Empathy correlates with insula and cingulate cortex activity during encoding but not enactment of manual imitation

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Empathy correlates with insula and cingulate cortex activity during encoding but not enactment of manual imitation Lieke Braadbaart1*, Justin Williams2 and Gordon Waiter1 1 University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Centre, United Kingdom 2 University of Aberdeen, Clinical Research Centre, United Kingdom Imitation is thought to be closely related to empathy, as both processes involve simulation and interpretation of another's intentions, yet it is not known what neural mechanisms might mediate this relationship. Adaptation of a touchscreen to the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) environment enabled us to investigate how empathic ability relates to neural activation during kinematic imitation. 18 participants were asked to draw shapes based on videos of a model drawing, without seeing the actual shape. During functional MRI, videos were shown with either the model drawing (Imitate) or a dot tracing out the same shape (Ghost), and participants drew on an MRI-compatible touchscreen with their finger to copy the shape and speed being demonstrated. They also completed the Empathy Quotient (EQ; Baron-Cohen, 2004). Overall, EQ correlated positively with brain activity during Imitate > Ghost in right frontal gyrus, insula, medial temporal gyrus and putamen. After separating instances where participants were watching from those where they were drawing, it was further found that EQ correlated positively with Imitate-Drawing > Ghost-Drawing in the right hippocampus only, but much more extensively with Imitate-Watching > Ghost-Watching in the bilateral insula, anterior cingulate, left medial frontal lobe, calcarine sulcus, midcingulate, superior temporal lobe and right caudate. EQ was not correlated to imitative performance, eliminating the possibility of this being a mediating factor. When encoding a model's manual action with the goal to imitate it, people with greater empathic abilities make greater use of areas traditionally associated with empathic emotional responses. This is in contrast with the enactment component of imitation whereby only memory is implicated in the relationship. These findings suggest that the link between manual imitation and empathy is best explained by action perception activating viscero-motor mechanisms in more empathic individuals rather than a simulation mechanism. Keywords: Empathy, simulation, functional MRI, kinematics, encoding, manual imitation, touchscreen technology Conference: XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Emotional and Social Processes Citation: Braadbaart L, Williams J and Waiter G (2015). Empathy correlates with insula and cingulate cortex activity during encoding but not enactment of manual imitation. Conference Abstract: XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00089 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 19 Feb 2015; Published Online: 24 Apr 2015. * Correspondence: Ms. Lieke Braadbaart, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Centre, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, l.braadbaart@abdn.ac.uk Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Lieke Braadbaart Justin Williams Gordon Waiter Google Lieke Braadbaart Justin Williams Gordon Waiter Google Scholar Lieke Braadbaart Justin Williams Gordon Waiter PubMed Lieke Braadbaart Justin Williams Gordon Waiter Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.