In his review, Walter (2012) links conceptual perspectives on empathy with crucial results of neurocognitive and genetic studies and presents a descriptive neurocognitive model that identifies neuronal key structures and links them with both cognitive and affective empathy via a high and a low road. After discussion of this model, the remainder of this comment deals more generally with the possibilities and limitations of current neurocognitive models, considering ways to develop process models allowing specific quantitative predictions.
JacobsA. M. (2008). Kognitive Modellierung und Simulation/“diagram making.” In GauggelS.HerrmannM. (Eds.), Handbuch der Neuro-und Biopsychologie (pp. 54–60). Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe.
2.
JacobsA. M. (2011). Neurokognitive Poetik: Elemente eines neurokognitiven Modells des literarischen Lesens [Neurocognitive poetics: Elements of a neurocognitive model of literary reading]. In SchrottR.JacobsA. (Eds.), Gehirn und Gedicht: Wie wir unsere Wirklichkeiten konstruieren (pp. 492–524). Munich, Germany: Hanser.
3.
JacobsA. M.CarrT. H. (1995). Mind mappers and cognitive modelers: Toward cross-fertilization. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 18, 362–363.
4.
JacobsA. M.GraingerJ. (1994). Models of visual word recognition: Sampling the state of the art. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 20, 1311–1334.
5.
JacobsA. M.RöslerF. (1999). Dondersian dreams in brain-mappers’ minds, or, still no cross-fertilization between mind mappers and cognitive modelers. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 293–295.
6.
LenartowiczA.KalarD. J.CongdonE.PoldrackR. A. (2010). Towards an ontology of cognitive control. Topics in Cognitive Science, 2, 678–692.
7.
PoldrackR. A. (2006). Can cognitive processes be inferred from neuroimaging data?Trends in Cognitive Science, 10, 59–63.
8.
PriceC. J.FristonK. J. (2005). Functional ontologies for cognition: The systematic definition of structure and function. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 22, 262–275.
9.
WalterH. (2012). Social cognitive neuroscience of empathy: Concepts, circuits, and genes. Emotion Review, 9–17.
