Mu Suppressions of Participants with and Without Previous Bone Injuries

Overview

The mirror neuron system (MNS) activates when a motor action is executed or observed. MNS is associated with mu suppression “the desynchronization of the alpha frequency band above motor regions of the brain. Studies have suggested MNS's role in pain empathy using mu suppression to gauge empathy intensity. Since mu suppression is a variable quantity, factors that may affect the pain empathy intensity can be identified. This study hypothesized that personal pain experience impacts mu suppression intensity when participants with previous bone injuries versus those without are read pain-related excerpts, with the former group experiencing greater mu suppression. This was tested using an electroencephalogram (EEG) which recorded mu wave activity from electrodes above the sensorimotor cortex. The raw baseline and excerpt data from the recordings were processed, averaged, and compared to confirm differences in mu wave activity, which were validated using t-tests. Then mu suppression intensities were calculated from said data and compared using t-tests. The t-test results indicated no significant difference between the two participant groups, so the hypothesis was not supported. Nevertheless, these results contribute to pain empathy research, inferring that personal pain experience does not amplify empathy, allowing a greater understanding of how human connection is cultivated.

Competition history

• AJAS 2025 Category not listed

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

• All Behavioural and Social Sciences projects
• AJAS Behavioural and Social Sciences projects
• Every AJAS 2025 project