The emergence of empathy: A developmental neuroscience perspective

Abstract

Empathy reflects the ability to perceive and be sensitive to the emotional states of others, often eliciting a motivation to care for their well-being. It plays a central role in prosocial behavior and inhibition of aggression. While the development of empathy has traditionally been examined with behavioral and observational methods, a growing body of work in neuroscience using eye-tracking, functional MRI, electroencephalography, electromyography and near-infrared spectroscopy, casts new light on the neurobiological mechanisms involved in the capacity to connect with one another and share their subjective states. This article selectively reviews and critically examines the current knowledge on the developmental neuroscience of empathy in early childhood. Deconstructing empathy into functional components such as sensitivity to signals of distress, emotion sharing, perspective taking, and caring for others within the framework of natural sciences, in conjunction with examining their developmental trajectory in early childhood is beneficial to research and theory with implication for psychopathology. This developmental neuroscience perspective advances our understanding of empathy, its underlying mechanisms, and functions.