**6. References**


**5** 

*Japan* 

**Using NIRS to Investigate Social** 

Taeko Ogawa and Michio Nomura *Tokai Gakuin University and Kyoto University* 

**Relationship in Empathic Process** 

We perform appropriate social actions in the various scenes of everyday life. For example, we speculate about other people's intentions and feelings in order to understand them, or inhibit negative emotions such as anger toward them. Furthermore, we engage in altruistic behaviors out of consideration and empathy for unrelated others. Even for a person who we do not like, we can also be sensitive to his or her feelings and take the most suitable action that seems altruistic at the time. When we behave in such a prosocial way, how do we

In this chapter, we first give an outline of the social neuroscience studies on empathy and perspective-taking that use brain imaging techniques. Next, we review a near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) study reported by Nomura, Ogawa, and Nomura (2010), and finally we explain how we can use NIRS to investigate psychological and social neuroscience

The mental ability underlying prosocial behaviors involving interaction with others is called *social cognition*, and the neural network involved in the functions of social cognition is called *social brain* (Brothers, 1990). Although brain imaging and lesion studies have always been related to psychology, over the past two decades the social brain studies have demonstrated the neural mechanisms underlying social cognition, including self-other recognition, emotion, recognition of facial expression, detection of intentionality and eye-direction, imitation of action, and theory of mind; these studies have been conducted in such fields as cognitive neuroscience, comparative cognitive science, social psychology, and developmental psychology (e.g., Decety & Cacioppo, 2011). Social cognitive neuroscience is a relatively new field studying social cognition from the standpoint of cognitive

In this chapter, we focus on empathy to others as a theme of social cognition. After we review recent studies on empathy by the approach of social cognitive neuroscience (mainly using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)), we introduce a NIRS study in which we investigated perspective taking associated with social relationships in the empathic

recognize ourself and others, regulate our emotions, and make decisions?

neuroscience (Cacioppo & Bernston, 1992; Ochsner & Lieberman, 2001).

process. First, however, we briefly explain the principle of NIRS measurement.

**1. Introduction** 

issues.

**1.1 Social cognition and social brain** 

