The association between ballroom dance training and empathic concern: Behavioral and brain evidence

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Dance Science

Background:

• Dance uniquely blends sport and art, potentially enhancing cognitive and emotional functions.
• Duo dance training may foster dancers' ability to understand and share partners' emotions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between long-term duo dance training and empathy.
• To explore the neural mechanisms underlying empathy in expert ballroom dancers.

Main Methods:

• Collected structural and resting-state functional MRI data from 43 expert ballroom dancers and 40 controls.
• Assessed empathic ability using a self-report trait empathy scale.
• Correlated behavioral empathy scores with neuroimaging data and dance experience.

Main Results:

• Ballroom dancers scored higher in empathic concern (EC) than controls.
• EC scores correlated positively with years dancing with partners and negatively with the number of partners.
• Gray matter volume in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) correlated with EC.
• Functional connectivity between ACC and occipital gyrus correlated with EC and years with dance partners.
• ACC-occipital gyrus connectivity mediated the relationship between years with partners and EC.

Conclusions:

• Long-term ballroom dance training is closely linked to enhanced empathy.
• Specific brain structures and functional connectivity patterns support this link.
• Dance training may modulate neural mechanisms underlying empathic abilities.