Editing Sympathy (section)

==Neuroscience perspectives==
[[File:User-FastFission-brain.gif|thumb|right|alt=A succession of brain scan images|Sympathy is being studied with new technology.]]

Social and emotional stimuli that relate to the well-being of another person can be studied with technology that tracks brain activity (such as [[Electroencephalogram]]s and [[functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging]]). [[Amygdala]] and insula activation occur when a person experiences emotions, such as fear and disgust respectively.<ref name='Decety'>{{cite journal|last1=Decety|first1=Jean|last2=Michalska|first2=Kalina J. |title=Neurodevelopmental changes in the circuits underlying empathy and sympathy from childhood to adulthood|journal=Developmental Science|date=1 November 2010|volume=13|issue=6|pages=886–899|doi=10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00940.x|pmid=20977559|s2cid=10647101 }}</ref> Primary motor regions also activate during sympathy. This could be caused by empathic motor reactions to emotional faces (reflecting the expressions on their own faces) which seem to help people better understand the other person's emotion. Researchers also suggest that the neural mechanisms that are activated when personally experiencing emotions are also activated when viewing another person experiencing the same emotions (via [[mirror neurons]]).<ref name="Singer 81–96">{{cite journal|last1=Singer|first1=Tania|last2=Lamm|first2= Claus |title=The Social Neuroscience of Empathy|journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences|date=1 March 2009|volume=1156|issue=1|pages=81–96|doi=10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04418.x|pmid=19338504|bibcode=2009NYASA1156...81S|s2cid=3177819}}</ref> Pain{{clarify|reason=in the observer or the observed?|date=August 2023}} seems to activate a region known as the cingulate cortex,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Vogt|first=B. A.|year=2005|title=Pain and emotion interactions in subregions of the cingulate gyrus|journal=Nature Reviews Neuroscience|volume=6|number=7|pages=533–544|doi=10.1038/nrn1704 |pmid=15995724 |pmc=2659949 }}</ref> in addition to the activation of the neural mechanisms mentioned earlier{{Specify|reason=there are several candidates|date=August 2023}}. The temporal parietal junction, orbitofrontal cortex, and ventral striatum are also thought to play a role in the production of emotion.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Greening|first1=S. G.|last2=Osuch|first2=E. A.|last3=Williamson|first3=P. C.|last4=Mitchell|first4=D. G.|year=2014|title=The neural correlates of regulating positive and negative emotions in medication-free major depression|journal=Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience|volume=9|number=5|pages=628–637|doi=10.1093/scan/nst027 |pmid=23482626 |pmc=4014100 }}</ref>

Generally, empathic emotions (including sympathy) require the activation of top-down and bottom-up activity. Top-down activity refers to cognitive processes that originate from the frontal lobe and require conscious thought whereas bottom-up activity begins from a sensation of stimuli in the environment. From that sensory level, people sense and experience the emotional cues of another. At the same time, top-down responses make sense of the emotional inputs streaming in and apply motive and environmental influence analyses to better understand the situation. Top-down processes include attention to emotion and emotion regulation.<ref name="Singer 81–96"/>