• Infant pain empathy elicits distinct neural dynamics, with enhanced P3 amplitudes versus adult pain. • Enhanced alpha oscillations and adaptive modulation characterize the neurophysiological profile of empathy toward infant pain. • Increased posterior-to-anterior brain connectivity during infant pain suggests heightened cognitive-affective integration. Protecting infants from harm is widely considered a fundamental evolutionary imperative and a cross-cultural universal. While adults exhibit heightened empathic responses to infant pain, the underlying neurocognitive dynamics remain unclear. Using EEG during a pain empathy paradigm, we identified distinct neural responses to infant pain compared to adult pain. Relative to adult pain-neutral condition, infant pain-neutral condition elicited a larger P3 amplitude, suggesting enhanced cognitive empathy. In the oscillatory domain, infant pain (versus infant-neutral) induced enhanced alpha power and greater adaptive modulation of alpha and low beta (15-18Hz) rhythms. Conversely, adult pain (versus adult-neutral) was associated with stronger suppression of low-alpha (8-10Hz) activity and reduced adaptive modulation. Furthermore, empathy for infant pain engaged increased posterior-to-anterior information flow, suggesting heightened integration across affective and cognitive networks. These findings collectively suggest that the increased alpha power may reflect rapid threat detection and top-down modulation, while the enhanced adaptive changes signify efficient response optimization during infant pain empathy. Our results are consistent with the model of the parental brain as an evolutionary product that balances conserved subcortical responses with flexible cortical regulation, pointing toward a unique neurophysiological profile supporting the protection of vulnerable offspring.
Liu et al. (Wed,) studied this question.