Physiological interpersonal synchrony, the spontaneous alignment of indicators of physiological activity, is highly associated with the level of empathy between people in emotionally meaningful relationships. However, synchrony has not been studied with nonverbal, severely-disabled individuals, many of whom have a limited means to communicate. In this study, dyadic physiological synchrony in client-parent-therapist triads was quantified through simultaneously recording electrodermal activity, heart rate, cortical brain activity (client-parent only), and cortisol level. For the majority of the trials, a greater level of synchrony was observed in the client-parent dyads compared to the client-therapist dyads; however, the client-therapist dyads demonstrated an increased level of synchrony in the later trials. Electroencephalography analysis revealed widespread interbrain synchrony involving empathy-related regions. Our results suggest that even in the presence of disabilities, synchrony due to empathy exists and that the measurement of this synchrony may serve as a clinical adjunct to the self-report of interpersonal relationships.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/42985 |
| Date | 29 November 2013 |
| Creators | Kim, Song |
| Contributors | Chau, Tom |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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