Disclosing the association between empathy and emotion: a correlation ERP study

Emotions and empathy are integral parts of human being. In contemplation of correlation between trait empathy and neuronal emotional processing, this study meant to investigate the relationship between them. The experiment was conducted with forty participants, divided in twenty females and twenty males passively viewing five emotional stimulating images (Erotic, Threat, Mutilation, Dangerous sport, and Neutral). Cortical activities as well as subjective evaluation of emotion were recorded simultaneously besides analysis of self-report to segregate gender-relating empathy traits. Men’s and women’s empathy traits whether are similar or different were expected to play a big role in affecting amplitude of P1 and P300 wave during the experiment. Additionally, the process of quantifying the recorded data in an attempt to seek apparent evidence if there was a correlation between trait empathy and the components. Furthermore, as regards the similarity and difference in the cortical emotional responses due to gender divergence, the correlation if be discovered could be generalised for both sexes and being manifested in the manner of gender-bias in trait empathy