMPASSION, which activates our Soothing System, so we can calm down enough to make the healthiest choice for us in that particular situation.


Dr. Tania Singer and the Neuroscience of Empathy . Between them is an object that will, in mere moments, become the Raisin Heard Round The World. Neither of these changes were found in the reappraisal group. (Tania Singer / University College London) By Dale Debakcsy.

The year is 1990 and a man is sitting across from a monkey. 2) Compassion is Good for the Heart.

But this is the first study to both examine “whether training in compassion will make you more caring and helpful toward others,” says Weng, and then document how “those changes in behavior are linked to changes in neural and emotional responding … Share: fMRI scans showing brain activity in pain and empathy responses. Compassion-focused therapy (CFT) is a form of psychotherapy developed by Paul Gilbert for people struggling with shame and self-criticism. The brain scans showed that “compassion is a kind of state that involves the body in a major way.” One example: Davidson and coauthors found in …

Compassion causes growth on the left side of the brain’s prefrontal cortex region, which is the bit above the eyes. That is the courage of compassion.


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