APA Citation
Decety, J., & Michalska, K. (2010). Neurodevelopmental changes in the circuits underlying empathy and sympathy from childhood to adulthood. *Developmental Science*, 13(6), 886-899.
Summary
Neuroscientist Jean Decety and colleague Kalina Michalska investigate how brain circuits supporting empathy develop from childhood through adulthood. Using fMRI, they examined neural responses to perceiving others' pain across different age groups. The research reveals that while basic emotional sharing (affective empathy) is present early, the cognitive capacity to understand others' perspectives and regulate emotional responses develops gradually with maturation of prefrontal cortex. This developmental trajectory has implications for understanding empathy deficits in personality disorders.
Why This Matters for Survivors
Understanding how empathy develops helps explain how narcissistic personalities form. If empathy requires both emotional sharing (feeling with others) and cognitive perspective-taking (understanding others' minds), disruption at different developmental stages produces different deficits. Some narcissists can cognitively understand what you feel without feeling it themselves—this research explains why.
What This Research Establishes
Empathy has distinct components. Affective empathy (emotional sharing) and cognitive empathy (perspective-taking) involve different neural circuits and develop at different rates.
Affective empathy emerges early. The capacity to share others’ emotional states is present in infancy. This reflects early-developing brain systems including the insula and anterior cingulate.
Cognitive empathy develops with prefrontal maturation. Understanding others’ perspectives requires prefrontal cortex functions that mature gradually through adolescence into early adulthood.
Development depends on experience. Empathy circuits develop through social interaction. Caregiving quality affects empathy development, with implications for understanding empathy deficits.
Why This Matters for Survivors
Understanding narcissistic empathy. Narcissists often have cognitive without affective empathy—they know what you feel without feeling it themselves. This dissociation explains the manipulation: they understand your emotions well enough to exploit them.
Your experience made sense. The narcissist could read your emotions expertly (cognitive empathy) while remaining unmoved by your pain (affective empathy deficit). Understanding this dissociation validates your experience.
Understanding your own empathy. If you grew up with a narcissistic parent, your empathy development may have been affected. You may have overdeveloped cognitive empathy (reading the parent’s moods for survival) while other aspects were neglected.
Empathy can still develop. Brain plasticity means empathy can develop in adulthood, though it requires effort. Recovery may involve developing balanced empathy—not just reading others but feeling with them.
Clinical Implications
Assess empathy components separately. Don’t assume general “empathy deficit.” Assess affective and cognitive empathy separately. Narcissists often have dissociated empathy—strong cognitive, weak affective.
Understand developmental origins. Empathy deficits have developmental origins in early relationships. Understanding this history illuminates current deficits without excusing harmful behavior.
Target specific components. Intervention for empathy deficits should target specific components. Developing affective empathy may require different approaches than cognitive perspective-taking.
Support survivors’ empathy development. Survivors may have imbalanced empathy from growing up with narcissistic parents. Help them develop both components in healthy balance.
How This Research Is Used in the Book
Decety’s research appears in chapters on empathy and narcissistic development:
“Jean Decety’s research reveals that empathy comprises distinct components with different developmental trajectories. Affective empathy—automatically feeling with others—emerges early. Cognitive empathy—understanding others’ perspectives—develops gradually with prefrontal cortex maturation. Narcissists often show dissociation: strong cognitive empathy (they know what you feel) with weak affective empathy (they don’t feel it with you). This explains how they can be expert manipulators—understanding emotions well enough to exploit them while remaining unmoved by the pain they cause.”
Historical Context
This 2010 study contributed to the growing understanding that empathy isn’t a single capacity but a constellation of related abilities with different neural substrates and developmental courses. The research appeared as developmental neuroscience was increasingly able to track brain maturation across the lifespan.
Decety’s work has been influential in understanding empathy deficits across psychopathology—not just narcissism but psychopathy, autism, and conduct disorder. The finding that cognitive and affective empathy can dissociate has particular relevance for understanding how narcissists and psychopaths can be both empathy-impaired and highly skilled manipulators.
Further Reading
- Decety, J., & Ickes, W. (Eds.). (2009). The Social Neuroscience of Empathy. MIT Press.
- Decety, J. (2011). Dissecting the neural mechanisms mediating empathy. Emotion Review, 3(1), 92-108.
- Singer, T., & Lamm, C. (2009). The social neuroscience of empathy. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1156(1), 81-96.
- Shamay-Tsoory, S.G. (2011). The neural bases for empathy. The Neuroscientist, 17(1), 18-24.
About the Author
Jean Decety, PhD is the Irving B. Harris Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Chicago. He is a leading researcher in social neuroscience, particularly the neural bases of empathy, morality, and social cognition.
Decety has published extensively on how the brain processes others' emotions, with implications for understanding empathy deficits in psychopathy, narcissism, and autism. His work bridges developmental psychology and neuroscience.
Historical Context
This 2010 study contributed to the emerging understanding that empathy comprises distinct components with different developmental trajectories and neural substrates. The research appeared as neuroscience was increasingly able to track brain development across the lifespan, revealing how higher cognitive functions like perspective-taking mature later than basic emotional sharing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Empathy involves at least two components: affective empathy (automatically sharing others' emotional states—feeling distress when they're distressed) and cognitive empathy (understanding others' mental states and perspectives). These have different neural substrates and developmental trajectories.
Affective empathy—emotional sharing—emerges early in development. Infants show distress at others' distress. Cognitive empathy—perspective-taking and understanding others' minds—develops gradually with prefrontal cortex maturation, continuing into early adulthood.
Affective empathy involves the anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex—regions activated by both experiencing and observing pain. Cognitive empathy involves the prefrontal cortex, temporoparietal junction, and medial prefrontal cortex—regions supporting perspective-taking and mental state attribution.
Narcissists often have intact cognitive empathy (they know what you feel) but impaired affective empathy (they don't feel it with you). This dissociation explains how they can be excellent manipulators—they understand your emotions without being moved by them.
Empathy develops through interaction with caregivers. Neglect, abuse, or emotionally unavailable parenting can disrupt both components. If a child doesn't experience empathic attunement, their own empathy development suffers. Early relationships literally shape empathy circuits.
While there are critical periods for empathy development, the brain retains plasticity. Adults can develop greater empathy through practice, though it's harder than in childhood. This offers hope for survivors whose empathy may have been affected.
Cognitive empathy requires prefrontal cortex functions—perspective-taking, mental state attribution, impulse control. The prefrontal cortex is the last brain region to fully mature (early 20s). This explains why adolescents may struggle with perspective-taking despite feeling others' emotions.
Children need empathic attunement to develop empathy. Narcissistic parents, with their own empathy deficits, may fail to provide this. The child may develop cognitive empathy (learning to read the parent's moods for safety) without affective empathy, or vice versa—creating imbalanced empathy development.