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The typical state empathy research used perspective-taking instructions and examined the effect of instructions on empathy-related variables. Empathy-arousing processes were generally not measured. The effect of perspective-taking instructions has been questioned recently. Observers could imagine targets’ feelings without such instructions. This study evoked empathy in Japanese undergraduates (N = 157) without instructional procedure, and based on participants’ responses to questionnaires, measured individual differences between antecedent, process, and intrapersonal outcome variables of state empathy, referring to the organizational model and theories of empathy-arousing processes. The purpose of this study was to measure these variables, examine the causal relationship between them using path analysis, and clarify how empathy occurs. In this way, we could suggest through which processes and antecedent factors intrapersonal empathic outcomes are produced. It is probably the first attempt to clarify how empathy occurs using a social psychological study framework and questionnaire method. This research was originally conducted in 2011 based on two similar studies not published internationally, when only some of the variables were used in our analyses. Afterwards, we constructed another analysis method, reanalyzed the data in 2019 and further reanalyzed in 2023 to obtain the final version of the results. Limitations and scientific and practical implications were discussed.

There has been a recent growth in neuroimaging research to unveil the neural basis of empathy. This article reviews some of these neuroimaging studies and findings regarding empathy, in contrast with traditional definitions and theories of empathy. Recent research indicates that empathy as related to physical and social pain activates brain areas assicuated with (a) involvement in processing mirrored feelings of one's pain (e.g., anterior insula cortex, anterior cingulate cortex), (b) understanding action (e.g., inferior frontal gyrus, pars opercularis), and (c) mentalizing (e.g., dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, temporo-parietal junction, precuneus) .It has also been suggested that these brain areas play an important role in affect sharing and understanding of other people's feelings, both of which are integral components of empathy. In addition, it has been observed that the emotions of other people do not always automatically elicit empathic responses in observers, because empathic brain responses are sometimes modulated by situational factors and observer characteristics. A newly emerging topic in this field is the investigation of the neural basis of prosocial behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]