Luo Siyang, Zhong Shengqi, Zhu Yiyi, Wang Cong, Yang Junkai, Gu Li, Huang Yingyu, Xie Xiaolin, Zheng Shaofeng, Zhou Hui, Wu Xiang
Department of Psychology, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Social Cognitive Neuroscience and Mental Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2018 May 15;12:99. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00099. eCollection 2018.
Empathy is the capacity to understand and experience the feeling state of others. While individuals attribute negative empathic responses to their own feelings, they would endure personal distress that can be harmful to social interaction. However, the neural mechanism of personal distress remains unclear. Here, we examined the neural substrates of personal distress by combining structural (Voxel-based morphometry (VBM)) and functional (resting-state functional connectivity (FC) analysis) MRI approaches in 53 college students (aged 19-26). A negative correlation was found between a trait measure of personal distress and gray matter (GM) volume in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). FC analyses with the dmPFC as a seed further revealed that the connectivity between the dmPFC and posterior insula was positively correlated with the personal distress, and the connectivities between the dmPFC and the anterior middle cingulate cortex, left lateral frontal cortex, and left inferior parietal gyrus were negatively correlated with the personal distress. Our results suggested that personal distress is underlain by neural substrates associated with both cognitive and affective mechanisms. Taken together, the structural and functional correlates of personal distress revealed in the present findings shed new light into the understanding of empathy.
同理心是理解和体验他人情感状态的能力。虽然个体将负面的共情反应归因于自身感受，但他们会承受可能对社交互动有害的个人痛苦。然而，个人痛苦的神经机制仍不清楚。在此，我们通过结合结构（基于体素的形态测量法（VBM））和功能（静息态功能连接（FC）分析）磁共振成像方法，对53名大学生（年龄在19至26岁之间）进行研究，以探究个人痛苦的神经基础。研究发现，个人痛苦的特质测量值与背内侧前额叶皮质（dmPFC）的灰质（GM）体积之间存在负相关。以dmPFC为种子点的FC分析进一步显示，dmPFC与后岛叶之间的连接与个人痛苦呈正相关，而dmPFC与前扣带回中部皮质、左侧额叶皮质和左侧顶下小叶之间的连接与个人痛苦呈负相关。我们的结果表明，个人痛苦由与认知和情感机制相关的神经基础所支撑。综上所述，本研究结果揭示的个人痛苦的结构和功能相关性为理解同理心提供了新的视角。
