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An example of all six facial expressions from the top left picture: Happy, Sad, Angry, neutral, surprise and disgust, of both female and male actors. 138x258mm (96 x 96 DPI)
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Previous research has demonstrated that the Action-Observation Network (AON) is involved in both emotional-embodiment (empathy) and action-embodiment mechanisms. In this study, we hypothesized that interfering with the AON will impair action recognition and that this impairment will be modulated by empathy levels. In Experiment 1 (n = 90), particip...
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Citations
... Using these two dependent measures allowed us to examine the extent to which the effects of context and mimicry restriction vary with task demands (Barrett et al., 2007). In light of previous research showing that facial mimicry interacts with empathy (Jospe et al., 2018;Kosonogov et al., 2015;Hsu et al., 2018), and affects the perception of facial expression in a way similar to mood , we further included empathy and mood as control variables. Similar to Study 1, we predicted that smile judgments would be more strongly influenced by social context when mimicry is inhibited than free. ...
... Unlike the study of Maringer and colleagues (2011), the present experiments controlled for a number of potential confounds. Specifically, Study 2 included measures of participants' empathy levels and mood and accounted for their joint effects (Jospe et al., 2018;Niedenthal et al., 2001;Sessa et al., 2018). The effects of restricting facial mimicry on participants' smile judgments remained similar after controlling for these internal factors, suggesting that our findings cannot be explained by participants' lower mood or empathy levels. ...
Theoretical accounts and extant research suggest that people use various sources of information, including sensorimotor simulation and social context, while judging emotional displays. However, the evidence on how those factors can interplay is limited. The present research tested whether social context information has a greater impact on perceivers’ smile judgments when mimicry is experimentally restricted. In Study 1, participants watched images of affiliative smiles presented with verbal descriptions of situations associated with happiness or politeness. Half the participants could freely move their faces while rating the extent to which the smiles communicated affiliation, whereas for the other half mimicry was restricted via a pen-in-mouth procedure. As predicted, smiles were perceived as more affiliative when the social context was polite than when it was happy. Importantly, the effect of context information was significantly larger among participants who could not freely mimic the facial expressions. In Study 2 we replicated this finding using a different set of stimuli, manipulating context in a within-subjects design, and controlling for empathy and mood. Together, the findings demonstrate that mimicry importantly modulates the impact of social context information on smile perception.
... There is strong evidence that dance training enhances the action observation network (Amoruso et al., 2014;Burzynska et al., 2017a;Calvo-Merino et al., 2005, 2006Cross et al., 2006Cross et al., , 2009bDiersch et al., 2013;Gardner et al., 2015;Jang and Pollick, 2011;Jola et al., 2012Orgs et al., 2008;Pilgramm et al., 2010). The action observation network is associated with empathy (Jospe et al., 2020(Jospe et al., , 2018, enabling us to infer information about others' actions and intentions (Caspers et al., 2010;Cross et al., 2009b;Gardner et al., 2015), improve prediction of their future behaviour (Blakemore and Frith, 2005;Falck-Ytter et al., 2006;Hamilton, 2013;Hamilton and Grafton, 2006) and plan appropriate responses. These abilities are of prime importance in social interactions, and therefore in the formation and maintenance of social groups. ...
Ancient and culturally universal, dance pervades many areas of life and has multiple benefits. In this article, we provide a conceptual framework and systematic review, as a guide for researching the neuroscience of dance. We identified relevant articles following PRISMA guidelines, and summarised and evaluated all original results. We identified avenues for future research in: the interactive and collective aspects of dance; groove; dance performance; dance observation; and dance therapy. Furthermore, the interactive and collective aspects of dance constitute a vital part of the field but have received almost no attention from a neuroscientific perspective. Dance and music engage overlapping brain networks, including common regions involved in perception, action, and emotion. In music and dance, rhythm, melody, and harmony are processed in an active, sustained pleasure cycle giving rise to action, emotion, and learning, led by activity in specific hedonic brain networks. The neuroscience of dance is an exciting field, which may yield information concerning links between psychological processes and behaviour, human flourishing, and the concept of eudaimonia.
... In the same vein, previous studies showed as the observation of others' emotional movements involves the Action Observation Network-associated brain structures (i.e., the premotor cortex, the inferior parietal lobule, and the inferior frontal gyrus), suggesting that emotion recognition would be closely related to a mental simulation process that draws on one's own motor representations of such movements (Pichon et al., 2009;Sinke et al., 2010). Interestingly, a recent study by Jospe et al., (2018) found that participants with high empathy levels utilized the simulation process for facial expression recognition more optimally than participants with low empathy levels. ...
Mental representations with bodily contents or in various bodily formats have been suggested to play a pivotal role in social cognition, including empathy. However, there is a lack of systematic studies investigating, in the same sample of participants and using an individual differences approach, whether and to what extent the sensorimotor, perceptual, and interoceptive representations of the body could fulfill an explanatory role in the empathic abilities.To address this goal, we carried out two studies in which healthy adults were given measures of interoceptive sensibility (IS), action (aBR), and nonaction-oriented body representations (NaBR), and affective, cognitive, and motor empathy. A higher tendency to be self-focused on interoceptive signals predicted higher affective, cognitive, and motor empathy levels. A better performance in tasks probing aBR and NaBR predicted, respectively, higher motor and cognitive empathy levels.These findings support the view that the various facets of the empathic response are differently grounded in the body since they diversely involve representations with a different bodily format.Individual differences in the focus on one’s internal body state representation can directly modulate all the components of the empathic experience. Instead, a body representation used interpersonally to represent both one’s own body and others’ bodies, in particular in its spatial specificity, could be necessary to accurately understand other people’s minds (cognitive empathy), while a sensorimotor body representation used to represent both one’s own body and others’ bodies actions, could be fundamental for the self-awareness of feelings expressed in actions (motor empathy).
... Accordingly, empathy can offer a platform for learning how to interact with others that may be struggling emotionally (Walter and Shenaar-Golan, 2018). Research has found that empaths are capable of reading and imitating facial expressions (Jospe et al., 2018), allowing them to understand another person's feelings without verbal confirmation. Because of these important interpersonal effects, emotional management strategies such as empathy is a vital skill to increase cross-cultural performance. ...
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are being built into the fabric of today’s organizations, and utilizing such a lens is vital to understanding cross-cultural performance. Yet, most of the culture and diversity literature has grown in silos and is therefore not leveraging the many benefits that their integration could provide. To counter this gap, we advance a theoretical framework featuring a new definition of cross-cultural performance (CCP) from a DEI perspective, as a new angle for doing work across cultures. Specifically, CCP is defined as the integration of multiple cultural perspectives of individuals who work together with the goal of enabling a diverse, inclusive, and equitable work environment. By applying the DEI lens to CCP, we elevate the meaning of performance due to added consideration of compositional differences, the possible barriers to employees’ success, and the extent to which others’ perspectives are indeed valued. Accordingly, our framework identifies three main components of CCP: catalyzing cultural differences, taking part in engaging communication, and promoting allyship activities. Furthermore, we specify emotional management as the glue of these three components, and key outcomes at different levels of analysis. Last, we discuss the implications of our framework to both theory and practice as well as directions for future research.
... In addition, studies should have had an emotional processing task through images with facial expressions, for one or more emotions. This, because the evidence indicates that empathy mediates facial expression recognition tasks (Jospe et al., 2018). Studies should have had used fMRI and had 3D coordinates for the peaks. ...
... It is important to emphasize that we chose to select only studies that employed tasks involving the observation of facial expressions because of the involvement of mirror neurons in their processing (Bastiaansen et al., 2009) and to the mediation of empathy in this type of task (Jospe et al., 2018). However, other tasks involving the observation of hand or foot interactions (Fectau et al, 2008;Marsh et al., 2013), as well as tasks assessing morality Yoder et al., 2015), ToM (Gao et al., 2019;Sommer et al., 2010) and perspective taking (Decety, Chen et al., 2013;Decety et al., 2009;Mier et al., 2014) have also been used to assess brain activity in people with traits of psychopathy. ...
Mirror neurons have been associated with empathy. People with psychopathic traits present low levels of empathy. To analyze this, a systematic review of fMRI studies of people with psychopathic traits during an emotional facial expression processing task was performed. The regions of interest were structures associated with the mirror neuron system: ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), inferior parietal lobe (IPL), inferior frontal gyrus and superior temporal sulcus. The analysis was also extended to structures related to affective empathy (insula, amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex) and to two more emotional processing areas (orbitofrontal cortex and fusiform gyrus). Hypoactivation was more frequently observed in regions of the mirror neuron system from people with high psychopathic traits, as well as in the emotional processing structures, and those associated with affective empathy, except for the insula, where it presented higher activity. Differences were observed for all types of emotions. The results suggest that the mirror neuron system is altered in psychopathy and their relationship with affective empathy deficits is discussed.
... Many previous studies have observed a link between empathy and the ability to successfully interpret emotional cues presented by others in our social environment. This has been observed across emotion recognition tasks using a variety of social cues; including faces, voices, body postures, and body movements (Balconi & Bortolotti, 2012;Besel & Yuille, 2010;Holland et al., 2021;Israelashvili et al., 2020;Jospe et al., 2018;Neumann et al., 2014;Rizzolatti & Craighero, 2005;Soto & Levenson, 2009). This link is even clearer when considering Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). ...
The ability to exchange affective cues with others plays a key role in our ability to create and maintain meaningful social relationships. We express our emotions through a variety of socially salient cues, including facial expressions, the voice, and body movement. While significant advances have been made in our understanding of verbal and facial communication, to date, understanding of the role played by human body movement in our social interactions remains incomplete. To this end, here we describe the creation and validation of a new set of emotionally expressive whole-body dance movement stimuli, named the Motion Capture Norming (McNorm) Library, which was designed to reconcile a number of limitations associated with previous movement stimuli. This library comprises a series of point-light representations of a dancer’s movements, which were performed to communicate to observers neutrality, happiness, sadness, anger, and fear. Based on results from two validation experiments, participants could reliably discriminate the intended emotion expressed in the clips in this stimulus set, with accuracy rates up to 60% (chance = 20%). We further explored the impact of dance experience and trait empathy on emotion recognition and found that neither significantly impacted emotion discrimination. As all materials for presenting and analysing this movement library are openly available, we hope this resource will aid other researchers in further exploration of affective communication expressed by human bodily movement.
... Heyes, 2018), and these responses can in turn prepare one for action (e.g., escape or prosocial responses). Automatic reactions such as mimicking ( Jospe et al., 2018) are evident even when the target is not present. For example, people can share the distress of victims they observe on the news even if they have no previous knowledge of these peoples and no chance of interacting with them in the future. ...
... One example of a model-free feedback mechanism of adaptive empathy is synchronization. Although the empathizer initially uses automatic mimicry in an openloop manner ( Jospe et al., 2018), over time the behavior of the empathizer becomes aligned and synchronized with that of the target. During synchronization, empathizers can adjust their body posture, tone of voice, and the content of their advice to the target ( Barrett-Lennard, 1981), thus potentially relieving the target's distress (Kühn et al.,2010(Kühn et al., , 2011Ramseyer & Tschacher, 2011). ...
Empathy is usually deployed in social interactions. Nevertheless, common measures and examinations of empathy study this construct in isolation from the person in distress. In this article we seek to extend the field of examination to include both empathizer and target to determine whether and how empathic responses are affected by feedback and learned through interaction. Building on computational approaches in feedback-based adaptations (e.g., no feedback, model-free and model-based learning), we propose a framework for understanding how empathic responses are learned on the basis of feedback. In this framework, adaptive empathy, defined as the ability to adapt one's empathic responses, is a central aspect of empathic skills and can provide a new dimension to the evaluation and investigation of empathy. By extending existing neural models of empathy, we suggest that adaptive empathy may be mediated by interactions between the neural circuits associated with valuation, shared distress, observation-execution, and mentalizing. Finally, we propose that adaptive empathy should be considered a prominent facet of empathic capabilities with the potential to explain empathic behavior in health and psychopathology.
... Indeed, along with interoception, AI contributes to emotions processing (A. D. Craig, 2011;Gu et al., 2013;Krolak-Salmon et al., 2003;Kurth et al., 2010), and the TPJ to the third-person perspective taking (Babo-Rebelo et al., 2019;Martin et al., 2020;Vogeley & Fink, 2003), whereas embodiment and empathy are closely associated (Gangopadhyay, 2014;Gieser, 2008;Jospe et al., 2018;Zahavi, 2010). This might be a clue that deep SPS are greatly anchored in self-related processes, notably maintaining homeostasis, and localizing oneself within one's body. ...
: De récentes études ont dévoilé l’existence d’un phénomène somatosensoriel au repos lorsque l’attention est dirigée sur le corps : la perception spontanée de sensations à la surface de la peau. Ce phénomène intrigue par plusieurs aspects. En effet, la phénoménologie de ces sensations est identique à la perception tactile. Pourtant, rien ne semble les provoquer, puisqu’elles sont ressenties sur le corps immobile et préservé de tout contact externe. Quelle est donc la source de ces signaux ? Comment ces sensations si discrètes arrivent-elles à entrer en conscience ? Et surtout, pourquoi les percevons-nous ? La confrontation à la littérature de la conscience corporelle nous a permis de détecter un manque de connaissance fondamentale : les divers modèles existants conçoivent majoritairement la conscience du corps comme le traitement de signaux physiologiques périphériques, et entretiennent un flou artistique sur les étapes amenant ces signaux à la conscience. Seule la théorie attentionnelle de la conscience corporelle postule l’existence d’un environnement interne de sensations corporelles, dont les traces reflèteraient l’activité de mécanismes somatosensoriels centraux. Ce travail de thèse a ainsi porté de front deux objectifs : mieux comprendre la nature des sensations spontanées, et décrire les mécanismes à l’œuvre dans leur perception. Par ce biais, nous avons ainsi cherché à enrichir les connaissances théoriques fondamentales sur les tenants et aboutissants de la conscience corporelle. Trois axes ont été proposés. Le premier confronte l’origine périphérique et centrale des sensations spontanées, le deuxième s’intéresse au rôle de certains mécanismes cognitifs responsable de l’accès en conscience corporelle, et le troisième approfondit la question des corrélats neuraux des sensations spontanées. Dans ces différents travaux nous avons adopté une approche unique : corréler les caractéristiques de sensations spontanées perçues à un instant T à des traits cognitifs/comportementaux ou électroencéphalographiques (EEG) extraits séparément. Outre l’approche cognitiviste, nous avons donc aussi emprunté à la physiologie et aux neurosciences, afin de diversifier nos mesures et d’apporter des éléments de réponses suffisants à nos interrogations. Les résultats obtenus nous permettent de défendre l’existence d’un phénomène somatosensoriel hallucinatoire chez l’individu lambda, mais nécessaire à la conscience corporelle. Nous montrons également que l’émergence de ce phénomène dépend de mécanismes non- spécifiques au corps : nous spécifions le rôle des processus attentionnels centraux, et apportons pour la première fois des preuves de l’investissement de la mémoire de travail visuospatiale. Nous concluons ce travail en proposant un modèle de la conscience corporelle, intégrant l’ensemble des travaux présentés dans un tout cohérent.
... The Art and Science of Embodied Research Design Tantia 2020 gestures (Jospe, et al., 2018). It could also help to elucidate findings from studies like the phantom limb experiment (Ramachandron & Ramachandron, 2000). ...
The concept of embodiment, or the lived experience of
the body, has become an important focus of scholarly
attention across psychology, sociology, philosophy, and
cultural studies. Addressing the inherent challenges of
researching the lived experience of the body, this edited
volume brings together experienced scholars who conduct
and teach embodied research to and establish effective
strategies for exploring experience through nonverbal
communication, subjective sensory and proprioceptive
states, and body-centered imagery. It represents a thorough
and comprehensive resource for students conducting
research using an embodied approach and for instructors
that teach embodied inquiry.
... These studies facilitated the essential behavioral and neural differentiation of empathy components and provided several classifications of empathic abilities, the most prevalent of which is the distinction between emotional and cognitive empathy (10,11). Emotional empathy includes sharing of another's emotions, as well as emotional contagion, a condition in which one feels emotions detected in others (12)(13)(14)(15). Cognitive empathy involves mentalizing and identifying another's thoughts and feelings (16), understanding another's perspective (11), as well as inferring and attributing mental states or traits to specific persons (17,18). ...
Empathy allows us to respond to the emotional state of another person. Considering that an empathic interaction may last beyond the initial response, learning mechanisms may be involved in dynamic adaptation of the reaction to the changing emotional state of the other person. However, traditionally, empathy is assessed through sets of isolated reactions to another's distress. Here we address this gap by focusing on adaptive empathy, defined as the ability to learn and adjust one's empathic responses based on feedback. For this purpose, we designed a novel paradigm of associative learning in which participants chose one of two empathic strategies (reappraisal or distraction) to attenuate the distress of a target person, where one strategy had a higher probability of relieving distress. After each choice, participants received feedback about the success of their chosen strategy in relieving the target person's distress, which they could use to inform their future decisions. The results show that the participants made more accurate choices in the adaptive empathy condition than in a non-social control condition, pointing to an advantage for learning from social feedback. We found a correlation between adaptive empathy and a trait measure of cognitive empathy. These findings indicate that the ability to learn about the effectiveness of empathic responses may benefit from incorporating mentalizing abilities. Our findings provide a lab-based model for studying adaptive empathy and point to the potential contribution of learning theory to enhancing our understanding of the dynamic nature of empathy.
