An fMRI study of caring vs self-focus during induced compassion and pride

Abstract

This study examined neural activation during the experience of compassion, an emotion that orients people toward vulnerable others and prompts caregiving, and pride, a self-focused emotion that signals individual strength and heightened status. Functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI) were acquired as participants viewed 55 s continuous sequences of slides to induce either compassion or pride, presented in alternation with sequences of neutral slides. Emotion self-report data were collected after each slide condition within the fMRI scanner. Compassion induction was associated with activation in the midbrain periaqueductal gray (PAG), a region that is activated during pain and the perception of others' pain, and that has been implicated in parental nurturance behaviors. Pride induction engaged the posterior medial cortex, a region that has been associated with self-referent processing. Self-reports of compassion experience were correlated with increased activation in a region near the PAG, and in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Self-reports of pride experience, in contrast, were correlated with reduced activation in the IFG and the anterior insula. These results provide preliminary evidence towards understanding the neural correlates of important interpersonal dimensions of compassion and pride. Caring (compassion) and self-focus (pride) may represent core appraisals that differentiate the response profiles of many emotions.

Fig. 1

A schematic representation of a partial task sequence including a compassion, a neutral and a pride slide block. A task run included one slide block for each target emotion: compassion and pride with neutral blocks interleaved. Each participant completed two task runs.

Fig. 2

Mean self-reports of ‘compassion’ and ‘pride’ in response to the compassion, pride and neutral slides for (a) the behavioral pilot sample responding to each individual slide and (b) the fMRI participants responding to slide sequences. Mean self-reports of valence, ‘distress’ and ‘enjoyment,’ for the fMRI participants responding to slide sequences are depicted in (c).

Fig. 3

(a) Activation in the midbrain PAG during the compassion > neutral condition contrast and (b) in the posterior medial cortex (PMC) during the pride > neutral condition contrast. Activation is displayed at (P < 0.005, uncorrected; extent: 15 voxels) to show the extent of activation and is displayed on a mean anatomical image calculated across fMRI participants.

Fig. 4

Group wise main effects activation in the PAG during the compassion > neutral (yellow) condition contrast and a near-PAG cluster predicted by self-reported ‘compassion’ and ‘distress’ for the compassion > neutral contrast (cyan). Activation is displayed at (P < 0.005, uncorrected; extent: 15 voxels) to show the extent of activation and is displayed on a mean anatomical image calculated across fMRI participants. Self-reported ‘compassion’ and ‘distress’ for the compassion > neutral condition contrast are plotted against mean activation across voxels in the near-PAG cluster (P < 0.001 for correlation r values unless otherwise labeled).

Fig. 5

Activation in the right IFG predicted by greater self-reported ‘compassion’ (red) for the compassion > neutral condition contrast, and by lower self-reported ‘pride’ and ‘enjoyment’ (yellow) for the pride > neutral condition contrast. Activation is displayed at (P < 0.005, uncorrected; extent: 15 voxels) to show the extent of activation and is displayed on a mean anatomical image calculated across fMRI participants. Self-reported ‘pride’ and ‘enjoyment’ for the pride > neutral condition contrast, and ‘compassion’ for the compassion > neutral condition contrast are plotted against mean activation across voxels in the right IFG regions (P < 0.001 for correlation r values unless otherwise labeled).