. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 May 1.

Published in final edited form as: Psychol Bull. 2010 May;136(3):351–374. doi: 10.1037/a0018807

Table 4. CNS Regions Implicated in Compassion versus Related States of Personal Distress, Sadness and Love^*.

	Amygdala	ACC	mPFC	OFC	IFC / aInsula	Temp. Pole	VTA/SN/VS	TPC	PCun/PCC
Compassion	↑¹^,²	↑¹^,²	↑¹^,²	--	↑¹^,²	↑²	↑²	↑¹	↑¹
Personal Distress	↑⁵	↑³^,⁴	↑³^,⁴	--	↑⁴	--	--	--	↑³
Sadness	↑⁶	↑⁷^,⁸	↑⁶^,⁸	--	↑⁶^,⁷^,⁸	↑⁸	--	--	↑⁶^,⁸, ↓⁷
Love^*	↓⁹	↑⁹^,¹³	--	↑¹⁰^,¹¹	↑⁹^,¹¹^,¹³	↑⁹^,¹⁰	↑⁹^,¹²^,¹³	↑¹³	↓⁹

Note. ↑=increased BOLD activity, ↓=decreased BOLD activity, --= inconsistent/unreported activation. ACC = anterior cingulate cortex, mPFC = medial prefrontal Cortex, OFC=orbital frontal cortex, IFC/aInsula =Inferior frontal cortex and anterior insula, Temp.pole = temporal Pole, VTA/SN/VS = ventral tegmental area, substantia nigra and ventral striatum, TPC = temporal parietal corex, Pcun/PCC = precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex.

Neuroimaging studies of love include ‘early intense infatuation’, ‘romantic/committed’, ‘maternal’ and ‘unconditional’ subtypes.

Immordino-Yang, McColl, Damasio, & Damasio, 2009,

Kim et al., 2009,

Sinha, Lacadie, Skudlarski, & Wexler, 2004,

⁴

Liberzon et al., 2007,

⁵

Costafreda, Brammer, David, & Fu, 2008,

⁶

Goldin et al., 2005,

⁷

Damasio et al., 2000,