Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion Research Fellows

 

Second Year Projects

Fellow: Lauren Ostrowski
Mentor: Timothy Gentner

Research Project: Neural processing of paralinguistic features and emotional content in speech

Understanding others’ emotions through speech is critical for empathy and compassion in social relationships, but the neurobiological bases supporting these abilities remain unknown. Better understanding how emotional knowledge is acquired from speech and guides downstream cognitive processes can advance professional training programs and therapies that promote empathetic, compassionate listening. This project will employ magnetoencephalography (MEG) to study how emotional expression in speech is processed by the brain. We ask how a listener's emotional response to a speaker arises from the perception of paralinguistic acoustic features—such as prosody, speech rate, and voice quality—and explore the neurodynamics facilitating empathetic responses to speech.

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Fellow: Gregory Depow
Mentor: Timothy Gentner

Research Project: Wise Empathy in Medical Practice

This project investigates whether training medical practitioners to engage in wise empathy—a strategic regulation of empathy that involves sharing positive patient emotions while responding to negative emotions with compassion—can enhance practitioners’ well-being and reduce burnout. Using a randomized controlled trial with 300 medical practitioners, the study will deliver wise empathy training to one group in week one and to a wait-list control group in week two, with daily diary assessments capturing well-being, burnout, and empathic experiences. The study will employ multilevel models and structural equation modeling to test the intervention’s direct effects and mediation pathways, while also tracking patient outcomes.

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First Year Projects

Fellow: Manas Bedmutha
Mentor: Nadir Weibel

Research Project: EmpathIQ: Advancing Empathic and Compassionate Communication in Medical Training with Generative AI

EmpathIQ is a research initiative led by PhD student Manas Bedmutha and Prof. Nadir Weibel that explores how generative AI and social signal processing can enhance empathy training in clinical education. Building on behavioral analyses from real patient-provider interactions, the project aims to develop a digital platform where medical trainees engage with emotionally rich, text-based simulations and receive personalized feedback. By offering a scalable, low-barrier tool for reflective practice and emotionally attuned communication, EmpathIQ supports clinicians in improving patient relationships and advancing compassionate care furthering Sanford Institute’s mission to foster empathy through innovative, evidence-based approaches.

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Fellow: Mariel Kristine Micael
Mentor: Justin Trotter

Research Project: Role of Astrocyte-Neuron Communication in Observational Fear Learning and Memory

The ability to vicariously experience another's fear--observational fear (OF)--is a form of emotional contagion that supports social learning. Recent studies implicate the hippocampus, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and amygdala in integrating prior fear experiences and social familiarity to guide OF learning and memory. While neuronal circuits involved in OF are partially defined, the role of astrocytes--non-neuronal regulators of synaptic transmission and plasticity--remains unknown. Our central question is: Does astrocyte-neuron communication at tripartite synapses within the hippocampus, ACC, and amygdala contribute to OF learning and memory? We hope this work will provide novel insight into the cellular mechanisms shaping empathetic behavior.

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Fellow: Nikki Keisler
Mentor: Monique Smith

Research Project: Anterior Cingulate Encoding of State-matching and Allogrooming in Mice

Empathy deficits are found in disorders such as depression, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Alzheimer’s Disease, and dysregulation in empathy has had a profound impact on caregivers and healthcare professionals. The goal of this proposal is to identify how neural substrates for two forms of empathy, state-matching and consolation, may diverge. This will contribute to our understanding of the underlying biology of empathy, which is a crucial step in developing targeted therapies to address social dysfunction in neuropsychiatric, neurodevelopmental, and neurodegenerative disorders, as well as improve the lives of healthcare professionals and their patients.

 

Fellow: Lauren Ostrowski

Research Project: Neural processing of paralinguistic features and emotional content in speech

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Fellow: Gregory Depow

Research Project: Wise Empathy in Medical Practice

Fellow: Satish Jaiswal

Research Project: Developing an Objective Measure of Interoceptive Attention and Evaluating its Sensitivity to change across the Lifespan with Compassion Training

 

Fellow: Olivia Jurkiewicz

Research Project: Exploring the neurobiological underpinnings of the emotion regulation and empathy relationship

Alessandro D'Amico

Research Project: Investigating Racially-Modulated Neuromarkers of Pain Empathy with Electrophysiology

Project Description: Racial biases manifest in various forms from a disproportionately Black prison population in the U.S., to Black patients’ pain being consistently underestimated and symptoms inadequately treated. While education and training may be effective at reducing biases, ameliorating biases by increasing empathy and compassion is another worthy goal. In order to accurately measure changes in empathy, we must first better understand the neural correlates of empathy and how those neural correlates are modulated by racial biases. To do this, we will investigate EEG correlates of perceived pain in others versus self. We hypothesize we’ll be able to isolate the neural correlates of empathic pain by comparing the differences between a participant’s response to their own versus other faces and we further expect to see a racial bias such that White participants’ neural responses to their own face look more like those to White faces than to Black faces. Our research is an important first step toward better understanding the neural correlates of racially-modulated empathy and our findings will allow us to design novel interventions in order to ameliorate racial bias in individuals.  

 

Amy Bellinghausen, MD

Research Project: Development and Implementation of a Mindful Self-Compassion Curriculum to Reduce Burnout in Critical Care Providers

Project Description: Burnout frequently affects critical care workers, due to long work hours and high patient mortality rates. Once burnout develops, providers give less empathetic patient care. My work in the ICU Recovery Clinic – where I see thankful patients who were critically ill but now returning to health and work – has brought fulfillment to myself and others when I bring these stories back to ICU providers. Using these stories as a foundation, I aim to build and implement a compassion curriculum for critical care providers addressing both personal resiliency and moral distress. I will assess burnout pre- and post-intervention using the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The funding provided and proposed course of study will enable me to increase my knowledge of current strategies in empathy and compassion research and establish a foundation as a national leader and funded clinician scientist in critical care-related burnout study and treatment, as well as to refine the burnout curriculum further. 

 

Jon Dean, PhD

Research Project: Brain Mechanisms Supporting Empathy Cultivation and Phantom-limb Based Analgesia by Psilocybin Therapy

Project Description: Psilocybin is a serotonergic psychedelic that induces enhancements in positive affect, social connectedness, and empathy and compassion. Moreover, pilot studies and our own case report have demonstrated that serotonergic psychedelics including psilocybin ameliorate intractable phantom limb pain. Psilocybin decreases default mode network (DMN) activity, circuitry supporting self-referential processing, and increased DMN-sensorimotor cortex connectivity is associated with phantom pain. Existing therapies for phantom limb pain are associated with modulation of classical inhibition of pain. Yet, the psychological and neural mechanisms supporting empathy, compassion, and analgesia by psilocybin are unknown. This trial will test the effects and neural mechanisms supporting psilocybin (versus placebo-niacin) for empathy-cultivation and analgesia in individuals with chronic phantom limb pain.

 

Zhenggang Zhu, PhD

Research Project: The evolutionary origins of empathy – molecular and neuronal basis of social motivation in rodents

Project Description: Motivation elicited by observation of the actions of a conspecific is prominent in mammals and is an evolutionarily conserved proxy for human empathy and compassion. However, the relationship between how the brain encodes self-motivated behaviors versus social motivation is unclear. For example, are there distinct cell types in the brain for self-motivation and observation-evoked empathy, or is there a shared circuitry encoding motivated-behavioral states that reflect convergence points between self-motivated and social behaviors? This question can be investigated in the mouse hypothalamus, which has diverse cell types and is a key integratory site for self-motivation (e.g., feeding and drinking), social interaction, and encoding others' motivation. Our hypothesis is that molecularly defined hypothalamic 'empathy neurons' act as a bridge for integrating social information and interacting with the self-motivation neurons to trigger social empathy. Our project will test the hypothesis by modeling empathy behaviors, functionally identifying empathy neurons via volumetric two-photon calcium imaging, and delineating their molecular identity.

 

Melissa Karnaze Hedayati, PhD

Research Project: Assessment of Compassion Cultivation Training

Project Description: This qualitative evaluation study will investigate how trainees and professionals in health fields perceive facilitators and barriers to implementing Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT; Compassion Institute) in their daily lives. My main research questions are: (1) How do participants think about facilitators of, and barriers to, compassion prior to, and after completing CCT?; (2) How do they view their ability to implement CCT into daily life?; (3) How do they perceive how it feels to receive compassion, as well as show compassion to others and oneself?; and (4) How do they define compassion and thus describe situations in which compassion occurs?

Fellow: Erik Viirre

Research Project: Enhancing neurobehavioral Effects if Compassion Training Using Immersive Visual Imagery

 

Fellow: Federica Klaus

Research Project: Stay-at-home Wellness Ecological Momentary Assessment in Late Life (StayWELL) Study

 

Fellow: Anne White

Research Project: Compassion Disparities in Emergency Care: A Mixed Methods Pilot Study

Dr. Pragathi Balasubramani

Research Project: Training the Neural Basis of Empathic Training the Neural Basis of Empathic Awareness in Physician Trainees Leveraging Real-time Virtual Reality

 

Jacob Garrett

Research Project: Intracranial Empathy Research in Huma

 

Drs. Nicole La Grange & Laleh Quinn

Research Project: An established paradigm for defining the physiological roots of empathy and compassion -- what can rodents teach us?