Kim Eun Jin, Son Jung-Woo, Park Seong Kyoung, Chung Seungwon, Ghim Hei-Rhee, Lee Seungbok, Lee Sang-Ick, Shin Chul-Jin, Kim Siekyeong, Ju Gawon, Park Hyemi, Lee Jeonghwan
Department of Psychiatry, Chungbuk National University Hospital, Cheongju, Korea.
Department of Neuropsychiatry, College of Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Korea.
Soa Chongsonyon Chongsin Uihak. 2020 Jul 1;31(3):121-130. doi: 10.5765/jkacap.200020.
We investigated the differences in cognitive and emotional empathic ability between adolescents and adults, and the differences of the brain activation during cognitive and emotional empathy tasks.
Adolescents (aged 13-15 years, n=14) and adults (aged 19-29 years, n=17) completed a range of empathic ability questionnaires and were scanned functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during both cognitive and emotional empathy task. Differences in empathic ability and brain activation between the groups were analyzed.
Both cognitive and emotional empathic ability were significantly lower in the adolescent compared to the adult group. Comparing the adolescent to the adult group showed that brain activation was significantly greater in the right transverse temporal gyrus (BA 41), right insula (BA 13), right superior parietal lobule (BA 7), right precentral gyrus (BA 4), and right thalamus whilst performing emotional empathy tasks. No brain regions showed significantly greater activation in the adolescent compared to the adult group while performing cognitive empathy task. In the adolescent group, scores of the Fantasy Subscale in the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, which reflects cognitive empathic ability, negatively correlated with activity of right superior parietal lobule during emotional empathic situations (r=-0.739, p=0.006).
These results strongly suggest that adolescents possess lower cognitive and emotional empathic abilities than adults do and require compensatory hyperactivation of the brain regions associated with emotional empathy or embodiment in emotional empathic situation. Compensatory hyperactivation in the emotional empathy-related brain areas among adolescents are likely associated with their lower cognitive empathic ability.
我们研究了青少年与成年人在认知和情感共情能力上的差异，以及在认知和情感共情任务期间大脑激活的差异。
青少年（13 - 15岁，n = 14）和成年人（19 - 29岁，n = 17）完成了一系列共情能力问卷，并在认知和情感共情任务期间接受功能磁共振成像（fMRI）扫描。分析了两组之间共情能力和大脑激活的差异。
与成年组相比，青少年的认知和情感共情能力均显著较低。将青少年组与成年组进行比较发现，在执行情感共情任务时，右侧颞横回（BA 41）、右侧脑岛（BA 13）、右侧顶上小叶（BA 7）、右侧中央前回（BA 4）和右侧丘脑的大脑激活显著更强。在执行认知共情任务时，与成年组相比，青少年组没有脑区显示出显著更强的激活。在青少年组中，反映认知共情能力的人际反应指数幻想分量表得分与情感共情情境下右侧顶上小叶的活动呈负相关（r = -0.739，p = 0.006）。
这些结果有力地表明，青少年的认知和情感共情能力低于成年人，并且在情感共情情境中需要与情感共情或具身化相关的脑区进行代偿性过度激活。青少年中与情感共情相关脑区的代偿性过度激活可能与其较低的认知共情能力有关。
