biostudies-literatureOosterwijk SEuropean Union Seventh Framework Programme1025-1035https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC5490677biostudies-literatureUnknown12(7)The present study tested whether the neural patterns that support imagining 'performing an action', 'feeling a bodily sensation' or 'being in a situation' are directly involved in understanding other people's actions, bodily sensations and situations. Subjects imagined the content of short sentences describing emotional actions, interoceptive sensations and situations (self-focused task), and processed scenes and focused on how the target person was expressing an emotion, what this person was feeling, and why this person was feeling an emotion (other-focused task). Using a linear support vector machine classifier on brain-wide multi-voxel patterns, we accurately decoded each individual class in the self-focused task. When generalizing the classifier from the self-focused task to the other-Social cognitive and affective neuroscienceShared states: using MVPA to test neural overlap between self-focused emotion imagery and other-focused emotion understanding.PMC5490677275214Snoek LScholte HSOosterwijk SRotteveel MBarrett LFfalseShared states: using MVPA to test neural overlap between self-focused emotion imagery and other-focused emotion understanding.The present study tested whether the neural patterns that support imagining 'performing an action', 'feeling a bodily sensation' or 'being in a situation' are directly involved in understanding other people's actions, bodily sensations and situations. Subjects imagined the content of short sentences describing emotional actions, interoceptive sensations and situations (self-focused task), and processed scenes and focused on how the target person was expressing an emotion, what this person was feeling, and why this person was feeling an emotion (other-focused task). Using a linear support vector machine classifier on brain-wide multi-voxel patterns, we accurately decoded each individual class in the self-focused task. When generalizing the classifier from the self-focused task to the other-2017-01-01T00:00:00Z2017 Jul2025-04-19T13:34:44.921Z2019-03-27T00:11:19ZS-EPMC54906772847575610.1093/scan/nsx037