Effects of trait empathy and expectation on the processing of observed actions.

ABSTRACT: Recent evidence suggests that the processing of observed actions may reflect an action prediction error, with more pronounced mediofrontal negative event-related potentials (ERPs) for unexpected actions. This evidence comes from an application of a false-belief task, where unexpected correct responses elicited high ERP amplitudes. An alternative interpretation is that the ERP component reflects vicarious error processing, as objectively correct responses were errors from the observed person's perspective. In this study, we aimed to disentangle the two possibilities by adding the factor task difficulty, which varied expectations without affecting the definition of (vicarious) errors, and to explore the role of empathy in action observation. We found that the relationship between empathy and

SUBMITTER: Albrecht C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7994233 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature