Abstract:

A fundamental question in social neuroscience concerns the mechanisms by which individuals understand and respond to others’ emotional states. Theories of embodied simulation and shared representation propose that understanding others is intrinsically linked to self-processing, suggesting that emotional and self-referential processes are interdependent components of the social brain. Emotional contagion, defined as the tendency to automatically share or resonate with others’ emotions, represents a key manifestation of this process. However, direct neural evidence linking EC to a basic form of self-processing—namely bodily self-representation, as indexed by self-face processing—remains limited. Identifying this shared neural basis is critical for clarifying the embodied reference frame underlying social interaction.
This meta-analysis aimed to systematically and quantitatively examine the shared neural substrates of emotional contagion and bodily self-representation (operationalized using self-face recognition tasks). In addition, Meta-Analytic Connectivity Modeling (MACM) was employed to move beyond anatomical overlap and characterize the functional network organization of these shared regions, providing network-level and functionally specific evidence for shared representation accounts.
Based on 56 eligible fMRI studies, ALE analyses revealed significant convergent activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), bilateral insula, and fusiform gyrus (FG) across both task domains. These regions overlap with key nodes of the frontoparietal action observation network and the salience network, supporting embodied simulation, interoceptive integration, and self-referential processing. MACM analyses further revealed consistent co-activation patterns associated with IFG- and insula-centered networks. These patterns converged on the middle frontal gyrus, precentral gyrus, superior and inferior parietal lobules, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and occipitotemporal cortices. Together, these findings suggest that shared mechanisms extend beyond focal regions to distributed functional networks involved in action-perception coupling, attentional regulation, and self-other integration.
Building on these findings, we propose a multilayered embodied mechanism linking emotional contagion and bodily self-representation. At the perceptual level, FG sensitivity to self-relevant and socially meaningful faces suggests that self-relatedness modulates early social perception. At the sensorimotor level, overlapping IFG and inferior parietal activation supports automatic motor simulation underlying both emotion mimicry and self-recognition. At the interoceptive level, the insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex integrate external emotional cues with internal bodily states, enabling the mapping of others’ emotions onto one’ s own experiential framework. This integrative architecture may also account for individual differences in emotional contagion, as responses are modulated by targets’ self-relevance, social significance, and the congruence of internal physiological states.
This research advances the theoretical understanding of emotional contagion by moving beyond the traditional “imitation-feedback” model toward an “embodied meaning construction” perspective. It demonstrates that emotional contagion is not a passive, mechanical replication but a process deeply rooted in the individual’s physical self-representation. Furthermore, the observed right-hemisphere dominance underscores its critical role in maintaining an integrated self-concept and facilitating interpersonal emotional coupling. These findings offer a unified neural framework for social cognition and provide potential insights for clinical interventions in social-emotional disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders, where self-other mapping mechanisms are often disrupted.

Key words: emotional contagion, bodily self-representation, mirror neuron system, ALE meta-analysis, insula