Explore the neuroscience of love and compassion—and how feeling becomes understanding, practice, and virtue.
Select eight network markers. Connect what you learn to an act of care.
Explore the map ↓Three activities: spot compassion, explore twelve questions, and turn understanding into care.
Explore the activities ↓Click a numbered marker or choose a region below. Each selection connects a brain system with an idea from the encyclopedia and a reflection you can try.
Conceptual cutaway schematic. Markers indicate approximate relationships; deep and surface regions are shown together. The numbered points are not a scan or a diagnostic map.
The ventral tegmental area (VTA) and ventral striatum contribute to reward and motivational salience. They help explain why a loved person can feel especially important and worth approaching.
Think of someone you care about. What draws your attention to their well-being, beyond how they make you feel?
1 of 8 network markers explored
Explore the full 3D brain at BrainFacts.org ↗Optional anatomy companion · Society for Neuroscience. Opens in a new tab.
Explore three activities: connect the brain’s systems, test your knowledge, and choose an act of compassion. Move between the tabs at your own pace.
You see someone struggling, consider what they need, and choose a helpful response.
Twelve questions take you through the encyclopedia’s nine sections. Choose an answer to see the explanation. Your score measures recall of these ideas, not your capacity for love or virtue.
Section 9 moves from feeling to recognizing, valuing, choosing, acting, habituating, and becoming.
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