Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium,
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2013 Sep;13(3):519-32. doi: 10.3758/s13415-013-0168-4.
Social-psychological research has suggested that being imitated changes the way that we experience others: We like someone who imitates us more, and the interaction with this person runs more smoothly. Whether being imitated also affects basic social reactions, such as empathy for pain, is an open question. Empathy for pain refers to the observation that perceiving another person in pain results in pain-related brain activation in the observer. The aim of the present study was to combine the two lines of research, to investigate whether being imitated can influence empathy for pain. To this end, we developed an experimental approach combining an imitation task with a pain perception task. Subjective reports, as well as physiological responses, indicated that being imitated enhances affective responses to seeing someone else in pain. Furthermore, using rubber hand illusion measures, we provided evidence for the role of shared representations in the sensory and motor domains as a core underlying mechanism. In this way, our study integrated social-psychological research on being imitated with cognitive research on empathy for pain. This has broad implications, since imitation plays a crucial role in our daily social interactions, and our study provides insights into a basic cognitive mechanism that might underlie these social situations.
社会心理学研究表明，被模仿会改变我们对他人的体验方式：我们更喜欢模仿我们的人，与这个人的互动也会更加顺畅。被模仿是否也会影响基本的社会反应，如对疼痛的同理心，这是一个悬而未决的问题。同理心是指这样一种观察结果：当观察者看到另一个人处于痛苦之中时，会引起与疼痛相关的大脑活动。本研究旨在将这两条研究线索结合起来，探讨被模仿是否会影响对疼痛的同理心。为此，我们开发了一种结合模仿任务和疼痛感知任务的实验方法。主观报告和生理反应都表明，被模仿会增强对他人疼痛的情感反应。此外，我们使用橡胶手错觉测量方法，提供了共享表示在感觉和运动领域作为核心潜在机制的证据。通过这种方式，我们的研究将模仿的社会心理学研究与同理心的认知研究结合起来。这具有广泛的意义，因为模仿在我们的日常社会互动中起着至关重要的作用，而我们的研究提供了对可能构成这些社会情境的基本认知机制的深入了解。
