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

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Empathic interactions reduce distress through emotional convergence and neural coupling. Interbrain synchrony in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) mediates empathy

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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.