Empathy for others versus for one's child: Associations with mothers' brain activation during a social cognitive task and with their toddlers' functioning

Caregivers who are higher in dispositional empathy tend to have children with better developmental outcomes; however, few studies have considered the role of child-directed (i.e., “parental”) empathy, which may be relevant for the caregiver–child relationship. We hypothesized that mothers’ parental empathy during their child’s infancy will be a stronger predictor of their child’s social-emotional functioning as a toddler than will mothers’ dispositional empathy. We further explored whether parental and dispositional empathy have shared or distinct patterns of neural activation during a social-cognitive movie-watching task. In 118 mother–infant dyads, greater parental empathy assessed when infants were 6 months old was associated with more social-emotional competencies and fewer problems in the children one year later, even after adjusting for dispositional empathy. In contrast, dispositional empathy was not associated with child functioning when controlling for parental empathy. In a subset of 20 mothers, insula activation was positively associated with specific facets of both dispositional and parental empathy, whereas right temporoparietal junction activation was associated only with parental empathy. Thus, dispositional and parental empathy appear to be dissociable by both brain and behavioral metrics. Parental empathy may be a viable target for interventions, especially for toddlers at risk for developing social-emotional difficulties.

Aging, Empathy, and Prosocial Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Previous literature has shown age-related increases in prosociality (i.e., the tendency to engage in behaviors that benefit others). Can such age-related differences be observed during the COVID-19 pandemic, or would young adults’ higher levels of COVID-19-related stress alter the relation between age and prosociality given the prior findings that stress may promote prosocial behaviors? Can empathy, one of the factors highly related to prosociality, explain any observed age-related differences? The current study examined the above questions, as well as whether age differences exist in target of prosocial behaviors (i.e., distant- versus close-others). To this end, participants (aged 18-89) enrolled in an ongoing study examining their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. They were asked to complete a series of surveys on dispositional empathy and prosocial behaviors during the pandemic. In the present analyses, the data were used from 330 participants from the USA who completed all of the surveys. Compared to younger adults, results indicate that older adults showed greater prosocial behaviors during the pandemic despite their higher risk of physical-health complications from COVID-19. Unexpectedly, empathy did not explain such age-related increases in prosocial behaviors even though it was positively related to individuals’ prosociality. Interestingly, older adults reported increased prosocial behaviors towards close-others (i.e., family, friends) compared to young adults, suggesting that older adults seem to devote more resources into emotionally meaningful relationships. The current study contributes to our understanding of how prosociality differs with age during the stressful period of need that marks the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dispositional empathy predicts primary somatosensory cortex activity while receiving touch by a hand

Previous research revealed an active network of brain areas such as insula and anterior cingulate cortex when witnessing somebody else in pain and feeling empathy. But numerous studies also suggested a role of the somatosensory cortices for state and trait empathy. While recent studies highlight the role of the observer’s primary somatosensory cortex when seeing painful or nonpainful touch, the interaction of somatosensory cortex activity with empathy when receiving touch on the own body is unknown. The current study examines the relationship of touch related somatosensory cortex activity with dispositional empathy by employing an fMRI approach. Participants were touched on the palm of the hand either by the hand of an experimenter or by a rubber hand. We found that the BOLD responses in the primary somatosensory cortex were associated with empathy personality traits personal distress and perspective taking. This relationship was observed when participants were touched both with the experimenter’s real hand or a rubber hand. What is the reason for this link between touch perception and trait empathy? We argue that more empathic individuals may express stronger attention both to other’s human perceptions as well as to the own sensations. In this way, higher dispositional empathy levels might enhance tactile processing by top-down processes. We discuss possible implications of these findings.

Empathy and Hormonal Changes as Predictors of Sensitive Responsiveness towards Infant Crying: A Study Protocol

Sensitive responsiveness refers to parents’ ability to recognize and respond to infants’ cues and has been linked to parental empathy. Additionally, oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) are hormones important for sensitivity and empathy. The aim of this study is to test the links between dispositional empathy along with changing OT and AVP levels and responsiveness to a life-like doll in couples and to verify whether these factors are predictors of responsiveness to a child’s cues. Exploratory analyses include predictors of sensitive responsiveness: polymorphisms of OXTR, AVPR1a and CD38 genes, personal characteristics and relational factors. The project employs standardized experimental settings that can be used with non-parents and the assessment of parental sensitive responsiveness towards their child. The participants are couples expecting their first child (111) and childless couples (110). The procedure involves caretaking of a life-like doll. Salivary samples and questionnaire data are collected in a planned manner. In the second part, the expectant couples are invited for the assessment of their sensitivity to their own child (Free Play episodes). Parental sensitivity is assessed using the Ainsworth Sensitivity Scale. This paper presents an interdisciplinary research project that reaches beyond the questionnaire measurement, considering many factors influencing the dynamics of adult–infant interaction.

Trait Empathy Shapes Neural Responses Toward Sad Music

Individuals with a predisposition to empathize engage with sad music in a compelling way, experiencing overall more pleasurable emotions. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these music-related experiences in empathic individuals are unknown. The present study tested whether dispositional empathy modulates neural responses to sad compared with happy music. Twenty-four participants underwent fMRI while listening to 4-min blocks of music evoking sadness or happiness. Using voxel-wise regression, we found a positive correlation between trait empathy (with scores assessed by the Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and eigenvector centrality values in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), including the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC). We then performed a functional connectivity (FC) analysis to detect network nodes showing stronger FC with the vmPFC/mOFC during the presentation of sad versus happy music. By doing so, we identified a “music-empathy” network (vmPFC/mOFC, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, primary visual cortex, bilateral claustrum and putamen, and cerebellum) that is spontaneously recruited while listening to sad music and includes brain regions that support the coding of compassion, mentalizing, and visual mental imagery. Importantly, our findings extend the current understanding of empathic behaviors to the musical domain and pinpoint sad music as an effective stimulus to be employed in social neuroscience research.

Dispositional Empathy and Emotional Intelligence in terms of Perfectionistic Automatic Thoughts

The maladaptive nature of Perfectionistic Automatic Thoughts (PAT) increases the importance of evaluating the construct. This study aims to identify different clusters of PAT in undergraduates, and to check possible inter-cluster differences in the dimensions of dispositional empathy and emotional intelligence in a sample of 691 Spanish undergraduates (Mage = 23.1; SD = 5.26). The Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Trait Meta-Mood Scale were used. Three clusters with low (LPAT), moderate (MPAT) and high (HPAT) levels of PAT were identified. Statistically significant differences were observed between these clusters in terms of dispositional empathy and emotional intelligence dimensions. HPAT significantly scored higher than LPAT on Fantasy, Empathic Concern, Personal Discomfort and Perception, as well as in comparison with MPAT on Fantasy, Empathic Concern, Personal Discomfort and Perception. Moreover, MPAT obtained significantly higher scores on Comprehension and Repair than LPAT. Effect sizes for these differences were of a small magnitude, except for the HPAT and LPAT contrasts, whose differences were of a moderate magnitude.

High Academic Self-Efficacy and Dispositional Empathy in Future Teachers

High perceived academic self-efficacy influences both subject performance and emotions of the subject. In turn, dispositional empathy implies a social and emotional adaptability towards the subject itself and those around them. This study aimed to analyze the differences in the mean dispositional empathy factors (i.e., perspective taking, fantasy, empathic concern and personal distress) between future teachers with high and low perceived academic self-efficacy, as well as the predictive capacity of dispositional empathy on high perceived academic self-efficacy, and the correlations between both dimensions. For this, a sample of 805 Spanish students of the Faculties of Education of the Universities of Alicante and Murcia was recruited. The Escala de Autoeficacia Percibida Específica de Situaciones Académicas was used to assess perceived academic self-efficacy and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index was used to analyze the dimensions of dispositional empathy. It was observed that high academic self-efficacy is more likely to present in people with a high level of perspective taking and fantasy (OR = 1.06 and 1.09, respectively) and less for those with personal discomfort (OR = 0.86). The other analyzes provided the same conclusions. In conclusion, it is important to develop perceived academic self-efficacy in undergraduates and future teachers due to the consequences that can lead to their classrooms.