Investigating the behavioural and cerebral bases of empathy using human-computer interactions

同理心是在某种程度上理解和分享他人感受的能力。从神经科学和神经生理学的角度对这一复杂现象进行了多年的研究。尽管关于同理心的大脑基础的研究在过去十年中取得了相当大的进展，但这一领域仍面临着许多挑战。其中一个挑战是使用控制良好但不太吸引人的实验设计，涉及情绪或疼痛，因此不太能代表实际的互动。这个项目的主要目标是通过观察人类身体和大脑在共情互动中的反应来继续研究共情。这一次，我们将通过人机交互将其提升到另一个层次，其中机器（计算机生成的角色，也称为化身或虚拟代理）可以扮演受苦者或照顾者的角色。该项目的第一个目标是研究参与者对(1)非语言行为，(2)不一致行为和(3)联合情感状态（同时不止一种情绪）的表达的神经生理反应，所有这些都是由虚拟代理呈现的。我们将使用不同的痛苦和情绪背景来研究患者或护理者的观点。对于第二个目标，我们将记录大量参与者与虚拟代理交互的行为和生理反应，并使用先进的统计方法（机器学习）来确定哪一个（“标记”）最能预测移情反应。然后，第三个目标将是创建和测试使用标记（算法）的预测组合，以从计算机生成的字符引入实时自适应反射。这种移情虚拟代理将与预编程虚拟代理进行比较。最后，第四个目标是通过使用先前开发的将信息发送到计算机屏幕等通用设备（增强移情）的相同算法来改善人与人之间的互动。这将使人们在一起互动时获得线索，而这些线索通常是他们无法获得的，关于另一个人的情感状态。这项研究计划将为来自不同研究领域的学生和人员提供独特和刺激的多学科培训机会。该项目将有助于更好地了解人类在移情互动中的大脑和生理反应，同时也对考虑使用情绪状态的虚拟代理和计算机界面的开发产生影响。最后，它将为设计最先进的技术手段来改善人与人之间的互动打开大门。

Empathy is the ability to understand and share to some extent the feeling of another person. This complex phenomenon has been studied from a neuroscience and neurophysiological perspective for a number of years. Even if this research on the cerebral bases of empathy has advanced considerably in the last decade, this field has met a number of challenges. One of these challenges has been the use of well-controlled but not very engaging experimental designs involving emotions or pain, thus not very representative of actual interactions. The main goal of this project is to continue the study of empathy by looking at the responses of the human body and brain during empathic interactions. This time, we will bring it to another level by using human-machine interactions, where the machine (computer-generated characters, also named avatars or virtual agents) can play either the role of the person suffering or of the care taker. The first objective of this project is to study the participants' neurophysiological responses to (1) non-verbal behaviours, (2) incongruent behaviours and (3) the expression of combined affective states (more than one emotion at the time), all presented by virtual agents. We will use various contexts of pain and emotions to study both the perspectives of the sufferer or of the carer. For the second objective, we will record the behaviour and physiological responses of large groups of participants interacting with virtual agents and use advanced statistical methods (machine learning) to determine which one (“markers”) are the most predictive of an empathic reaction. Then, the third objective will be to create and test the use of the predictive combination of markers (algorithms) to introduce real-time adaptive retroactions from the computer-generated characters. This empathic virtual agent will be compared to pre-programmed virtual agents. Finally, the fourth objective is to improve human-human interactions by using the same algorithms previously developed to send information to a common device such as a computer screen (augmented empathy). This will allow people interacting together to obtain cues, which are typically not available to them, about the affective state of the other person. This research programme will provide unique and stimulating multidisciplinary training opportunities to students and personnel from different fields of research. The project will contribute to a better understanding of human's cerebral and physiological responses during empathic interactions, while also having an impact on the development of virtual agents and computer interfaces that take into account the emotional state of the use. Finally, it will open the door to designing state-of-the-art technological means to improve human-human interaction.