title: The Role of Embodiment and Individual Empathy Levels in Gesture Comprehension.
abstract: Research suggests that the action-observation network is involved in both emotional-embodiment (empathy) and action-embodiment (imitation) mechanisms. Here we tested whether empathy modulates action-embodiment, hypothesizing that restricting imitation abilities will impair performance in a hand gesture comprehension task. Moreover, we hypothesized that empathy levels will modulate the imitation restriction effect. One hundred twenty participants with a range of empathy scores performed gesture comprehension under restricted and unrestricted hand conditions. Empathetic participants performed better under the unrestricted compared to the restricted condition, and compared to the low empathy participants. Remarkably however, the latter showed the exactly opposite pattern and performed better under the restricted condition. This pattern was not found in a facial expression recognition task. The selective interaction of embodiment restriction and empathy suggests that empathy modulates the way people employ embodiment in gesture comprehension. We discuss the potential of embodiment-induced therapy to improve empathetic abilities in individuals with low empathy.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Psychology, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.|2 The Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Israel.
authors.forename: Karine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jospe
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Neurology Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Agnes
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Flöel
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Psychology, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.|2 The Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Israel.
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lavidor
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D004645:Empathy; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D005868:Gestures; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D021641:Recognition, Psychology
keywords: embodiment; empathy; hand gestures; mimicry; mimicry-restriction