Empathy and the Mirror Neuron System: An Electroencephalographic Study

Specific Aims: Empathy, the ability to feel and understand another’s pain, pleasure, and feelings is vital to surviving the social circus of everyday life. The idea of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes is at the core of human relationships. Empathy is why charity is possible, why people go out of their way to selflessly help others in need, or why people can connect with each other on an emotional level. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of the human Mirror Neuron System (hMNS) in empathy. The mirror neuron system is a group of brain areas that consist of unique neurons. These neurons were found to have “mirroring qualities”, in that the neurons exhibited analogous activity when performing an action, or observing the same or similar action being performed. The human MNS has also been implicated in social functions, including empathy. This study will allow us to observe whether hMNS activity, as measured by changes in EEG rhythmic oscillations in the 8-13 Hz band over sensorimotor cortex, during an empathy task is correlated with empathic function. We will take normal-functioning UCSD students from each end of the empathizing-systemizing quotient (EQ-SQ) scale and observe their MNS activity during an emotional face-empathy task. Given that this difference in individual trait empathy may be reflected in differences 8-13 Hz rhythm, the two groups ought to show significant differences in the functional neuroanatomy of empathy. The specific aims of this study are to test the following hypotheses: The empathizing group will show differential activation compared to the systemizing group That the empathizers will exhibit increased MNS activation during the empathy tasks, reflected in the EEG data.