Regulation of Oxytocin on Empathy and Its Neural Mechanism

Abstract

Empathy is a multidimensional concept, including emotion and cognition. It plays a vital role in social communication, and it is very important for establishing harmonious relationships, trust, and mutual understanding. Empathy includes the ability to feel and understand the emotions of others, which can be learned and improved through various ways. Oxytocin is a neuropeptide, and its influence on social behavior and emotions has been widely studied. It is found that it can enhance emotional and cognitive empathy, as well as trust and cooperative behavior. Oxytocin acts on specific brain regions, such as the insula, amygdala, and reward circuitry, to modulate empathy-related neural processes. Oxytocin receptor gene polymorphisms are also related to empathy. Future research could explore the effect of oxytocin interventions on individuals with empathy deficiency, investigate the relationship between oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism and empathy neural networks, and study the neural mechanisms of the influence of other neurochemical substances (such as dopamine) affecting empathy. In addition, further study on empathy of typical developing individuals could provide valuable insights into the symptoms and causes of various diseases. Finally, promoting the practical application and value transformation of research results related to empathy is helpful to develop intelligent systems that can simulate human empathy and enhance human-computer interactions.