title: Self-other control processes in social cognition: from imitation to empathy.
abstract: We review the evidence that an ability to achieve a precise balance between representing the self and representing other people is crucial in social interaction. This ability is required for imitation, perspective-taking, theory of mind and empathy; and disruption to this ability may contribute to the symptoms of clinical and sub-clinical conditions, including autism spectrum disorder and mirror-touch synaesthesia. Moving beyond correlational approaches, a recent intervention study demonstrated that training participants to control representations of the self and others improves their ability to control imitative behaviour, and to take another's visual perspective. However, it is unclear whether these effects apply to other areas of social interaction, such as the ability to empathize with others. We report original data showing that participants trained to increase self-other control in the motor domain demonstrated increased empathic corticospinal responses (Experiment 1) and self-reported empathy (Experiment 2), as well as an increased ability to control imitation. These results suggest that the ability to control self and other representations contributes to empathy as well as to other types of social interaction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Guzman
authors.affiliation: Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR, UK.
authors.forename: Geoffrey
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bird
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, UK.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Banissy
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK Department of Psychology, King's College London, London SE1 1UL, UK caroline.catmur@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6996-4295
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Catmur
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D003071:Cognition; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D012919:Social Behavior; D000080311:Synesthesia; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: empathy; imitation–inhibition; motor-evoked potentials; self–other control; social interaction; transcranial magnetic stimulation