Miller Jonas G, Xia Guohua, Hastings Paul D
Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United States.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2020 Jan 28;14:7. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.00007. eCollection 2020.
Functional neuroimaging studies have emphasized distinct networks for social cognition and affective aspects of empathy. However, studies have not considered whether substrates of social cognition, such as the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ), play a role in affective responses to complex empathy-related stimuli. Here, we used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to test whether the right TPJ contributes to psychophysiological responses to another person's emotional suffering. We used a theory of mind functional localizer and image-guided TMS to target the sub-region of the right TPJ implicated in social cognition, and measured autonomic and subjective responses to an empathy induction video. We found evidence that TMS applied at 1 Hz over the right TPJ increased withdrawal of parasympathetic nervous system activity during the empathy induction ( = 32), but did not affect sympathetic nervous system activity ( = 27). Participants who received TMS over the right TPJ also reported feeling more irritation and annoyance, and were less likely to report feeling compassion over and above empathic sadness, than participants who received TMS over the vertex ( = 34). This study provides preliminary evidence for the role of right TPJ functioning in empathy-related psychophysiological and affective responding, potentially blurring the distinction between neural regions specific to social cognition vs. affective aspects of empathy.
功能性神经影像学研究强调了社会认知和共情情感方面的不同网络。然而，研究尚未考虑社会认知的基质，如右侧颞顶联合区（TPJ），是否在对复杂的共情相关刺激的情感反应中发挥作用。在此，我们使用重复经颅磁刺激（TMS）来测试右侧TPJ是否有助于对他人情感痛苦的心理生理反应。我们使用心理理论功能定位器和图像引导的TMS来靶向右侧TPJ中与社会认知相关的子区域，并测量对共情诱导视频的自主和主观反应。我们发现有证据表明，在右侧TPJ处以1赫兹频率施加的TMS增加了共情诱导期间副交感神经系统活动的撤离（n = 32），但不影响交感神经系统活动（n = 27）。与在头顶接受TMS的参与者相比（n = 34），在右侧TPJ接受TMS的参与者也报告感觉更烦躁和恼怒，并且不太可能报告除了共情悲伤之外还感到同情。这项研究为右侧TPJ功能在与共情相关的心理生理和情感反应中的作用提供了初步证据，可能模糊了社会认知特定神经区域与共情情感方面之间的区别。
