Dissociable Contributions of Inhibitory Control and Imitation Inhibition to Empathic Accuracy, Cognitive and Affective Em-pathy in Females with Low Trait Empathy

The current study investigated the effects of inhibitory control and imitation inhibition manipulations on cognitive and affective empathy in individuals with low trait empathy. Sixty-seven female participants (aged 18-23) scoring below the population mean on the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy were randomly assigned to single-session manipulation, either imitation inhibition (via self-other control task, SOC) or inhibitory control (via stop-signal task, SST).

Pre- and post-manipulation empathic performance was assessed using the Chinese version Empathic Accuracy Task (EAT) that yielded empathic accuracy scores alongside measures of cognitive empathy and affective empathy. Results revealed dissociable patterns: the SOC group showed significant improvements in empathic accuracy for positive videos, target-valence ratings (cognitive empathy), and emotion contagion (affective empathy), whereas the SST group showed significant improvements in empathic accuracy for negative videos, self-valence for positive videos, and emotion contagion.