Pain empathy and brain activity. Empathy refers to being able to understand and vicariously feel what others actually feel. Neuroscientists at University College of London investigated the relationship between brain activity and pain-related empathy in persons who watch others in pain ( Science , Feb. 20, 2004). Sixteen couples participated in the experiment. The female partner watched while painful stimulation was applied to the finger of her male partner. Two variables were measured for each female: y = pain@related brain activity (measured on a scale ranging from -2 to 2) and x = score on the Empathic Concern Scale (0 to 25 points). The data are listed in the accompanying table and saved in the BRAINPAIN file. The research question of interest was “Do people scoring higher in empathy show higher pain-related brain activity?” Use simple linear regression analysis to answer this question.
Couple | Brain Activity ( y ) | Empathic Concern ( x ) |
1 | .05 | 12 |
2 | -.03 | 13 |
3 | .12 | 14 |
4 | .20 | 16 |
5 | .35 | 16 |
6 | 0 | 17 |
7 | .26 | 17 |
8 | .50 | 18 |
9 | .20 | 18 |
10 | .21 | 18 |
11 | .45 | 19 |
12 | .30 | 20 |
13 | .20 | 21 |
14 | .22 | 22 |
15 | .76 | 23 |
16 | .35 | 24 |
Based on Singer, T. et al. “Empathy for pain involves the affective but not sensory components of pain.” Science , Vol. 303, Feb. 20, 2004.
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