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Advanced Neurology

REVIEW ARTICLE
Neural mechanisms of social empathy in the

anterior cingulate cortex

3
1
Fanbo Meng , Fancheng Meng , Yue Cui , Xuyang Li , Wenye Huang ,
1†
1†
2†
1
Qian Xue , Zhantao Bai *, Shengxi Wu *, and Hui Xu *
2
1
1
1 Department of Neurobiology and Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, School of
Basic Medicine, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an 710032, Shaanxi, China
2 College of Life Sciences and Research Center for Resource Peptide Drugs, Shaanxi Engineering
and Technological Research Center for Conversation and Utilization of Regional Biological
Resources, Yanan University, Yanan 716000, Shaanxi, China
3 College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an 710069, Shaanxi, China
Abstract
Empathy is a prosocial behavior that perceives the emotional state of others,
expresses similar perceptions that match those of others, and mediates different
social behaviors. Empathic behaviors for pain and fear also exist in primates and
† These authors contributed equally rodents. In the past decades, the neural mechanisms of empathy have been defined
to this work. as a result of various sensations and perceptions, such as visual and hearing stimuli,
*Corresponding authors:
Hui Xu which cause mirror activations in brain regions, such as the insular, the inferior frontal,
(xubz@fmmu.edu.cn) and the medial frontal cortices, among which the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has
Shengxi Wu been identified as a core region of the neural network that is associated with the
(shengxi@fmmu.edu.cn)
Zhantao Bai empathic activity in mammals. Most studies on the neural mechanisms underlying
(ztbai@yau.edu.cn) empathy have been based on rodent models, which allowed for single-cell resolution
mapping of neuronal activity; moreover, the application of optogenetic techniques in
Citation: Meng F, Meng F, Cui Y.
et al., 2023, Neural mechanisms rodent models has led to a deeper delineation of neural circuits. Here, we review the
of social empathy in the anterior role of the ACC in two behavioral paradigms, pain and fear empathy, in rodents at the
cingulate cortex. Adv Neuro, neuronal and neural circuit levels. Understanding how the ACC mediates empathic
2(1): 281.
https://doi.org/10.36922/an.281 behavior in the brain will provide new targets in the treatment for neuropsychiatric
disorders characterized by empathic disorders.
Received: December 1, 2022
Accepted: January 12, 2023
Keywords: Empathy, Anterior cingulate cortex, Mirror neurons, Somatostatin neurons,
Published Online: February 10, Neural circuits
2023
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s).
This is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution 1. Introduction
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, Empathy is a cognitive process of perceiving and sharing an animal’s emotional state,
provided the original work is encompassing both affective empathy (emotional contagion and prosocial behavior),
properly cited. which retains primitive features across species, and higher-level cognitive empathy,
Publisher’s Note: AccScience which exists in human and nonhuman primates. Emotional contagion and imitative
Publishing remains neutral with behaviors are considered to be the basis of empathy, including behaviors, expressions, or
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional emotional states that match those of others, whereas cognitive empathy focuses more on
affiliations. the observer’s understanding of emotions and the demonstrator’s motivation to share [1,2] .

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2023) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/an.281