Neural mechanisms of regulation of empathy and altruism by beliefs of others’ pain

Abstract

Perceived cues signaling others’ pain induce empathy that in turn motivates altruistic behavior toward those who appear suffering. This perception-emotion-behavior reactivity is the core of human altruism but does not always occur in real life situations. Here, by integrating behavioral and multimodal neuroimaging measures, we investigate neural mechanisms underlying the functional role of beliefs of others’ pain in modulating empathy and altruism. We show evidence that decreasing (or enhancing) beliefs of others’ pain reduces (or increases) subjective estimation of others’ painful emotional states and monetary donations to those who show pain expressions. Moreover, decreasing beliefs of others’ pain attenuates neural responses to perceived cues signaling others’ pain within 200 ms after stimulus onset and modulate neural responses to others’ pain in the frontal cortices and temporoparietal junction. Our findings highlight beliefs of others’ pain as a fundamental cognitive basis of human empathy and altruism and unravel the intermediate neural architecture.