Brain mapping has shown that we’re hardwired for empathy.

Brain mapping has shown that we’re hardwired for empathy. The recent discovery of “mirror neurons” has done for behavioural health what DNA has done for genetics. Mirror neurons are what turn on our empathy. They establish a brain-to-brain bridge that puts you on another person’s wavelength. Studies have shown that mirror neurons cause brain cells to “light up” not just when your own finger is pricked with a pin but also when you see someone else’s finger being pricked (an explanation for how the empath functions as well as those with less intense sensitivity).

The pattern of neurons firing in your brain actually mimics those of the person you’re observing. In other words, we can feel each other’s pain. What this finding illuminates for me is that our brain’s instinct to share another’s reaction to pain is the biological mechanism of compassion.


we don't have to think about what other people are doing or feeling, we simply know.


"It seems we're wired to see other people as similar to us, rather than different,At the root, as humans we identify the person we're facing as someone like ourselves."