School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China.
School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China; Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior of the Ministry of Education and School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China.
Biol Psychol. 2023 Jan;176:108467. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108467. Epub 2022 Nov 28.
Empathy for others' pain plays a critical role in human social interactions; however, the influence of moral transgression remains unclear. We examined the effect of moral transgression on the behavioral and underlying neural processes of empathy for others' pain. Participants performed a pain-empathy task separately in a moral transgression condition and a neutral behavior condition, while an electroencephalogram was recorded. Event-related potential (ERP) results showed that empathic response, as reflected in the late positive component, was smaller when participants performed the task in the moral transgression condition than in the neutral behavior condition. Time-frequency results also showed decreased empathic effect on the beta event-related desynchronization response in the moral transgression as compared to the neutral behavior condition. However, empathic response as reflected in the N2 component was comparable between the moral conditions. These findings demonstrate a moral transgression effect on both cognitive evaluations and sensorimotor processes of empathy for others' pain. Furthermore, spontaneous alpha-oscillation power recorded prior to the onset of empathy-inducing stimuli was significantly higher in the moral transgression condition than in the neutral behavior condition. Consequently, differences in sustained attention may be the physiological foundation of the impact of moral transgression of the observed person on the cognitive and sensorimotor processes of empathy for pain.
对他人痛苦的同理心在人类社会互动中起着至关重要的作用；然而，道德违规的影响仍不清楚。我们研究了道德违规对他人痛苦同理心的行为和潜在神经过程的影响。参与者在道德违规条件和中性行为条件下分别进行疼痛同理心任务，同时记录脑电图。事件相关电位（ERP）结果表明，当参与者在道德违规条件下完成任务时，同理心反应（反映在晚期正成分中）比在中性行为条件下小。时频结果还表明，与中性行为条件相比，道德违规条件下β事件相关去同步反应的同理心效应降低。然而，反映在 N2 成分中的同理心反应在道德条件之间是可比的。这些发现表明，道德违规对他人痛苦同理心的认知评价和感觉运动过程都有影响。此外，在引起同理心的刺激出现之前记录的自发 alpha 振荡功率在道德违规条件下显著高于中性行为条件。因此，持续注意力的差异可能是观察到的人的道德违规对疼痛同理心的认知和感觉运动过程的影响的生理基础。
