Abstract
Separate lines of research have noted recruitment of parietal cortex during tasks involving visuo-spatial processes and empathy. To explore the relationship between these two functions, a self-other perspective transformation task and a task of spatial attention (line bisection) were administered to 40 healthy participants (19 women). Performance on these tasks was examined in relation to self-reported empathy. Rightward biases in line bisection correlated positively with trait-level self-reported empathic concern, suggesting a left hemisphere mediation of this prosocial personality trait. Unexpectedly, speed of perspective taking in the self-other transformation task correlated negatively with empathic concern, but only in women, which we interpret in light of gender differences in empathy and strategies for egocentric mental transformations. Together, the findings partially support the commonalities in visuo-spatial attention, perspective-taking and empathy. More broadly, they shed additional light on the relationship between basic cognitive functions and complex social constructs.
Highlights
Self-reported empathy scale Means for the IRI PT and Empathic Concern (EC) subscales are displayed in Spatial tasks Line Bisection
We examined the relationship between visuo-spatial processing, imagined self-other transformations and biases in spatial attention, and self-reported empathy in healthy young individuals
We found that, in the women, speed of visuo-spatial self-other transformations was associated with decreased self-reported empathic concern
Summary
The major aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between self-reported trait empathy and indices of visuo-spatial ability that have been associated with parietal cortical functioning, imagined self-other transformations and biases in spatial attention. The aim of the current study was to examine the relationship between self-report measures of trait-level empathy and visuospatial processing, namely imagining self-other perspective transformations and biases in spatial attention, in healthy individuals
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