Empathy articles within Nature Communications

Featured

• Article
  05 July 2023 | Open Access

  Systems consolidation induces multiple memory engrams for a flexible recall strategy in observational fear memory in male mice

  In observational contextual fear conditioning (OCFC), animals learn to fear the context in which they witnessed a demonstrator’s aversive experience. Here, the authors show that recall of OCFC relies on different brain areas, depending on recency of the experience and the observer’s current context.

  • Joseph I. Terranova
  • , Jun Yokose
  •  & Takashi Kitamura

• Article
  03 July 2023 | Open Access

  Ventromedial prefrontal neurons represent self-states shaped by vicarious fear in male mice

  Observational fear is accompanied by both freezing and escape behavior in rodents. Here, the authors show that ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) inhibition disrupts escape behavior specifically, and that vmPFC neural activity represents intermingled information of other- and self-states.

  • Ziyan Huang
  • , Myung Chung
  •  & Teruhiro Okuyama

• Article
  06 March 2023 | Open Access

  Neuro-computational mechanisms and individual biases in action-outcome learning under moral conflict

  How we juggle morally conflicting outcomes during learning remains unknown. Here, by comparing variants of reinforcement learning models, the authors show that participants differ substantially in their preference, with some choosing actions that benefit themselves while others choose actions that prevent harm.

  • Laura Fornari
  • , Kalliopi Ioumpa
  •  & Valeria Gazzola

• Article
  23 April 2019 | Open Access

  The neural development of empathy is sensitive to caregiving and early trauma

  People’s early experiences and dispositions influence their ability to show and feel empathy. Here, using a sample of children exposed to war-related trauma, the authors examine how parenting, temperament, anxiety, and adversity affect the maturation of neural responses associated with empathy.

  • Jonathan Levy
  • , Abraham Goldstein
  •  & Ruth Feldman

• Article
  12 March 2018 | Open Access

  Development of the social brain from age three to twelve years

  Though adults’ brains process the internal states of others’ bodies versus others’ minds in distinct brain regions, it is not clear when this functional dissociation emerges. Here, authors study 3–12 year olds and show that these networks are distinct by age 3 and become even more distinct with age.

  • Hilary Richardson
  • , Grace Lisandrelli
  •  & Rebecca Saxe

• Article
  25 May 2017 | Open Access

  Endogenous opioids regulate social threat learning in humans

  Though humans often learn about negative outcomes from observing the response of others, the neurochemistry underlying this learning is unknown. Here, authors show that blocking opioid receptors enhances social threat learning and describe the brain regions underlying this effect.

  • Jan Haaker
  • , Jonathan Yi
  •  & Andreas Olsson