Compassion - Bridging Practice and Science - page 182

Feedback from the body is processed in the insula[12], a brain region tucked away deeply in the
lateral sulcus, between the temporal and the frontal lobes. This region is also activated during the
experience of emotion [12].People who have difficulty identifying their own emotions show reduced
activity in the insula[13](the “interoceptive cortex”). Intriguingly, interoceptive awareness is also
positively correlated to the ability of perceiving emotions in others. The better people are at
perceiving their own bodily sensations, the more accurate their judgments about other people’s
emotions will be [14].Neurologically, it is again the insula that we find activated when people
empathize with the suffering of others[12].
We have thus good reason to believe that being aware of body sensations will not only help us to
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Table 1: Components of Compassion, their Cognitive and Neuronal Correlates