Arnett Kirsten, Roach Alexandra, Elzy Meredith, Jelsone-Swain Laura
a Department of Psychology , University of South Carolina Aiken , Aiken , SC , USA.
Soc Neurosci. 2019 Apr;14(2):236-250. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2018.1441905. Epub 2018 Mar 4.
Empathy is a critical aspect of social behavior, and impairment in empathic processing is linked to hindered social interactions and several disorders. Despite much interest in this topic, our understanding of the developmental and neural involvement for empathic processing is limited. Recent evidence suggests the Mirror Neuron System (MNS) may play a role in this behavior, and that mu rhythm suppression found over the sensorimotor cortices may be a proxy for the MNS. Therefore, we aimed to measure mu rhythm oscillations in response to empathic processing during observation of painful action-based situations using electroencephalogram (EEG). Our second goal was to examine how perceived parental emotional invalidation (EI) during childhood may relate to empathy and influence mu suppression. Our results showed that mu rhythm suppression was strongest over the right hemisphere. EI had a significant influence on this suppression between painful and non-painful images, and was negatively correlated with behavioral measures of empathy. Our findings suggest that perceived childhood EI may decrease empathizing abilities and influence neural responses to the painful experiences of others. Implications from this study could entail clinical intervention targeted at emotional invalidation to foster the healthy development of empathy.
共情是社会行为的一个关键方面，共情加工受损与社会互动受阻及多种障碍有关。尽管对这一主题有诸多关注，但我们对共情加工的发展和神经参与的理解仍很有限。最近的证据表明，镜像神经元系统（MNS）可能在这种行为中起作用，并且在感觉运动皮层发现的μ节律抑制可能是MNS的一个替代指标。因此，我们旨在使用脑电图（EEG）测量在观察基于动作的痛苦情境时，对共情加工的反应中的μ节律振荡。我们的第二个目标是研究童年时期感知到的父母情感忽视（EI）如何与共情相关，并影响μ抑制。我们的结果表明，右半球的μ节律抑制最强。EI对痛苦和非痛苦图像之间的这种抑制有显著影响，并且与共情的行为测量呈负相关。我们的研究结果表明，童年时期感知到的EI可能会降低共情能力，并影响对他人痛苦经历的神经反应。这项研究的意义可能包括针对情感忽视的临床干预，以促进共情的健康发展。
