Human movement responses to the rorschach test and embodied simulation: an interdisciplinary investigation

Since the discovery of the mirror neuron system increasing attention has been paid to the role of embodied simulation and MNS in the understanding the feelings and intentions of others. In fact, the idea that empathy may be deeply grounded in the experience of a lived body and that understanding the mental states of others employ the MNS has a huge innovative potential especially in clinical and dynamic psychology. Originating in this cultural and historical framework, the present research aims to investigate whether a Rorschach response process traditionally interpreted as being associated with understanding the feelings and intentions of the self and the other is also associated with MNS activity, as one may expect given the theoretical overlapping. The Rorschach response process under investigation is that underlying the production of human movement (M) responses. The attribution of human movement to the ambiguous inkblot stimuli of the Rorschach test, indeed, has been considered an index of a person’s capacity to establish empathic contact with another human being since almost 100 years. Five studies were undertaken. A first, pilot, study exploited a phenomenon known as ‘neurological priming’ and investigated the association between M responses and MNS activity indirectly. Three EEG studies and an fMRI study followed, aiming to examine more directly the brain activity during exposure to different Rorschach stimuli. Taken together, the results of these five studies suggest that, as predicted, the production of M responses on the Rorschach test is associated with MNS activity. The implications for the test’s validity are discussed.