Neural Reactivity to Emotional Faces May Mediate the Relationship between Childhood Empathy and Adolescent Prosocial Behavior
Year: 2017
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Reactivity to others’ emotions can result in empathic concern (EC), an importantmotivator of prosocial behavior, but can also result in personal distress (PD), which may hinder prosocial behavior. Examining neural substrates of emotional reactivity may elucidate how EC and PD differentially influence prosocial behavior. Participants (N=57) provided measures of EC, PD, prosocial behavior, and neural responses to emotional expressions at age 10 and 13. Initial EC predicted subsequent prosocial behavior. Initial EC and PD predicted subsequent reactivity to emotions in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and inferior parietal lobule, respectively. Activity in the IFG, a region linked to mirror neuron processes, as well as cognitive control and language, mediated the relation between initial EC and subsequent prosocial behavior.
Institutions: University of Oregon, University of California, Los Angeles
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4409667744