TY - JOUR

T1 - A neurocognitive investigation of the impact of socializing with a robot on empathy for pain

AU - Cross, Emily S.

AU - Riddoch, Katie A.

AU - Pratts, Jaydan

AU - Titone, Simon

AU - Chaudhury, Bishakha

AU - Hortensius, Ruud

N1 - Electronic supplementary material is available online at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4381793.v1 All data and stimuli are publicly available via the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/9h4n7/), and the whole-brain group contrast maps can be found at NeuroVault (https://neurovault.org/collections/4096/). We gratefully acknowledge funding from the European Research Council to E.S.C. (H2020-ERC-2015-StG-67720-SOCIAL ROBOTS), and ERSC 1+3 Industrial Strategy studentship funding to K.A.R./E.S.C.

PY - 2019/4/29

Y1 - 2019/4/29

N2 - To what extent can humans form social relationships with robots? In the present study, we combined functional neuroimaging with a robot socializing intervention to probe the flexibility of empathy, a core component of social relationships, towards robots. Twenty-six individuals underwent identical fMRI sessions before and after being issued a social robot to take home and interact with over the course of a week. While undergoing fMRI, participants observed videos of a human actor or a robot experiencing pain or pleasure in response to electrical stimulation. Repetition suppression of activity in the pain network, a collection of brain regions associated with empathy and emotional responding, was measured to test whether socializing with a social robot leads to greater overlap in neural mechanisms when observing human and robotic agents experiencing pain or pleasure. In contrast to our hypothesis, functional region-of-interest analyses revealed no change in neural overlap for agents after the socializing intervention. Similarly, no increase in activation when observing a robot experiencing pain emerged post-socializing. Whole-brain analysis showed that, before the socializing intervention, superior parietal and early visual regions are sensitive to novel agents, while after socializing, medial temporal regions show agent sensitivity. A region of the inferior parietal lobule was sensitive to novel emotions, but only during the pre-socializing scan session. Together, these findings suggest that a short socialization intervention with a social robot does not lead to discernible differences in empathy towards the robot, as measured by behavioural or brain responses. We discuss the extent to which long-term socialization with robots might shape social cognitive processes and ultimately our relationships with these machines.

AB - To what extent can humans form social relationships with robots? In the present study, we combined functional neuroimaging with a robot socializing intervention to probe the flexibility of empathy, a core component of social relationships, towards robots. Twenty-six individuals underwent identical fMRI sessions before and after being issued a social robot to take home and interact with over the course of a week. While undergoing fMRI, participants observed videos of a human actor or a robot experiencing pain or pleasure in response to electrical stimulation. Repetition suppression of activity in the pain network, a collection of brain regions associated with empathy and emotional responding, was measured to test whether socializing with a social robot leads to greater overlap in neural mechanisms when observing human and robotic agents experiencing pain or pleasure. In contrast to our hypothesis, functional region-of-interest analyses revealed no change in neural overlap for agents after the socializing intervention. Similarly, no increase in activation when observing a robot experiencing pain emerged post-socializing. Whole-brain analysis showed that, before the socializing intervention, superior parietal and early visual regions are sensitive to novel agents, while after socializing, medial temporal regions show agent sensitivity. A region of the inferior parietal lobule was sensitive to novel emotions, but only during the pre-socializing scan session. Together, these findings suggest that a short socialization intervention with a social robot does not lead to discernible differences in empathy towards the robot, as measured by behavioural or brain responses. We discuss the extent to which long-term socialization with robots might shape social cognitive processes and ultimately our relationships with these machines.

KW - social cognition

KW - social robotics

KW - empathy

KW - experience-dependent plasticity

KW - human-robot interaction

KW - fMRI

U2 - 10.1098/rstb.2018.0034

DO - 10.1098/rstb.2018.0034

M3 - Article

VL - 374

JO - Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

JF - Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

SN - 0962-8436

IS - 1771

ER -