Comment on Walter’s “Social Cognitive Neuroscience of Empathy: Concepts, Circuits, and Genes”

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur M. Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Affective Empathy ◽  
Genetic Studies ◽  
Social Cognitive Neuroscience

In his review, Walter (2012) links conceptual perspectives on empathy with crucial results of neurocognitive and genetic studies and presents a descriptive neurocognitive model that identifies neuronal key structures and links them with both cognitive and affective empathy via a high and a low road. After discussion of this model, the remainder of this comment deals more generally with the possibilities and limitations of current neurocognitive models, considering ways to develop process models allowing specific quantitative predictions.

Social Cognitive Neuroscience of Empathy: Concepts, Circuits, and Genes

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Walter
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Genetic Basis ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Genetic Studies ◽  
Risk Variant ◽  
Midcingulate Cortex ◽  
Social Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Genetic Risk Variant

This article reviews concepts of, as well as neurocognitive and genetic studies on, empathy. Whereas cognitive empathy can be equated with affective theory of mind, that is, with mentalizing the emotions of others, affective empathy is about sharing emotions with others. The neural circuits underlying different forms of empathy do overlap but also involve rather specific brain areas for cognitive (ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and affective (anterior insula, midcingulate cortex, and possibly inferior frontal gyrus) empathy. Furthermore, behavioral and imaging genetic studies provide evidence for a genetic basis for empathy, indicating a possible role for oxytocin and dopamine as well as for a genetic risk variant for schizophrenia near the gene ZNF804A.

scholarly journals Chapter 9 - Theory of Mind and Joint Attention - The Handbook on Socially Interactive Agents

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jairo Pérez-Osorio ◽  
Eva Wiese ◽  
Agnieszka Wykowska
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Joint Attention ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Virtual Agents ◽  
Artificial Agents ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Social Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Intelligent Virtual Agents

The present chapter provides an overview from the perspective of social cognitive neuroscience (SCN) regarding theory of mind (ToM) and joint attention (JA) as crucial mechanisms of social cognition and discusses how these mechanisms have been investigated in social interaction with artificial agents. In the final sections, the chapter reviews computational models of ToM and JA in social robots (SRs) and intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) and discusses the current challenges and future directions.

Assemblages and Co-emergent Corpomaterialities in Postsecondary Education: Pedagogical Lessons from Somatic Psychology and Physical Cultures

Somatechnics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-431
Author(s):  
Janelle Joseph ◽  
Ellyn Kerr
Keyword(s):  
Postsecondary Education ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Somatic Psychology ◽  
Sport Training ◽  
Postsecondary Institution ◽  
Social Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Inclusive Learning ◽  
Learning Architectures

Building on a new materialist ontology, this article explores the significance of viewing the postsecondary institution and learner as assemblages co-emerging in material relationality. Bodies of thought from social cognitive neuroscience, somatic psychotherapy, and physical cultural studies inform an analysis of the evaluation culture predominant in Western postsecondary education. These disciplines are used to interrogate representational performativity and point to new possibilities for material-inclusive learning. A new materialist pedagogy holds possibilities to reconfigure learning architectures to recognise and attend to the corpomaterialities of learners while allowing for new and creative lines of flight in education, as illustrated by physical cultural practices such as sport training, dance, and capoeira.

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