Abstract
Several studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) showed that empathic capabilities are associated with the activation (and deactivation) of relatively specific neural circuits. A growing number of electroencephalography studies also suggest that it might be useful to assess empathy. The main goal of this study was to use quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) to test whether observation of pain expressed by an avatar (virtual reality) induces a suppression of alpha waves over sensorimotor cortical areas, as it is observed with human stimuli. Not only was it the case, but also the magnitude of alpha suppression was correlated with perspective-taking capacity of participants. Both empathy levels and magnitude of sensorimotor alpha suppression (SAS) were significantly higher in women than men. Interestingly, a significant interaction emerged between levels of individual empathy and specificity of experimental instructions, where SAS in participants with good perspective-taking was higher during passive observation of the distressed avatar, while the opposite was true during an active (trying to understand) condition. These results suggest that: (1) synthetic characters are able to elicit SAS; (2) SAS is indeed associated with perspective-taking capacities; (3) Persons with poorer perspective-taking capacities can show significant SAS when proper instructions are provided. Therefore, qEEG represents a low-cost objective approach to measure perspective-taking abilities.
Highlights
IntroductionIn clinical settings, empathy is usually assessed through self-report questionnaires (i.e., the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, Davis, 1983), which are highly susceptible to bias due to false responses, social desirability, and other factors (e.g., Van de Mortel, 2008)
In clinical settings, empathy is usually assessed through self-report questionnaires, which are highly susceptible to bias due to false responses, social desirability, and other factors (e.g., Van de Mortel, 2008)
The 2 × 2 × 2 ANCOVA with repeated measures confirmed that the three types of avatar presentation induced significant sensorimotor alpha suppression (SAS), which was significantly greater during the pain condition (M = −0.25 ± 0.17) than during both the neutral (M = −0.146 ± 0.22) and movement (M = −0.18 ± 0.18) conditions (F(1,39) = 3.83, p < 0.05; r = 0.49; post hoc: pain vs. neutral, p < 0.001; pain vs. movement, p = 0.003; neutral vs. movement, p > 0.05; Figure 2)
Summary
In clinical settings, empathy is usually assessed through self-report questionnaires (i.e., the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, Davis, 1983), which are highly susceptible to bias due to false responses, social desirability, and other factors (e.g., Van de Mortel, 2008). Several experimental studies have demonstrated that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allows the visualization and quantification of key cortical and subcortical brain activation. The main goal of the present study was to confirm the capacity of a lowcost, available, portable neuroimaging technique—quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG)—to evaluate empathy levels. EEG records local electric potentials generated by the cerebral cortex and qEEG mathematically breaks down the frequency spectrum of electrical waves. This approach allows measurement of regional (different cortical areas) power (or amplitude) of particular oscillatory bands with high precision for both frequency (e.g., 1-Hz gradient) and time (1-s gradient). Given that empathic traits and states are associated with regional cortical modulation, qEEG might be useful to evaluate an individual’s empathy levels
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