Latest News

matan rubin

Comparing the value of perceived humanversus AI-generated empathy

16 July, 2025

new paper published in Nature Human Behaviour by Matan Rubin, Prof. Anat Perry, and colleagues, explores whether empathic responses are perceived differently when attributed to a human versus artificial intelligence.

Across nine studies with over 6,000 participants, the researchers found that identically generated empathic messages were rated as more empathic, supportive, and authentic when thought to come from a human.

oded leshem

Congratulation to Dr. Oded Adomi Leshem

2 July, 2025

Who won ISPP’s 2025 David O. Sears Best Book Award for his book "Hope Amidst Conflict: Philosophical and Psychological Explorations," Published by Oxford University Press.

Leshem is a senior researcher at the PICR lab and the founder of the new International Hub for Hope Research.

David O. Sears Best Book on Mass Politics Award

Amir Tal

Welcome Dr. Amir Tal

24 June, 2025

The Department of Psychology is excited to welcome Dr. Amir Tal, a new faculty member joining the department in collaboration with the Department of Cognitive Science and the Brain. Amir will join us in the upcoming academic year (2025–2026) and will lead the Computational Psychology cluster.

More

Filter News by Month

Mu rhythm suppression over sensorimotor regions is associated with greater empathic accuracy

23 March, 2022

Multiple brain systems are engaged when we try to understand people's emotions, including parts of the sensorimotor cortex associated with motor simulation. Simulation-related brain activity is described as a 'low-level' component of empathy - however its contribution to complex empathic judgments is unclear.

A new Study by Shir Genzer from Dr. Anat Perry lab, published in Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience, investigated this question and examined the association between empathic accuracy, the ability to accurately infer the emotional states of others, and mu rhythm suppression, an EEG index of sensorimotor cortex-based simulation. Specifically, they investigated how different information channels (visual information, audio information and their combination) effect the association between mu rhythm suppression and empathic accuracy.

The results from two experiments (one with US sample and the other with Israeli sample) indicated that sensorimotor representations play a role not only in low-level motor simulation, but also in higher-level inferences about others' emotions, especially when visual cues are crucial for accuracy.

See full article here