The negative impacts of environmental disruption disproportionately affect marginalized and underprivileged communities; thus, the degree to which society is complicit in allowing unchecked environmental destruction to occur has important social justice applications. Although decades of research have sought to understand factors which determine acceptance of environmental destruction, most of this research has been based on self-report surveys. In the present work, we used neuroimaging techniques to examine the neural correlates of environmental concern. To do this, we compared responses to observing suffering dogs with responses to observing suffering ecosystems. Our results extend previous findings which had shown largely overlapping neural response patterns to observing animal and human suffering. Critically, we found activation in regions previously identified as active in empathy processes in response to viewing harm to ecosystems (i.e., without any animals present in the images). We also found relative differences in response patterns between the two types of stimuli: witnessing harm to environments (vs. dog suffering) led to reduced activation in some regions, but similar activation in others. We discuss these findings in terms of their potential implications for behavioral interventions and possibilities for continued neuroimaging research examining neural responses to environmental ecosystems and other nonhuman entities.

中文翻译：

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观察环境破坏刺激与共情反应相关的网络中的神经激活。

环境破坏的负面影响严重地影响了边缘化和贫困的社区；因此，社会参与允许不受控制的环境破坏发生的程度具有重要的社会正义意义。尽管数十年来的研究一直试图了解决定接受环境破坏的因素，但大多数研究都是基于自我报告调查。在目前的工作中，我们使用了神经影像技术来检查与环境有关的神经关联。为此，我们将观察受灾狗的反应与观察受灾生态系统的反应进行了比较。我们的研究结果扩展了先前的发现，这些发现表明在观察动物和人类痛苦方面神经反应模式存在很大重叠。至关重要的是 我们发现在先前被认为在移情过程中处于活动状态的区域具有激活作用，以响应对生态系统的危害（即图像中没有任何动物）。我们还发现两种类型的刺激在反应模式上的相对差异：目睹对环境的伤害（相对于狗的痛苦）导致某些区域的激活减少，而其他区域的激活类似。我们将就这些发现对行为干预的潜在影响以及继续进行神经成像研究（检查对环境生态系统和其他非人类实体的神经反应）的可能性进行讨论。目睹对环境的危害（相对于狗的痛苦）导致某些地区的激活减少，而其他地区的激活类似。我们将根据这些发现对行为干预的潜在影响以及继续进行神经成像研究（检查对环境生态系统和其他非人类实体的神经反应）的可能性来讨论这些发现。目睹对环境的危害（相对于狗的痛苦）导致某些地区的激活减少，而其他地区的激活类似。我们将根据这些发现对行为干预的潜在影响以及继续进行神经成像研究（检查对环境生态系统和其他非人类实体的神经反应）的可能性来讨论这些发现。