Substrats neurophysiologiques du traitement émotionnel de l'information visuelle chez les adultes vieillissants
Background. Although empathy is an essential tool throughout life, its study in normal aging remains limited and largely supported by subjective measures. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a new avenue for studying empathy through mu rhythm. The purpose of this study was to explore the evolution of empathy trough time and between sex by focusing on the neurophysiological response (mu rhythm) resulting from the observation of emotional facial expressions (EFE) and from the score obtained on an empathy questionnaire. Methods. A total of 65 participants, including 33 young adults and 32 seniors, took part in this study. They were exposed to short video clips of dynamic facial expressions of joy, fear and neutral during which they had to try to feel each exposed emotion while electroencephalography (EEG) responses were recorded. They also completed the Empathy Quotient (EQ). Results. Young adults reacted more strongly to emotional EFEs. Seniors perceived themselves as less empathetic and had an equivalent neurophysiological response between stimuli. Senior women were even more responsive to neutral EFEs than younger women. A sex effect in favor of women has been observed in the modulation of mu rhythm and higher empathy capacities have been associated with a higher mu rhythm in the latter. Conclusion. Mu rhythm appears to be an age and sex sensitive neurophysiological marker in empathic treatment and could therefore serve as an objective measure for this purpose.
Empathy Aging Electroencephalography Mu rhythms Emotional facial expressions