Prof. Tania Singer does an interview with ORF during the Meditation and Science Conference that took place in Berlin from November 26 to 27, 2010

Empathy and Compassion – Insights from the Social Neurosciences How to train empathy and measure it with imaging techniques Prof. Dr. Tania Singer, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig

At the “Falling Walls” conference, top international researchers explain in which socially relevant areas scientific breakthroughs are imminent. This year, MPI Director Tania Singer was also invited. She will present her work in the field of social neuroscience.

A new study published by Cell Press in the October 7th issue of the journal Neuron reveals that brain signals elicited by the sight of someone suffering pain differ as a function of whether we identify positively or negatively with that person and that these differential brain signals predict a later decision to help or withdraw from helping.

Tania Singer has left the University of Zurich to assume her new position as Director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig. She now heads the new Department of Social Neuroscience.

What happens in the brain when we feel empathy? Our behavior varies between selfishness and altruism for many reasons. The program presents various explanations that shed light on our tendency to behave selfishly in some situations and help each other in others.

How can people be brought to selfless action and compassion? To find an answer, brain researchers sometimes even put monks into magnetic resonance tomographs. Now, economists in Switzerland have joined forces with the Dalai Lama to get closer to the essence of good.

What has to happen so that people are able to relate to others mentally and emotionally, to empathise, and to act accordingly? What takes place in the brain while this is going on and what role does socialization play? Tania Singer presents her research on empathy on a neuroscientific level. 

The art of living with Gerald Hüther, Mathieu Ricard, Tania Singer. The Dalai Lama talks about the influence of meditation on thinking and acting. He will then discuss with leading brain researchers the effect of meditation on our consciousness.

Tania was invited to give a lecture held at the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), Stanford University School of Medicine.

Interview with Tania Singer at the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), Stanford University School of Medicine, in which she talks about what compassion is and how it can be trained.

The European Research Council has awarded Tania Singer 1.5 million euros for her project entitled “Plasticity of the empathic brain: Structural and functional MRI studies on the effect of empathy training on the human brain and prosocial behaviour.” Of the 9,167 applications for an ERC Starting Grant, only 3% were funded.

Economist Ernst Fehr and neuroscientist Tania Singer are convinced that humans are by nature public-spirited as well and instinctively pursue the public good. In their work in the emerging interdisciplinary research field of “neuroeconomics” at the University of Zurich, they use neuroscientific findings to inform economic theory.

The ability to empathize with other people appears to be closely linked to the ability to interpret one’s own feelings. Neuroscientists in Zurich have examined empathy in subjects who are not able to interpret their own feelings.

Tania Singer studied psychology at Philipps-University Marburg and at TU Berlin. Since 2010, she has been Professor at the Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Science in Leipzig, Germany, studying the foundations of human social behaviour.