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tornpentacle t1_iuplouf wrote

Reply to comment by Fingerinthedykes in Researchers show that the same system in the brain that enables us to avoid danger is also activated during selfless, helping behaviour: “These results contradict the conventional wisdom that we need to suppress our own fear system in order to help others who are in danger” by giuliomagnifico

That's an interesting question, though I don't know if we quite have an answer to it.

For instance, here is one paper describing a neuroimaging study on those with alexithymia, measuring the size of the left amygdala: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26275382/

Meditation is linked to increased empathy (causative studies have been done) and is also correlated with reduction of the right amygdala.

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