Empathy boosts the comprehension of nonverbal behavior

Empathy is a fundamental component of social cognition, yet its influence on the neural processing of non-verbal cues in neurotypical populations remains insufficiently explored. Using EEG/ERPs, we examined empathy-dependent modulation of gesture recognition during a caption–gesture congruence task, manipulating face visibility in participants with high versus low Empathy Quotients (EQ). Participants, classified via two standardized empathy scales, viewed 800 gesture images preceded by short textual descriptions, while their EEG activity was recorded. High-EQ individuals exhibited faster reaction times, particularly when facial cues were absent, suggesting enhanced sensitivity to degraded social information. ERP analyses focused on the N250, N400, and late positivity (LP) components revealed empathy-related modulations, with high-EQ individuals showing amplified anterior N250 responses, associated with social cognition, emotional processing, and reward-related face recognition, whose amplitude increased linearly with empathy scores. Enhanced N400 and LP amplitudes further suggested more efficient semantic integration and decision confidence in high-EQ individuals. Source reconstruction identified greater activation in the posterior cingulate cortex, limbic structures, fusiform face area, superior temporal gyrus, and fronto-parietal mirror neuron networks, regions critical for social and non-verbal cue processing. These findings highlight a robust empathy-dependent network supporting spontaneous gesture interpretation and the flexible decoding of social meaning.