It takes two to empathize: Interbrain coupling contributes to distress regulation.

Area of Science:

• Social Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Affective Science

Background:

• Existing research on empathy focuses on observer responses to distress.
• The role of empathizer-target interaction in target distress regulation is unclear.
• Behavioral and neural coupling may diminish distress during empathic interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how behavioral and neural coupling during empathic interactions influence target distress regulation.
• To explore the mediating role of interbrain coupling in the relationship between empathy and distress relief.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 37 pairs of unacquainted participants for a 5-minute face-to-face emotional sharing task.
• Utilized functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure interbrain coupling in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG).
• Assessed emotional convergence and target distress relief.

Main Results:

• Participants exhibited emotional convergence, with empathizers becoming sadder.
• Higher empathy levels predicted emotional convergence and target distress relief.
• Interbrain coupling in the dlPFC, IFG, and premotor cortex predicted distress relief, with dlPFC coupling mediating the empathy-distress relief link.

Conclusions:

• Dyadic emotional sharing leads to distress regulation in the target.
• Interbrain coupling, particularly in the dlPFC, is crucial for this dyadic coregulation of distress.
• The findings highlight the importance of neural synchrony in emotion regulation within social interactions.