T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University , Tempe, USA.
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University , Tempe, USA.
Soc Neurosci. 2020 Jun;15(3):348-354. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2020.1722220. Epub 2020 Feb 4.
Empathy has been a key focus of social, developmental, and affective neuroscience for some time. However, research using neural measures to study empathy in response to social victimization is sparse, particularly for young children. In the present study, 58 children's (White, non-Hispanic; five to nine years old) mu suppression was measured using electroencephalogram methods (EEG) as they viewed video scenarios depicting social injustices toward White and Black children. We found evidence of increased mu suppression in response to social victimization; however, contrary to well-documented findings of ingroup racial bias in empathic responses among adults, we found no evidence of racial bias in mu suppression in young children. Implications of these findings for neuroscience research on empathy and the development of ingroup bias are discussed.
同理心一直是社会、发展和情感神经科学的一个关键焦点。然而，使用神经测量来研究对社会受害的同理心的研究很少，特别是对于幼儿。在本研究中，我们使用脑电图 (EEG) 方法测量了 58 名儿童（白种人，非西班牙裔；五到九岁）的 mu 抑制，当他们观看描述针对白人和黑人儿童的社会不公正的视频情景时。我们发现了对社会受害的反应中 mu 抑制增加的证据；然而，与成年人同理心反应中群体内种族偏见的已有充分记录的发现相反，我们没有发现幼儿 mu 抑制中存在种族偏见的证据。这些发现对同理心的神经科学研究和群体内偏见的发展具有启示意义。
