Moriguchi Yoshiya, Decety Jean, Ohnishi Takashi, Maeda Motonari, Mori Takeyuki, Nemoto Kiyotaka, Matsuda Hiroshi, Komaki Gen
Department of Psychosomatic Research, National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodaira City, Tokyo 187-8553, Japan.
Cereb Cortex. 2007 Sep;17(9):2223-34. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhl130. Epub 2006 Dec 5.
Because awareness of emotional states in the self is a prerequisite to recognizing such states in others, alexithymia (ALEX), difficulty in identifying and expressing one's own emotional states, should involve impairment in empathy. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we compared an ALEX group (n = 16) and a non-alexithymia (non-ALEX) group (n = 14) for their regional hemodynamic responses to the visual perception of pictures depicting human hands and feet in painful situations. Subjective pain ratings of the pictures and empathy-related psychological scores were also compared between the 2 groups. The ALEX group showed less cerebral activation in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the dorsal pons, the cerebellum, and the left caudal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) within the pain matrix. The ALEX group showed greater activation in the right insula and inferior frontal gyrus. Furthermore, alexithymic participants scored lower on the pain ratings and on the scores related to mature empathy. In conclusion, the hypofunction in the DLPFC, brain stem, cerebellum, and ACC and the lower pain-rating and empathy-related scores in ALEX are related to cognitive impairments, particularly executive and regulatory aspects, of emotional processing and support the importance of self-awareness in empathy.
由于自我情绪状态的觉察是识别他人情绪状态的前提，述情障碍（ALEX），即识别和表达自身情绪状态存在困难，应涉及共情能力受损。我们使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI），比较了述情障碍组（n = 16）和非述情障碍组（n = 14）在视觉感知描绘处于疼痛情境中的人手和脚的图片时的局部血流动力学反应。还比较了两组对图片的主观疼痛评分以及与共情相关的心理分数。述情障碍组在疼痛矩阵内的左侧背外侧前额叶皮质（DLPFC）、脑桥背侧、小脑和左侧尾侧前扣带回皮质（ACC）的大脑激活较少。述情障碍组在右侧岛叶和额下回有更大的激活。此外，述情障碍参与者在疼痛评分和与成熟共情相关的分数上得分较低。总之，述情障碍中DLPFC、脑干、小脑和ACC的功能减退以及较低的疼痛评分和与共情相关的分数与情绪加工的认知障碍有关，特别是执行和调节方面，这支持了自我觉察在共情中的重要性。
