Age-related neural dynamics of empathy in preschoolers: an EEG study with naturalistic viewing

Empathy development in early childhood involves complex neurocognitive processes, but the neural mechanisms underlying this development have yet to be fully explored. This study combined EEG microstate and spectral analyses to investigate empathy-related neural processes in 71 typically developing preschoolers (aged 3–6 years) during naturalistic viewing of socioemotional animations. Spectral analysis revealed increased occipital theta, centrotemporal alpha, and temporal beta activities during empathy-eliciting clips compared to baseline. Theta activity in response to Theory of Mind (ToM) clips negatively correlated with children’s negative emotion understanding, while alpha activity during Emotional Contagion (EC) clips positively correlated with positive emotion resonance. Age-related decreases in occipital theta power and increases in centrotemporal alpha power were observed, paralleling behavioral improvements in prosocial helping behavior. Microstate analysis identified hierarchical age-related shifts: reduced coverage of microstate MS5 and increased transitions from MS5 to MS2 during ToM processing, implying that as children mature, perspective-taking efficiency increases, redirecting neural resources to response preparation. These findings suggest an age-related neural cascade framework where perceptual efficiency gains may free cognitive resources for mentalizing and emotion regulation, enabling more advanced prosocial actions. The present work suggests that EEG spectral and microstate metrics serve as sensitive neurophysiological indices for assessing early childhood age-related changes in empathy within naturalistic contexts.