Introspective self-narrative modulates the neuronal response during the emphatic process: an event-related potentials (ERPs) study.

Empathy is the ability to perceive and understand others' emotional states generating a similar mental state in the self. Previous behavioural studies have shown that self-reflection can enhance the empathic process. The present event-related potentials' study aims to investigate whether self-reflection, elicited by an introspective self-narrative task, modulates the neuronal response to eye expressions and improves the accuracy of empathic process. The 29 participants included in the final sample were divided into two groups: an introspection group (IG) (n = 15), who received an introspective writing task, and a control group (CG) (n = 14), who completed a not-introspective writing task. For both groups, the electroencephalographic and behavioural responses to images depicting eye expressions taken from the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Theory of Mind test were recorded pre- (T0) and post- (T1) 7 days of writing. The main result showed that only the IG presented a different P300 amplitude in response to eye expressions at T1 compared to T0 on the left centre-frontal montage. No significant results on accuracy at T1 compared to T0 were found. These findings seem to suggest that the introspective writing task modulates attention and implicit evaluation of the socio-emotional stimuli. Results are discussed with reference to the hypothesis that such neuronal modulation is linked to an increase in the embodied simulation process underlying affective empathy.

Does the character-based dimension of stories impact narrative processing? An event-related potentials (ERPs) study.

This event-related potentials (ERPs) study investigated online processes of integration of information relating to characters in narrative comprehension. The final sample included twenty-nine participants who read short third-person stories in which the plausibility of the characters' actions was manipulated. Stories were administered in three conditions: a character-based congruent condition including a target word that was consistent with the character's job; a character-based incongruent condition with a target word inconsistent with the character's job; a character-based neutral condition, narrating the action of a character presented by his/her proper name without information about his/her job. Results comparing the ERPs elicited by the experimental conditions revealed a greater negative amplitude of the N400 in the right temporal regions in response to the character-based incongruent compared to the character-based congruent narratives. This finding shows that implicit background character-based information affects the N400, with readers rapidly using this information to comprehend narratives.