Recent evidence suggests that the processing of observed actions may reflect an action prediction error, with more pronounced mediofrontal negative event-related potentials (ERPs) for unexpected actions. This evidence comes from an application of a false-belief task, where unexpected correct responses elicited high ERP amplitudes. An alternative interpretation is that the ERP component reflects vicarious error processing, as objectively correct responses were errors from the observed person’s perspective. In this study, we aimed to disentangle the two possibilities by adding the factor task difficulty, which varied expectations without affecting the definition of (vicarious) errors, and to explore the role of empathy in action observation. We found that the relationship between empathy and event-related potentials (ERPs) mirrored the relationship between empathy and behavioral expectancy measures. Only in the easy task condition did higher empathy lead to stronger expectancy of correct responses in the true-belief and of errors in the false-belief condition. A compatible pattern was found for an early ERP component (150–200 ms) after the observed response, with a larger negativity for error than correct responses in the true-belief and the reverse pattern in the false-belief condition, but only in highly empathic participants. We conclude that empathy facilitates the formation of expectations regarding the actions of others. These expectations then modulate the processing of observed actions, as indicated by the ERPs in the present study.

最近的证据表明，对观察到的动作的处理可能反映了动作预测错误，对于意外动作具有更明显的中间额叶负事件相关电位 (ERP)。这个证据来自一个错误信念任务的应用，其中意外的正确反应引起了高 ERP 振幅。另一种解释是 ERP 组件反映了替代错误处理，因为客观正确的响应是从观察者的角度来看的错误。在这项研究中，我们旨在通过添加因素任务难度来解开这两种可能性，在不影响（替代）错误定义的情况下改变期望，并探索移情在行动观察中的作用。我们发现共情与事件相关电位 (ERP) 之间的关系反映了共情与行为预期测量之间的关系。只有在容易的任务条件下，更高的同理心才会导致对真实信念中正确反应和错误信念中错误的更强烈期望。在观察到的响应后发现早期 ERP 组件（150-200 ms）的兼容模式，错误的负性大于正确信念中的正确响应和错误信念条件下的反向模式，但仅在高度有同理心的参与者。我们得出的结论是，同理心有助于形成对他人行为的期望。正如本研究中的 ERP 所表明的那样，这些期望随后会调节观察到的行为的处理过程。