Abstract
Empathy commonly refers to the emotional concern aroused by the affective state
of another living person and its importance in creating meaningful social bonds
led to the publication of a large amount of papers with the intent to explore brain
mechanisms underlying these salient social interactions. Despite the great majority
of studies focused on human-human contexts, we do not establish relations with
only other humans, but also with non-human animals. The aim of the present work
was to explore brain responses (Event-Related Potentials, ERPs: N300 and P300)
involved in empathic resonance mechanisms between humans (human-human, HH)
or between humans and animals (human-animal, HA) taking into account the specific
role of DLPFC in response to interactions with different emotion valence (positive
vs. negative). The second aim of this research was to explore the direct relation
between the cortical response to high impact emotional contexts and the personality
empathic profile as assessed by Balance Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES) and Interpersonal
Reactivity Index (IRI). To verify these effects, a 16-channel portable EEGSystem
was used to record the electrocortical activity of 15 participants (7 females,
8 males) while passively viewing the affective interactions. Results showed that
both HH and HA interactions elicited significant N300 and P300 peak amplitude
increasing in response to positive and negative compared with neutral interactions.
However, N300 was mainly related to valence effect, with increased peak amplitude
for negative patterns (negativity bias), irrespectively from condition, and distributed
over the frontal sites (left and right DLPFC). P300, instead, was modulated by the
relevance of the interactive context independently from the valence effect and was
frontally and parietally distributed. Finally a significant relation was found between
emotional empathy trait (BEES) and N300 peak amplitude. These results are discussed
in light of the significance that different species-specific and species-aspecific
relationships have in establishing meaningful empathic responses.
Lingua originale | English |
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pagine (da-a) | 159-159 |
Numero di pagine | 1 |
Rivista | Neuropsychological Trends |
Volume | 18 |
Stato di pubblicazione | Pubblicato - 2015 |
Evento | XXIII Congresso Nazionale della Società Italiana di Psicofisiologia - SIPF - Lucca Durata: 19 nov 2015 → 21 nov 2015 |
Keywords
- Empathy
- Inter-species