Mu rhythm suppression over sensorimotor regions is associated with greater empathic accuracy.

ABSTRACT: When people encounter others' emotions, they engage multiple brain systems, including parts of the sensorimotor cortex associated with motor simulation. Simulation-related brain activity is commonly described as a 'low-level' component of empathy and social cognition. It remains unclear whether and how sensorimotor simulation contributes to complex empathic judgments. Here, we combine a naturalistic social paradigm with a reliable index of sensorimotor cortex-based simulation: electroencephalography suppression of oscillatory activity in the mu frequency band. We recruited participants to watch naturalistic video clips of people ('targets') describing emotional life events. In two experiments, participants viewed these clips (i) with video and sound, (ii) with only video or (iii) with only

SUBMITTER: Genzer S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9433844 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature