UCLA neuroresearchers conclude that physically mimicking others' activity (wincing when someone falls off a bike, for example) triggers large amounts of neural activity in the insula, one of the brain's centers of emotion. In other words, you don't wince because you feel sympathy — you feel sympathy because you wince. This reminds me of some of the received wisdom from the neuro-linguistic programming camp, the idea of creating subconscious rapport by matching physical characteristics with your target (i.e., matching breathing).
UCLA neuroscientists using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are the first to demonstrate that empathetic action, such as mirroring facial expressions, triggers far greater activity in the emotion centers of the brain than mere observation…
The findings explain why humans vary in their ability to understand the pain, joy and anger of others, and how damage to this neural circuit might impair the ability to empathize with the emotions of others, as often seen in patients with autism, a socially isolating psychiatric disease.
