Hyper-Empathy Syndrome

Anatomy & Physiology

Bibliography

When experiencing empathy under an MRI, certain neural pathways will be shown as active but the exact neural pathway used is still debated today. People with Hyper-Empathy Syndrome have shown higher mirror neuron activity in the inferior frontal gyrus. But as Dr. Joseph Sirven said “What we are finding is that there is not just one anatomical correlate of emotion. Rather, complex emotions like empathy, hope, etc., are likely to occur as a complex interplay from a number of areas in the brain and the amygdala is one."

Chan, Amanda. "Brain Surgery To Remove Amygdala Leads To Woman's 'Hyper Empathy'" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 14 May 2015.

Fenton, Dana. "Exploring Hyper Empathy Syndrome." · Emotional & Stress Management Articles. 1 Dec. 2014. Web. 11 May 2015.

Lotesse. "Hyper-empathy." - Discussion. 30 Apr. 2013. Web. 14 May 2015.

Levenson, Robert W., and Anna M. Ruef. "Empathy: A Psychological Substrate." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2nd ed. Vol. 63. American Psychological Association, 2012. 246. Print.

Hyper-Empathy Syndrome

Shannon Cummings

Who Does It Affect?

Hyper-Empathy is most commonly found in recent amputees with the predominant symptom being Mirror-Touch Synesthesia. This can occur after a limb is amputated and a phantom feeling of the missing limb appears. The affected patient will be able to feel the phantom limb and some sensations just by watching or thinking about someone else feeling them.

A women, called "Patient C" for anonymity, developed Hyper-Empathy after a surgeon removed parts of her Amygdala and Hippocampus to treat her epilepsy. Thankfully, her seizures stopped but the researchers who evaluated her psychological condition, found that she performed exceptionally well on standard tests of empathic abilities. "Patient C" along with the few people to have documented cases of Hyper-Empathy give scientists the indication that Hyper-Empathy is caused by a "re-wiring" of the emotional processing system of the brain.

Treatment

Diagnosis

In the one heavily documented study of "Patient C", Hyper-Empathy Syndrome was diagnosed after a series of objective, experimental neuropsychological tests, and fMRI's (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging). All cases of Hyper-Empathy Syndrome before it became an identified disorder had been diagnosed purely from objective tests. Now, to be diagnosed according to the DSM a collection of physical symptoms must be present along with the following:

-Significant impairment in self-identity and interpersonal abilities.

-One or more of the pathological personality traits: antagonism, detachment, negative affectivity, disinhibition, compulsivity and psychoticism.

-Impairments in personality functioning and the person’s personality traits are not understood as normal for the individual.

-Impairments in a person’s personality function and personality traits (not be due to substance abuse or a general health condition.)

-Easily recognizes other's emotions (per Reading The Mind in The Eyes Test, etc)

Since there is such little known about the way the Brain uses Empathy, it has proven difficult to delve deeper into research about Hyper-Empathy Syndrome itself and even harder to treat it. Some scientists hypothesize Hyper-Emapthy occurs because of a unique brain structure, a redirection of the pathway of the neurons that process emotion (Mirror-Neurons), while others have been lead to believe it is hereditary. Many previous cases of people with Hyper-Empathy had been diagnosed as other personality disorders with similar psychological effects, such as Autism, Bipolar Disorder or Manic-Depression. Anti-depressants seem to hinder the psychological damage, the physical symptoms remain.

Overview

Empathy is described as "the ability to share the feelings of another." This is usually taken to mean that you can understand and relate to another's feelings, but what if this definition was taken literally? What if you could literally share someone's feelings?

Hyper-Empathy Syndrome is a fairly new and unexplored disorder of the brain. It has been called by many names so far, but it has been officially classified by DSM (Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders) as a Personality Disorer Not Otherwise Specified (PDNOS).

Symptoms

The symptoms of Hyper-Empathy Syndrome can vary from patient to patient in that not all symptoms will always be expressed. The fact that there are so little recorded cases makes collecting information about Hyper-Empathy challenging. The recorded cases so far have shown the following symptoms:

• Mirror-Touch Synesthesia
• Heightened Emotional and Physical Sensitivity
• Easily Overstimulated
• Association of Physiological Feelings With Emotions
• Weakened Self-Identity and Reclusive Behavior
• Higher Empathy (Shown Through Evaluation)

So far, no person with Hyper-Empathy has shown signs of additional mental disorder or illness. They are seemingly "Mentally Fit" individuals.