Echoing the emotions of others: empathy is related to how adults and children map emotion onto the body

ABSTRACT

Empathy involves a mapping between the emotions observed in others and those experienced in one’s self. However, effective social functioning also requires an ability to differentiate one’s own emotional state from that of others. Here, we sought to examine the relationship between trait measures of empathy and the self-other distinction during emotional experience in both children and adults. We used a topographical self-report method (emBODY tool) in which participants drew on a silhouette of a human body where they felt an emotional response while watching film and music clips, as well as where they believed the character in the film or performer was feeling an emotion. We then assessed how the degree of overlap between the bodily representation of self versus other emotions related to trait empathy. In adults, the degree of overlap in the body maps was correlated with Perspective Taking. This relationship between cognitive empathy and degree of overlap between self and other was also found with children (8–11 years old), even though children performed worse on the task overall. The results suggest that mapping emotions observed or imagined in other’s bodies onto our own is related to the development of empathy.     

Affective valence and P300 when stimulus arousal level is controlled

Visual stimuli from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) were employed in a modified oddball paradigm to elicit the P300 event-related brain potential (ERP) in young adult females (N=12). The pictures varied on valence (negative, neutral, positive) ratings but had the same medium arousal level ratings. The images were presented as targets with a standard stimulus composed of red/white triangles designed to mimic the spatial frequency of the pictures. P300 amplitude from negative relative to neutral stimuli was smaller over frontal areas, whereas amplitude from positive relative to neutral stimuli did not differ. P300 amplitude differences among valence categories were consistent across the midline electrodes, and did not change over the parietal area where arousal effects are typically observed. The findings suggest that valence affects P300 frontal amplitude, and arousal level should be controlled when using emotional stimuli to elicit ERPs. Theoretical implications are discussed.     

Detail-oriented cognitive style and social communicative deficits,within and beyond the autism spectrum: Independent traits that grow into developmental interdependence

At the heart of debates over underlying causes of autism is the “Kanner hypothesis” that autistic deficits in social reciprocity, and a cognitive/perceptual ‘style’ favouring detail-oriented cognition, co-vary in autistic individuals. A separate line of work indicates these two domains are normally distributed throughout the population, with autism representing an extremity. This realisation brings the Kanner debate into the realm of normative co-variation, providing more ways to test the hypothesis, and insights into typical development; for instance, in the context of normative functioning, the Kanner hypothesis implies social costs to spatial/numerical prowess. In light of this growing body of research, we review relevant factor analytic and correlational, behavioural studies. Findings are then synthesised into three themes: an alternative triad of primary autistic trait categories – Social Interaction Deficits, Cognitive Inflexibility, and Sensory Abnormalities – that more accurately reflects the factor structure of autistic traits; continuity between clinical and non-clinical autism-spectrum trait presentation; and indications that although social and non-social autistic traits may be initially independent, Kanner-like co-variance emerges behaviourally from dynamic trait interactions over the course of development. A dynamic developmental model subsuming these patterns is offered, and its advantages demonstrated in a novel account of ritualistic behaviours: as developmentally emergent, compensatory mechanisms for interactions between cognitive inflexibility and sensory abnormalities. We conclude with the broader imperative that behavioural scientists appealing for directly and exclusively genetic links may instead benefit from a developmental framing within their own discipline.     

An fMRI investigation of posttraumatic flashbacks

Flashbacks are a defining feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but there have been few studies of their neural basis. We tested predictions from a dual representation model of PTSD that, compared with ordinary episodic memories of the same traumatic event, flashbacks would be associated with activity in dorsal visual stream and related areas rather than in the medial temporal lobe. Participants with PTSD, with depression but not PTSD, and healthy controls were scanned during a recognition task with personally relevant stimuli. The contrast of flashbacks versus ordinary episodic trauma memories in PTSD was associated with increased activation in sensory and motor areas including the insula, precentral gyrus, supplementary motor area, and mid-occipital cortex. The same contrast was associated with decreased activation in the midbrain, parahippocampal gyrus, and precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex. The results were discussed in terms of theories of PTSD and dual-process models of recognition.     

Evidence for spatial navigational impairments in hydrocephalus patients without spina bifida

The cognitive sequelae of hydrocephalus have mostly been explored with standardised clinical tasks. The aim of the present research was determine whether impairments on these abstract tasks extend to everyday spatial and navigational behaviour. Patients with hydrocephalus, but without spina bifida, were compared to a control group on tests of searching behaviour, landmark memory, route learning, and path integration. Participants with hydrocephalus displayed reduced sensitivity to spatial cueing, less accurate route-learning, and significantly less accurate spatial updating. These data represent an important empirical demonstration of spatial navigational impairments due to hydrocephalus outside of the context of spina bifida. We discuss some of the cognitive, neural, and individual differences factors that might contribute to this particular pattern of impairments.     

Aging ebbs the flow of thought: Adult age differences in mind wandering,executive control,and self-evaluation

Two experiments examined the relations among adult aging, mind wandering, and executive-task performance, following from surprising laboratory findings that older adults report fewer task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs) than do younger adults (e.g., Giambra, 1989, Jackson and Balota, 2012). Because older adults may experience more ability- and performance-related worry during cognitive tasks in the laboratory, and because these evaluative thoughts (known as task-related interference, “TRI”) might be sometimes misclassified by subjects as task-related, we asked subjects to distinguish task-related thoughts from TRI and TUTs when probed during ongoing tasks. In Experiment 1, younger and older adults completed either a go/no-go or a vigilance version of a sustained attention to response task (SART). Older adults reported more TRI and fewer TUTs than did younger adults while also performing more accurately. In Experiment 2, subjects completed either a 1- or a 2-back version of the n-back task. Older adults again reported more TRI and fewer TUTs than younger adults in both versions, while performing better than younger adults in the 1-back and worse in the 2-back. Across experiments, older adults' reduced TUT rates were independent of performance relative to younger adults. And, although older adults consistently reported more TRI and less mind wandering than did younger adults, overall they reported more on-task thoughts. TRI cannot, therefore, account completely for prior reports of decreasing TUTs with aging. We discuss the implications of these results for various theoretical approaches to mind-wandering.     

Reconciling the Stoic and the Sceptic: Hume on Philosophy as a Way of Life and the Plurality of Happy Lives

On the one hand, Hume accepts the view – which he attributes primarily to Stoicism – that there exists a determinate best and happiest life for human beings, a way of life led by a figure whom Hume calls ‘the true philosopher’. On the other hand, Hume accepts that view – which he attributes to Scepticism – that there exists a vast plurality of good and happy lives, each potentially equally choiceworthy. In this paper, I reconcile Hume's apparently conflicting commitments: I argue that Hume's ‘Sceptical’ pluralism about the character of the happiest life need not conflict with his ‘Stoic’ advocacy of the supreme happiness of the true philosopher, given Hume's flexible understanding of how one might live as a true philosopher.     

Within-session spacing improves delayed recall in children

Multiple retrievals of a memory over a spaced manner improve long-term memory performance in infants, children, younger and older adults; however, few studies have examined spacing effects with young school-age children. To expand the understanding of the spacing benefit in children, the current study presented weakly associated English word-pairs to children aged 7–11 and cued their recall two times immediately (massed), after a delay of 5 or 10 items (spaced) or not at all (control). After this encoding session with or without two retrievals, participants were tested two times for memory of all word-pairs: immediately and 30 minutes after the encoding session. Multiple retrievals significantly improved memory on the tests. However, words repeated in a spaced design were remembered at higher rates than those that were massed, while gap size between repetitions (5 or 10) did not differentially impact performance. The data show that a within-session spacing strategy can benefit children's ability to remember word-pairs after 30 minutes. Thus, asking students to recall what they have learned within a lesson is a technique that can be used in a classroom to improve long-term recall.     

The Existential Sources of Phenomenology: Heidegger on Formal Indication

Abstract: This article contributes to the contemporary debate regarding the young Heidegger's method of formal indication. Theodore Kisiel argues that this method constitutes a radical break with Husserl—a rejection of phenomenological reflection that paves the way to the non‐reflective approach of the Beiträge. Against this view, Steven Crowell argues that formal indication is continuous with Husserlian phenomenology—a refinement of phenomenological reflection that reveals its existential sources. I evaluate this debate and adduce further considerations in favor of Crowell's view. To do so, I analyze the young Heidegger's account of phenomenological communication and argue that it further reflects the continuity that Crowell identifies: as he does with reflection, Heidegger refines Husserl's account of phenomenological communication and sheds light on its existential sources.