title: Juicy lemons for measuring basic empathic resonance.
abstract: Watch or even think of someone biting into a juicy lemon and your saliva will flow. This is a phenomenon of resonance, best described by the Perception-Action Model, where a physiological state in a person is activated through observation of this state in another. Within a broad framework of empathy, including manifold abilities depending on the Perception-Action link, resonance has been proposed as one physiological substrate for empathy. Using 49 healthy subjects, we developed a standardized salivation paradigm to assess empathic resonance at the autonomic level. Our results showed that this physiological resonance correlated positively with self-reported empathic concern. The salivation test, delivered an objective and continuous measure, was simple to implement in terms of setup and instruction, and could not easily be unintentionally biased or intentionally manipulated by participants. Therefore, these advantages make such a test a useful tool for assessing empathy-related abilities in psychiatric populations.
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, PO Box 1930, 8021 Zurich, Switzerland; Collegium Helveticum, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: florence.hagenmuller@dgsp.uzh.ch.
authors: Florence
authors: F
authors: Hagenmuller
authors: Collegium Helveticum, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Institute of Psychiatry, Laboratory of Neuroscience (LIM-27), University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
authors: Wulf
authors: W
authors: Rössler
authors: Collegium Helveticum, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors: Amrei
authors: A
authors: Wittwer
authors: Collegium Helveticum, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors: Helene
authors: H
authors: Haker
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012472:Salivation / Q000502:physiology*; D057566:Self Report; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Contagion; Empathy; Methodology; Perception–action link; Salivation