This session will be in English.
This talk is a part of the series ‘Compassion in Context’, a project in collaboration with Museum MAS.
The Empathic Brain Across Species
A talk by Christian Keysers
Why do we care about what happens to others? In 1776, Adam Smith suggested that we suffer when we see others in pain because our mind makes us feel their distress. In his talk, prof. Keysers will show how deeply brain science supports his vision.
Humans & Rats
Humans and rats activate neurons and brain regions involved in their own pain while witnessing the pain of others – indeed as if they were in pain themselves. Perturbing this system makes us care less about others. Biology thus wires us to share the joys and distress of others.
Yet, empathy does not just happen to us:
Prof. Keysers will also show how easily we can turn our biologically predisposed empathy off – and we should thus learn to use it wisely.
Psychopathy
Finally, he will show how patients with psychopathy are not incapable of empathy but seem to have a talent for turning their empathy off when it doesn’t serve their purposes.
"Our brain has been shaped by millions of years as social primates. The mirror neurons that we inherited allow us to connect with others and make their situation our own. Here, Christian Keysers offers a lively close-up look at how the brain handles and generates empathy, making for an exciting read for anyone interested in the gentler side of our species."
Christian Keysers
Christian Keysers is a neurophysiologist affiliated with the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (KNAW) in Amsterdam and the University of Amsterdam.
He is French and German and was born in Belgium. He studied Biology and Psychology in Germany and Boston and made his PhD in St Andrews with David Perrett on the neural basis of facial perception.
In 2000, he moved to Parma, Italy to work with Giacomo Rizzolatti on the Mirror Neuron System. He contributed to the discovery of auditory mirror neurons in primates and showed that the idea of mirror neurons also applies to our emotions and sensations using fMRI in humans.
He then moved to Groningen, the Netherlands, where he became a full professor for the social brain in 2008. In 2010, he moved to Amsterdam to become a department head at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, a research institute of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He is an associate editor of the journals Social Neuroscience and Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience and Philosophical Transactions B. His work has been published in leading journals, including Science, Neuron, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, and Current Biology.
He is also member of the Young Academy of Europe.
His book The Empathic Brain received the gold medal for best Science Book in 2012.
"Being both more systematically brutal than chimps and more empathetic than bonobos, we are by far the most bipolar ape. Our societies are never completely peaceful, never completely competitive, never ruled by sheer selfishness, and never perfectly moral."
The schedule
-
6.00 - 8.00 p.m.
Optional visit the expo 'COMPASSION' -
8.00 p.m.
Welcome by UCSIA & introduction by Museum MAS -
8.15 p.m.
Lecture by Christian Keysers (Professor of Social Neuroscience, University of Amsterdam) -
8.55 p.m.
Response by Stephan Claes (Professor of Psychiatry, KU Leuven) -
9.15 p.m.
Q&A -
9.30 p.m.
Ending
