Abstract

There is a dearth of information on the physical aspects of the Double Empathy Problem which is the bidirectional challenge of shared empathy and understanding between autistic and neurotypical individuals. Storytelling has been shown as means to facilitate empathy between storytellers and listeners in both neurotypical and autistic populations through behavioral research. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a neuroimaging technique used to evaluate the hemodynamic response in the cortex and can be used to compare hemodynamic responses across multiple individuals (i.e., hyperscanning). The purpose of this study was to examine activation in empathy-related brain regions and assess brain synchrony between autistic and neurotypical storytellers and listeners during a live storytelling event. In this event, five participants (four autistic and one neurotypical) verbally presented a personal narrative while wearing portable fNIRS headbands. Simultaneously, three audience members (two neurotypical and one autistic) also wore fNIRS devices to obtain hyperscanning data between storytellers and listeners. Behavioral surveys were also administered between each story to obtain perceived empathy levels from each participant. The primary measure of inter-brain synchrony was through wavelet coherence of brain activity between speakers and listeners. Behavioral and physiologic data were correlated. Descriptive behavioral results showed higher connection between same-neurotype dyads than cross-neurotype dyads. Neurophysiologic results showed that same- and cross-neurotype dyads differed in how coherence changed across the story, with the large divergences at certain points in each story. Comparison results showed a significant difference in medial prefrontal cortex activation between these dyad types. Findings suggest differences between same- and cross-neurotype dyads may be best understood as dynamic changes rather than simply differences in overall coherence. The present study provides a foundation for future research exploring empathy and neural synchronization between autistic and neurotypical individuals.

Degree

MS

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Communication Disorders

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2026-06-02

Document Type

Thesis

Keywords

autism, double-empathy problem, empathy, functional near-infrared spectroscopy

Language

english

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