Exploring empathic space: correlates of perspective transformation ability and biases in spatial attention

Separate lines of research have noted recruitment of parietal cortex during tasks involving visuo-spatial processes and empathy. To explore the relationship between these two functions, a self-other perspective transformation task and a task of spatial attention (line bisection) were administered to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2009-06, Vol.4 (6), p.e5864-e5864
Main Authors: Thakkar, Katharine N, Brugger, Peter, Park, Sohee
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Asymmetry
Attention
Attention task
Brain - physiology
Brain Mapping
Cognition
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive ability
Correlation
Cortex (parietal)
Emotions
Empathy
Female
Gender aspects
Genetic disorders
Hemispheric laterality
Humans
Male
Mediation
Medical imaging
Neuropsychology
Neuroscience/Behavioral Neuroscience
Neuroscience/Experimental Psychology
Neuroscience/Psychology
Personality
Psychology
Recruitment
Sex differences
Sex Factors
Social Behavior
Space Perception
Studies
Surveys and Questionnaires
Transformation
Transformations (mathematics)
Visual Perception
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Summary:Separate lines of research have noted recruitment of parietal cortex during tasks involving visuo-spatial processes and empathy. To explore the relationship between these two functions, a self-other perspective transformation task and a task of spatial attention (line bisection) were administered to 40 healthy participants (19 women). Performance on these tasks was examined in relation to self-reported empathy. Rightward biases in line bisection correlated positively with trait-level self-reported empathic concern, suggesting a left hemisphere mediation of this prosocial personality trait. Unexpectedly, speed of perspective taking in the self-other transformation task correlated negatively with empathic concern, but only in women, which we interpret in light of gender differences in empathy and strategies for egocentric mental transformations. Together, the findings partially support the commonalities in visuo-spatial attention, perspective-taking and empathy. More broadly, they shed additional light on the relationship between basic cognitive functions and complex social constructs.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0005864