Dispositional empathy as a driver of inter-individual neural phase synchrony

Abstract

Abstract In social neuroscience inter-individual neural phase synchrony has become a widely studied phenomenon, and has been linked to a variety of social outcomes. However, the cognitive processes underlying the emergence of this synchrony remain largely unknown. In this study, we used a two-person face-to-face collaborative task to investigate the potential of dispositional empathy—the general tendency of an individual to imagine and experience the feelings and experiences of others—as a driver of inter-individual neural synchrony during collaboration. Electroencephalography from 46 participants was used to examine phase synchrony, measured as circular correlation coefficients, between the two interacting individuals’ brain signals. We found significant inter-brain synchrony in the high alpha, beta, and gamma frequency bands. This synchrony was particularly prominent in the inter-brain connectivity measured between central regions and a range of other regions. Furthermore, a specific dimension of dispositional empathy, namely the collaborators’ tendency to transpose themselves imaginatively into the feelings and actions of others, predicted the level of synchrony in the beta and gamma frequency bands. Hence, we demonstrate that dispositional empathy plays a significant role in the emergence of inter-individual neural phase synchrony.