1. Neural Reactivity to Emotional Faces May Mediate the Relationship Between Childhood Empathy and Adolescent Prosocial Behavior
- Author
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Flournoy, John C, Pfeifer, Jennifer H, Moore, William E, Tackman, Allison M, Masten, Carrie L, Mazziotta, John C, Iacoboni, Marco, and Dapretto, Mirella
- Subjects
Biological Psychology ,Psychology ,Clinical Research ,Neurosciences ,Basic Behavioral and Social Science ,Behavioral and Social Science ,Mental Health ,Mind and Body ,Adolescent ,Adolescent Behavior ,Child ,Emotions ,Empathy ,Executive Function ,Facial Expression ,Female ,Follow-Up Studies ,Humans ,Male ,Prefrontal Cortex ,Social Behavior ,Cognitive Sciences ,Developmental & Child Psychology ,Specialist studies in education ,Applied and developmental psychology - Abstract
Reactivity to others' emotions not only can result in empathic concern (EC), an important motivator 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 ages 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.
- Published
- 2016