Ontogeny of the Empathetic Systems

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project Area: Empathic system
• Project/Area Number: 25118003
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Research in a proposed research area)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Review Section: Complex systems
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Hasegawa Toshikazu 東京大学, 大学院総合文化研究科, 教授 (30172894)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 橋弥 和秀 九州大学, 人間環境学研究院, 准教授 (20324593) ; 齋藤 慈子 武蔵野大学, 教育学部, 講師 (00415572)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-06-28 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 共感 / 発達 / 自閉スペクトラム症

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The studies clarified the developmental origins of communicative abilities/biases in relation to the empathetic systems. The main findings are as follows: Involuntary facial mimicry in infants, and the differences in TD and ASD individuals. The other's gaze serves as reinforcement for learning by infants. Spontaneous informing to the other reflecting her/his epistemic states, and concern about the epistemic gaps by 1.5-y.o. Upstream reciprocity in preschoolers. The commonality and difference in avoidance of "calculating" agents between adults and preschoolers. Emergence of preference for the story ending reflecting Karma around 7-y.o. Pointing out the importance of "We" concept to approach human empathetic systems. Effect of oxytocin on facial-visual search performance, etc. We examined empathy-related cognitive/behavioral abilities in other species by collaboration with other projects and contributed to clarifying the phylogenetic origins of the empathetic systems.

Free Research Field

発達心理学、比較認知科学