This study explores how compassion training elicited activity in a neural network including the medial orbitofrontal cortex, putamen, pallidum, and ventral tegmental area—brain regions previously associated with positive affect and affiliation. The deliberate cultivation of compassion offers a new coping strategy that fosters positive affect even when confronted with the distress of others (empathic distress).
This study explores how compassion training elicited activity in a neural network including the medial orbitofrontal cortex, putamen, pallidum, and ventral tegmental area—brain regions previously associated with positive affect and affiliation. The deliberate cultivation of compassion offers a new coping strategy that fosters positive affect even when confronted with the distress of others (empathic distress).