PMID- 21840350
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20120625
LR  - 20220408
IS  - 1872-8111 (Electronic)
IS  - 0168-0102 (Linking)
VI  - 71
IP  - 3
DP  - 2011 Nov
TI  - Emotional face recognition, EMG response, and medial prefrontal activity in 
      empathic behaviour.
PG  - 251-9
LID - 10.1016/j.neures.2011.07.1833 [doi]
AB  - One important aspect of empathy is a "resonance mechanism", which includes 
      emotional cue detection, facial mimicry (measured by electromyography, EMG) and a 
      specific cortical response. This study explored the convergence of these three 
      measures of affective empathy. The twenty students who took part in the study 
      were required to empathise with the situation by entering into the other person's 
      situation. The four emotions portrayed were anger, fear, happiness, and neutral, 
      and the subjects were instructed to make a two-alternative response (emotion or 
      no emotion) to each emotion. A repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation was 
      used to produce a temporary inhibition of the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). 
      The results support the hypothesis that there is a direct relationship between 
      emotional cue recognition, EMG-measured facial response and prefrontal activity. 
      First, both facial expression detection and autonomic mimicry in reaction to 
      emotional faces were systematically modulated in response to inhibition of the 
      MPFC. Second, the MPFC was implicated in facial cue detection and the subsequent 
      autonomic response because an impaired performance on both measures was observed 
      when this brain area was inhibited. Third, this effect increased when 
      negative-valenced stimuli (angry and fearful faces) were presented to the 
      subjects. These results revealed a significant effect of the MPFC on both cue 
      detection and facial mimicry that was distinctly related to different types of 
      emotions.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society. All 
      rights reserved.
FAU - Balconi, Michela
AU  - Balconi M
AD  - Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, 
      Catholic University of Milan, Largo Gemelli, 1, 20123 Milan, Italy. 
      michela.balconi@unicatt.it
FAU - Bortolotti, Adriana
AU  - Bortolotti A
FAU - Gonzaga, Ludovica
AU  - Gonzaga L
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20110806
PL  - Ireland
TA  - Neurosci Res
JT  - Neuroscience research
JID - 8500749
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Electromyography/methods
MH  - Emotions/*physiology
MH  - Empathy/*physiology
MH  - Face/*physiology
MH  - Facial Muscles/innervation/*physiology
MH  - Female
MH  - Humans
MH  - Imitative Behavior/*physiology
MH  - Male
MH  - Pattern Recognition, Visual/*physiology
MH  - Prefrontal Cortex/anatomy & histology/*physiology
MH  - Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation/methods
MH  - Young Adult
EDAT- 2011/08/16 06:00
MHDA- 2012/06/26 06:00
CRDT- 2011/08/16 06:00
PHST- 2011/04/19 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2011/07/25 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2011/07/26 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2011/08/16 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2011/08/16 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2012/06/26 06:00 [medline]
AID - S0168-0102(11)02034-7 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.neures.2011.07.1833 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Neurosci Res. 2011 Nov;71(3):251-9. doi: 10.1016/j.neures.2011.07.1833. Epub 2011 
      Aug 6.