中国科学院心理健康重点实验室知识库

共情是人类的高级情感能力之一,能够抑制攻击倾向,激发亲社会行为.良好的共情能力有助于和谐人际关系的形成,对个体自身的身心健康及社会稳定都具有积极作用.一直以来,行为学测评技术在共情研究领域占据主导地位,在儿童青少年时期的研究已取得较为丰硕的成果.随着现代脑成像技术的发展,共情研究进入新的历史阶段,人类共情领域认知神经机制的探索逐步展开.本文通过梳理人类共情的毕生发展规律,论述了共情及其发展的神经机制,并在此基础上展望了学科未来发展方向,即未来研究需进一步探察共情毕生发展规律的脑机制;开发高信效度测评工具以完善共情研究体系;搭建大数据跨文化研究平台,实现多学科协同创新发展.此外,基于基础研究结论,本文阐述了共情相关认知神经研究对教育和健康领域的启示.教育方面,基于儿童青少年大脑发展规律,应寻找共情发展的关键期,开展建设学校、家庭和社会共同培育的共情能力体系;健康方面,首先,结合共情的脑科学研究发现,预测和识别异常共情发展;其次,可结合机器学习,开发临床共情相关的应用技术与产品;最后,以镜像神经系统为窗口,开展共情相关的类脑研究等.这些探索将在国家教育和健康战略规划以及科技发展等层面产生重要的现实意义.

Empathy is a high-order human emotional ability that helps suppress aggressive tendencies and stimulates prosocial behaviors. A strong sense of empathy facilitates interpersonal relationships and positively influences an individual’s social stability and sense of wellbeing. Empathy at a behavioral level could be measured by traditional questionnaire or scales, which has yielded increasingly accumulated findings in previous decades. With the advent of brain imaging technologies, researchers have shifted their focus to the exact neural correlates underlying the effect of empathy on our lives. This review revealed the principles of human empathy from a perspective of life span, demonstrated the current findings related to empathic neuroscience, and offered directions for future studies: (i) further investigation is warranted to explore the relationship between empathy and brain development with a developmental approach; (ii) measurements with high reliability and validity across all ages should be developed to characterize the growth curve of human empathy; (iii) research platforms with multi-modal dataset across cultures are encouraged to be established for collaborations among different research centers. It also highlighted the importance of basic research for future applications in education and health. There are two facets to be addressed when considering applications: firstly, it is promising to identify critical period(s) of empathic development and apply the findings to school education; secondly, it is of great significance to predict and diagnose the individuals with abnormal empathy based on the basic research in empathic neuroscience, to develop relevant techniques and products as well as conduct the brain-inspired empathy research with a focus on MNS, which will provide a new window for children education and public health.

国家自然科学基金(批准号:31671163);; 中国科学技术协会学科发展项目(批准号:2018XKFZ03);; 中国科学院心理健康重点实验室开放课题;中国科学院行为科学重点实验室开放课题;中国科学院心理研究所项目(批准号:Y9CX402008)资助