Dr Dan Campbell-Meiklejohn @drdanielcm.bsky.social · 28/07/2026We also told participants if the people lived or died, focussing on areas associated with social emotions when harm comes to others, followed by a whole brain analysis. Home country deaths activate these regions more than survival. No such differentiation happens for lives lost abroad. 5/8 100
Dr Dan Campbell-Meiklejohn @drdanielcm.bsky.social · 28/07/2026For lives in the UK, it is highest for the lowest numbers. For foreign country lives, it has and 'inverted U' pattern, due to single lives at risk abroad generating far less engagement than home country counterparts. One theory is that this reflects our experiences and expectations with media. 4/8 100
Dr Dan Campbell-Meiklejohn @drdanielcm.bsky.social · 28/07/2026When it came to money at risk, the brain scaled up its response with the amount that could be lost. Not so, for human lives at risk. For the largest numbers it actually goes down -- across the board. This supports a 'collapse of compassion' account of disengagement. 3/8 100
Dr Dan Campbell-Meiklejohn @drdanielcm.bsky.social · 28/07/2026Over decade ago, I was concerned about why news engagement and global inequalities don't reflect that all lives have equal value. So @drjocutler.bsky.social and I designed a task to see what happens in the brain as we learn of different numbers of real lives at risk at home or 56 other countries.2/8 100
Dr Dan Campbell-Meiklejohn @drdanielcm.bsky.social · 28/07/2026How does the brain respond to news of human lives at risk? For money, the brain responds more with the amount that could be lost. For human lives, the response collapses, and a life lost abroad doesn't hit like one at home. The wiring behind compassion fade: doi.org/10.1093/scan... 152
Dr Dan Campbell-Meiklejohn @drdanielcm.bsky.social · 06/06/2024Also preliminary is that the neural SSRI effect on cardiac interoception in the amygdala predicted our previously published effects metacognitive cardiac interoceptive insight (this is in the supplemental material). 8/10 100
Dr Dan Campbell-Meiklejohn @drdanielcm.bsky.social · 06/06/2024Exploratory post hoc analysis also showed that the effects of the SSRI on the stomach response in the amygdala predicted effects on anxiety (increases and decreases) across the sample. 7/10 100
Dr Dan Campbell-Meiklejohn @drdanielcm.bsky.social · 06/06/2024Excitingly, we replicated the already-known interoception response that is proportional to anxiety in the anterior insula on a placebo. But the SSRI BREAKS that link, with a significant change in the interoception-anxiety relationship in the region. 6/10 110
Dr Dan Campbell-Meiklejohn @drdanielcm.bsky.social · 06/06/2024This SSRI effect also happened during attention to the heart in the amygdala, possibly reflecting an effect on the integration of cardiac interoception in affective processes 5/10 100
Dr Dan Campbell-Meiklejohn @drdanielcm.bsky.social · 06/06/2024The SSRI reduced viscerosensory (posterior insula and surrounding) and integrative (amygdala) interoceptive processing of attended stomach sensation on BOTH sides of the brain (relative to effects on exteroception). 4/10 100
Dr Dan Campbell-Meiklejohn @drdanielcm.bsky.social · 06/06/202421 healthy volunteers focused their attention on their stomach, heart or a pulsing visual stimulus. They did this on a single oral SSRI dose (20mg citalopram) and, at another time, did the same on a placebo. This design is WITHIN-subjects, people! 42 scan sessions. 3/10 100