Neurons linked to empathy: Study reveals brain cells that help us understand others

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis Medicine Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology have identified specific neuronal cells that are essential to our understanding of other people. Runnan Cao, Ph.D., an instructor in radiology and former postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Shuo Wang, Ph.D., an associate professor of radiology, identified more than 700 such neurons in the human brain. These cells are involved in “social inference,” our ability to read cues from other people’s body language and expressions to draw conclusions about what they are feeling or thinking.