Chapter 21 - A Neuroscience Perspective on Empathy and Its Development

Abstract

Empathy and sympathy play crucial roles in much of human social interaction and are necessary components for healthy coexistence. Sympathy is thought to play a key role in motivating prosocial behavior, guiding human preferences and behavioral responses, and providing the affective and motivational base for moral development. While the development of these abilities has traditionally been examined using behavioral methods, recent work in neuroscience has begun to shed light on the neural mechanisms involved in interpersonal sensitivity. The purpose of this chapter is to critically examine the current knowledge in the field of developmental and affective neuroscience in both typically developing children and adolescents as well as in children with deficits in empathic responding (e.g., children with antisocial behavior problems) because they provide insight into how empathy can go awry. Decomposing the construct of empathy into subcomponents in the healthy brain in conjunction with examining their developmental trajectory benefits future research in the domain of affective developmental neuroscience and links to moral reasoning and altruistic behavior.