Social class affects Mu-suppression during action observation

Abstract

Socioeconomic status (SES) has been linked to differences in the degree to which people are attuned to others. Those who are lower in SES also tend to be more interpersonally attuned. However, to date, this work has not been demonstrated using neural measures. In the present electroencephalogram study, we found evidence that lower SES was linked to stronger Mu-suppression during action observation. This finding adds to the growing literature on factors that affect Mu-suppression and suggests that the mirror neuron system may be influenced by one’s social class.

KEYWORDS:

• Mu-suppression
• Socioeconomic status
• EEG

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1.  Similar patterns of correlations were observed between the Mu-suppression index and individual measures of SES, although relationships were stronger for income (r(54) = .27, p < .05) and subjective social status (r(54) = .24, p = .07) than for parental education (r(54) = .12, ns).

2.  Neither composite SES (r(54 = .13, ns) nor individual SES measures (r’s ranging from -.01 to .17, ns) were significantly correlated with SCS interdependence, although they showed a slight trend toward positive correlations. Nor were these measures correlated with SCS independence (r’s ranging from -.03 to .05, ns). This is consistent with previous research demonstrating SES differences in implicit and behavioral indicators of self-construal, but not on the more explicit Self-Construal Scale (Na et al., 2010; Varnum, 2015).