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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MEMPATHY (At first INsight: how our memories shape empathy for othersâ€™ physical pain)

Teaser

Summary

MEMPATHYâ€™s objective was to determine whether we use our past experiences (i.e., autobiographical memory) when empathizing with othersâ€™ physical pain.
Empathy is the ability to share and to understand othersâ€™ inner states and thoughts. Autobiographical memory defines who we are. Both empathy and autobiographical memory collected through past social interactions are a building block of human social cognition and therefore have a huge impact on new interacting behavior that ultimately nourishes a sense of inclusion and integration.
In a European society characterized by migration enhancement and demographic disparity, such as ageing population, diversity, discrimination and psychological distance are in the spotlight. Addressing issues related to the ability to reduce borders between individuals, i.e. empathy, has the final aim of promoting solidarity and cooperation through effective human interactions.
Since both memories and empathy contribute to improve social interactions, MEMPATHY aimed at providing a crucial increase of knowledge by studying the relation between autobiographical memory and empathy. However, providing a clear-cut picture of how our past experiences influence our ability to empathize with others is transversely crucial not only to inform theories of empathy and memory, but it has the ultimate goal of informing all those professions that work with people in need, as in the health and social sectors.

Work performed

The project was meant to establish the relation between empathy and memory that are two functions at the foundation of social cognition.
Although supporting the idea that memory interacts with empathy in building a representation of othersâ€™ inner states, clear-cut evidence of how, if so, this happens had never been shown. The project used state-of-the art computational technique applied to neuroimaging data and was critical to show the online reactivation of past memories in empathy.
The project comprised two studies, both using neuroimaging techniques, which could draw a complete picture of whether and how the brain engages autobiographical memory when empathizing.
The first study used the Electroencephalography (EEG), which is a neuroimaging technique that records non-invasively, the electrical activity spontaneously generated by the brain from electrodes safely placed on the scalp. This technique can show with infinitesimal temporal precision when information is processed in the brain. The recording was obtained while participants were performing two tasks. The first task was meant to induce an empathic reaction for physical pain as described by a simple sentence. The episodes described by the sentences could include scenes of participantsâ€™ autobiographical experience (collected in a pre-screening phase). Participantsâ€™ task was to provide an explicit judgement of their empathy awareness for an individual depicted in one of the episodes presented in the task. The fact that the episodes belonged or not to participantsâ€™ autobiographical experience was completely irrelevant to the task. If the autobiographical experience was reactivated during this task, that occurred spontaneously. The empathy task was followed by a second task, i.e., the memory task. In this task participants were cued to picture in their mindâ€™s eye the scenes presented during the empathy task. Crucially, they were not explicitly asked to picture their own experience. Eventually, we applied state-of-the-art computational technique (i.e., supervised machine learning algorithm) that allows to distinguishing the EEG pattern associated to two conditions (in the present context the autobiographical and the non-autobiographical memories). This technique was applied transversely to the data acquired independently during the two tasks and we observed a consistency in the EEG pattern activities across the two tasks that showed the first direct evidence of the reactivation of the autobiographical memories in preparation of an explicit judgement of participantsâ€™ empathy awareness.
The second study used the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging technique (fMRI) that allowed to determining with infinitesimal spatial resolution the brain areas activated during the empathy task. This had the aim of collecting independent converging data that memory is engaged when empathizing.
The outcomes of the project showed that when an observer share past experience with a stranger, autobiographical memory gets reactivated when they have to explicitly rate their empathy awareness.
The results of MEMPATHY have been communicated in national and international conferences and meetings and disseminated at the Pint of Science 2018 in Birmingham. The twitter account of the fellow (@fede_meconi) posts constant updates of the project.

Final results

Accumulating evidence in healthy populations suggests that memory supports empathy during social interactions. However, patients with memory impairments seem to mainly preserve the same ability, challenging the idea that memory is engaged to empathize. Direct evidence of autobiographical memory reactivation was needed to set a milestone in the investigation of the interplay between memory and empathy that are the two functions at the basis of social interactions. The project strategically applied state-of-of-the-art computational methods to the field of social neuroscience and produced remarkable increase of knowledge for the field itself as well as widening the applications of such methods.
The outcomes of the project, i.e. autobiographical memory reactivates when empathizing with othersâ€™ physical pain, opened the route to the new exciting research question of whether memory is a requirement to empathy. This new route of investigation has already gained a new funding from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) awarded to the fellow.
MEMPATHY established that when an experience is shared, this gets reactivated when empathizing with othersâ€™ pain. Developing the investigation of the interaction between memory and empathy nourishes the ground to reduce borders and psychological distance between individuals by promoting solidarity and cooperation through effective human interactions. This is extremely important in European society today, as characterized by migration enhancement.
The ultimate goal of the investigation of the interplay between memory and empathy is for the fellow to design methods of interventions for the professionals that work directly with people with social disadvantages (e.g. clinical populations, migrants).
Immediate further steps in this direction have already been set as the fellow is preparing a workshop with the professionals of an NGO that works with migrants. Updates on the progress of the project after the fellowship will be constantly posted on the twitter account of the fellow (@fede_meconi).