Neuroimaging and the intentional stance
One of the greatest strengths of neuroimaging approaches such as functional magnetic resonance imaging fMRI and positron emission tomography PET is its potential to covertly examine mental processes without the confound of explicit probes for self-report. There have been a handful of studies that have examined the neural correlates of intentionality cues, using animations like those created by Heider and Simmel 1944 . Castelli and colleagues 2000 presented three types of animations while...
Distinguishing intentional from accidental actions
Understanding intentional action in others is a skill that allows human infants to parse the complex streams of behaviour displayed by adults Baldwin et al 2001 . By being attuned to the intentions and goals of others, infants can anticipate the behaviour of others, can learn from others even in the absence of the solution , and can explain the behaviour of others more effectively. Given such a central role in the development of social cognition, it is not surprising that the study of...
Kantian Humean and Rawlsian creatures
Rawls 1971 was interested in the idea that the principles underlying our intuitions about morality may well be unconscious and inaccessible1. This perspective was intended to parallel Chomsky's thinking in linguistics. Unfortunately, those writing about morality in neighbouring disciplines, especially within the sciences, held a different perspective. The then dominant position in developmental psychology, championed by Piaget 1932 1965 and Kohlberg 1981 , was that the child's moral behaviour...
Empathyrelated responding and antisocial behaviour and social competence
Theorists and researchers have argued that empathy sympathy contributes not only to prosocial behaviour, but also to individual differences in antisocial behaviour and social competence. For example, people who tend to experience empathy when they perceive cues of others' negative emotion would be expected to inhibit behaviours that have hurtful effects for others. This argument is consistent with the recognition that deficits in empathy and remorse are common in individuals with antisocial...
Intentional attunement embodied simulation and empathy
Various mirror neurons matching systems mediate between the multimodal experiential knowledge we hold of our lived body, and the experience we make of others. Such body-related experiential knowledge enables a direct grasping of the sense of the actions performed by others, and of the emotions and sensations they experience. Our capacity to conceive of the acting bodies of others as persons like us depends on the constitution of a shared meaningful interpersonal space. This 'shared manifold'...
Mirror neurons and the understanding of intentions
When an individual starts a movement aimed to attain a goal, such as picking up a pen, he she has clear in mind what he she is going to do, for example writing a note on a piece of paper. In this simple sequence of motor acts the final goal of the whole action is present in the agent's mind and is somehow reflected in each motor act of the sequence. The action intention, therefore, is set before the beginning of the movements. This also means that when we are going to execute a given action we...
The neuronal basis of empathy and fairness
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience amp Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, University College of London, WC1N 3AR London, UK Abstract. The emerging fields of social neuroscience and neuroeconomics have started to investigate the neural foundations of empathy and fairness. Even though not frequently linked, both concepts point to humans as altruistic beings who care for others. Recently social neuroscientists have measured brain activity associated with different empathic processes and...
The study of empathy
In the past few years, the study of the social and emotional brain has captured the interest of many researchers from a diverse range of disciplines. A new interdisciplinary field, social cognitive neuroscience, has emerged. There have been several special issues of science devoted to this topic and a number of review articles e.g. Adolphs 2003, Ochsner amp Lieberman 2001, Frith amp Wolpert 2004 . The study of empathy has become the focus of recent investigation in social neuroscience and can...