Developmental Science. 2017;e12570. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/desc | 1 of 12 https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12570 © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Received: 14 October 2016 | Accepted: 10 March 2017 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12570 PAPER The development of cognitive empathy and concern in preschool children: A behavioral neuroscience investigation Jean Decety 1 | Kimberly L. Meidenbauer 1 | Jason M. Cowell 1,2 1 The Child Neurosuite, Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA 2 Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA Correspondence Jean Decety, University of Chicago Child Neurosuite, 5848 S. University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. Email: decety@uchicago.edu Abstract This developmental neuroscience study examined the electrophysiological responses (EEG and ERPs) associated with perspective taking and empathic concern in preschool children, as well as their relation to parental empathy dispositions and children’s own prosocial behavior. Consistent with a body of previous studies using stimuli depicting somatic pain in both children and adults, larger early (~200 ms) ERPs were identified when perceiving painful versus neutral stimuli. In the slow wave window (~800 ms), a significant interaction of empathy condition and stimulus type was driven by a greater difference between painful and neutral images in the empathic concern condition. Across early development, children exhibited enhanced N2 to pain when engaging in empathic concern. Greater pain-elicited N2 responses in the cognitive empathy condition also re- lated to parent dispositional empathy. Children’s own prosocial behavior was predicted by several individual differences in neural function, including larger early LPP responses during cognitive empathy and greater differentiation in late LPP and slow wave re- sponses to empathic concern versus affective perspective taking. Left frontal activation (greater alpha suppression) while engaging in affective perspective taking was also re- lated to higher levels of parent cognitive empathy. Together, this multilevel analysis demonstrates the important distinction between facets of empathy in children; the value of examining neurobehavioral processes in development. It provides provoking links be- tween children’s neural functioning and parental dispositions in early development. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS • Children exhibit early and relatively automatic neural distinctions between stimuli exhibiting pain or not to others, regardless of the appraisal condition given. • Children’s prosocial actions are predicted by larger responses to pain in cognitive empathy during the early LPP window as well as enhanced responses during empathic concern in the late LPP and slow wave windows. • Greater painful over neutral responses for cognitive empathy in the N2 component and in left-lateralized frontal activation (alpha sup- pression) are related to parent dispositional empathy. • Parent empathic concern positively predicts children’s prosocial behavior. 1 | INTRODUCTION Empathy, the affective response that stems from the apprehension or comprehension of another’s emotional state or condition, plays an important role in navigating social interactions (Decety, 2010; Eisenberg & Fabes, 1990; Zahn-Waxler, Radke-Yarrow, Wagner, & Chapman, 1992). It involves experiencing an affective state that is congruent with that of the other individual (Decety & Meyer, 2008). Empathic processing generally motivates prosocial behavior, inhib- its aggression, and provides a foundation for care-based morality (Batson, 2009; Decety & Svetlova, 2012; Eisenberg & Eggum, 2009; Eisenberg, Tracy, & Knafo, 2016). Most prior developmental research on empathy and prosocial behavior has used observational measures, and parents’ or teachers’