3.31 Pain empathy and brain activity. Empathy refers to being able to understand

Question

3.31 Pain empathy and brain activity. Empathy refers to being able to understand and vicariously feel what others actually feel. Neuroscientists at Uni- versity College London investigated the rela- tionship between brain activity and pain-relateo empathy in persons who watch others in pain Science, February 20, 2004). Sixteen couples par ticipated 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 xscore on the Empathic Concern Scale (0-25 points). The data are listed in the next table (p. 115). 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 the research question. BRAINPAIN COUPLE BRAIN ACTIVITYEMPATHIC CONCERN x 12 13 14 16 12 17 17 18 18 18 19 20 21 0 10 .21 12 13 23 .35

Explanation / Answer

Here we regress Brain Activity (y) on Ampathic Concern (x) and we will give conclusion about mentioned question.

Coefficients Standard Error t Stat P-value

Intercept -0.392 0.220 -1.787 0.096

Ampathic Concern 0.036 0.012 3.015 0.009

R Square 0.394

Adjusted R Square 0.350

From above table we observe that coefficient of Ampathic Concern is 0.036 and which is positive. Hence we conclude that people scoring higher in empathy show higher pain-related brain activity.

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