Self, Empathy, and the Social Brain: Human Neuroscience to Artificial Systems - Akila Kadambi (UCLA, USC)

Title: Self, Empathy, and the Social Brain: Human Neuroscience to Artificial Systems

Speaker: Dr. Akila Kadambi (University of California, Los Angeles, USA and University of Southern California, USA)

Abstract: Understanding the neural basis of self-awareness and empathy is essential to both cognitive neuroscience and the emerging challenge of designing artificial agents that participate in real-world environments. In this talk, I present a body of work examining how the human brain represents the self and others through embodied channels, which might support the development of artificial systems capable of more socially attuned and ethically grounded interaction. I present a framework that integrates from simulated internal states to the external world, aimed to promote alignment with human forms of reasoning and relational understanding. Throughout, the work underscores the importance of aligning empathy and prosocial responsiveness with these systems and invites reflection on what it means to be socially and morally situated agents, whether biological or artificial.

Short Biography: Akila Kadambi, PhD is a postdoctoral researcher jointly appointed in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA and the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC. Her research investigates the neural basis of self-awareness and empathy in humans and how they can inform the design of embodied artificial intelligence. She combines neuroimaging, behavior, and brain stimulation to examine multiple expressions of these processes, measured from internal states to body movements to social reasoning. Dr. Kadambi completed her PhD at UCLA examining the neural basis for self-recognition, where she received the department’s Best Dissertation Area Award.

She has held postdoctoral fellowships with the UCLA–CDU Dana Center and visiting fellowships at the Neuroscience and Philosophy Seminars at Duke University. Her work has been published in leading outlets including Journal of Neuroscience, Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, PLOS ONE, and others. She is a co-author on emerging frameworks for human alignment in AI, developed in collaboration with Google DeepMind. Her research is supported by the Dana Foundation, Google Research, UCLA, the NeuroArts Blueprint, and the Templeton World Charity Foundation.