Language contexts modulate instant empathic responses to others' pain.

Abstract

Empathy for others' pain plays a critical role in human social interactions, but the influence of language contexts remains unclear. We examined the foreign-language effect on the behavioral and the underlying neural processes of empathy for others' pain. Chinese-English bilinguals performed a pain empathy task separately in Chinese (native language) and English (foreign language) contexts while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Results showed that bilingual participants reported greater ratings of perceived pain intensity in response to the observation of others' pain in the English as compared to the Chinese context. When comparing the brain responses to painful stimuli with those to non-painful stimuli, a significant empathic response in the early ERP component (N1) was found only in the English, but not in the Chinese context. Empathic response in the P3 component was larger when bilingual participants performed the task in English as compared to Chinese. However, empathic response in the late positive potential (LPP) was comparable between these two language contexts. Furthermore, spontaneous fronto-central α-oscillation power recorded prior to the onset of empathicstimuli was significantly lower in the foreign language as compared to the native-language context. These findings demonstrated a foreign-language effect on both the automatic affective sharing and the top-down cognitive evaluation processes of empathy for others' pain. This effect is most likely to be the result of altered brain states, involving increased vigilance and arousal level when bilingual individuals function in a foreign-language context.